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The underground railroad is no mvth.Aregular organization, to which this name has been applied, stretches through every free State in the Union, and has its agents and emissaries on the borders of every slave State and along all the routes traveled by fugitive stoves. It is a systematized association of negroes and Republican Abolition whites, having for its object the enticiug away of the slave property of the South, and its safe transportation into Canada. It has regular subscribers to its capital stock to q large amount, and amongstthem in our own State may be found the names of the most prominent politicians in the Republican party. The Republican Abolition organs afftct to ridicule the idea of the existence of auy systematic organization of the kind ; but the editors of the very papers that would discredit the story record their subscriptions upon the books of the association. Wherever practicable, men of color are put forward as the active agents of the road, as applications for aid come with a better grace from them thau from whites; but iu every city in the State of New York, and in all places of note along the States bordering upon Canada, the white Abolitionists are interested in the subscriptions, and a gaogof thqm live in idleness and ease upon the profitp.As before remarked, a large number of conservative, honorable men subscribe to the funds of the underground railroad, under the erroneous belief that they are doing a charitable and Christian act, while in fact, every dollar they contribute is a wrong to their neighbors, a blow at the Union, and a premium to one of the grossest swindles ever perpetrated in the name of philanthropy.Some idea of the shrewdness and unscrupulousness of the speculators engaged in thisTappaa and Joseeyln, whites, and Charles B. Ray, a colored preacher, the “ resident directors.” The office of the other is at No. 5Beekman street, and William II. Leonard and Sidney Gay, of the Tribune, are the men who “ run the machine,” assisted by the other editors of Mr. Greeley’s paper. Regular books j of subscription are opened in New York and other cities, and the names enrolled iu them represent “ all sorts and conditions of men,” from our United States Senators down.THE NEGROES IN CANADA.At the southwest point of the Province of Canada is a neck of land running down between Like Erie and the Detroit river, Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair river. It coutaiu3 the counties of assex and Kent, the warmest portion of the province, and it is in thosecounties that the negroes who Lave escaped from the States mainly congregate. Windsor, situated on the river directly opposite Detroit, is the western terminus of the Great Western Railway, and is in the township of Sandwich, in Essex county. On the south and southwest of Sandwich, along the Detroit river and Eake Erie, are the townships of Anderson, Malden, Colchester, Gostield, Mersea and Romuey. In j the three first named townships, the negroes j are found in large uumbers, and tobacco growing is now carried on there to a considerable extent. The comparative mildness of the climate, and the black alluvial soil appear tofavor the growth ot the plant, while the negro is conversant with its culture. In Gosfield towuship there are some blacks, but comparatively few, as the white residents have done their best to exclude them. In Mersea and Romney the people will not suffer a negro to; remain within the borders of the township I over night. These places are settled principal-:part, of the province of Canada. It is under the direction of a regularly incorporated association, called the Elgin Association, and bythe title of the act of incorporation its object is “ the settlement and moral improvement ofthe colored population of Canada.” The project of the settlement appears first to have suggested itself to the Rev. William King, a I resbyterian minister, a North of Ireland man by birth, and once a citizen of the State of Louisiaua by adoption.A drive of two hooti from Cuatham over the snow, which lay thick enough on the ground to cover the irregularities of an otherwise rough road, brought me to the settlement. After turning up from the main, into what is called the “ Centre” road, the country appears wild and unpromising for six miles. There arebut few houses on the way, and those ofa very pr»or description. The fact that a negro settlement is near, is made evident from the appearance of black stragglers all along the road ; men, women and children, many of whom walkdaily to Catham from that innate love of crowdimplanted in the negro breast, and with no other object thau to lounge idly in the streets of the town and about the market place, occasionally, perhaps, snapping up auy stray trifle that may happen to fall in the way of their fingers. N ow and then a black horseman is to be seen making way for the same place. Once, as I drove along the road, a singular figure appeared iu the distance before me, and set my imagination puzziing, as it approached. IX,was all dark as a black cloud, and looked soma* thing like a horse with a well filled sack uponhis back and a couple of wings flapping away at either side. Upon a nearer approach I found it to be a little black Canadian poney, bearing a big black negress, in a loose sloven*
Newspaper Details
Banner of Liberty
Middletown, New York, US
Wed, Jan 25, 1860
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Middletown T.
NY, USA 27 May 2021
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