Impressions UGRR Conductor

[byron ed]

I'm "conducting" several more UGRR community presentations and impressions this year. The only impression I can do is as a white UGRR Conductor, though I've come to understand that black freedom-seekers were themselves most responsible for most of the escapes on the "railroad."

Aside from the several African-American "Harriet Tubmans" out there I've not had much to pattern myself after. I can say the topic and my impression and presentation of it have been quite popular on the Midwest circuit. I've not seen it done at National venues. Would it be awkward to do it at Southern venues?

Anyway it would help me to know what, in your experience, are concerns to have after observing an Underground Railroad impression, or what are your expectations of an UGRR presentation? What do you look for? What seems "just plain "wrong" or "very right" to you?

Thanks in advance.

 

[johan_steele]

Depending on where you are geographically there are several noted UGRR stops in the midwest. To me the biggest thing to understand is that UGRR conductors were literally taking their lives in their hands acting to help runaways. The pro slavery forces would use every tool available to them to punish such to include murder. UGRR people were not against defending themselves or even of acting proactively in the case of the fugitive slave act. The Mississippi River was a very real conduit to freedom, getting to Canada guaranteed freedom.

The fear for escaping slaves was also very real as not all UGRR people were truly interested in helping as some were known to trick runaways and sell them down the river to different owners for quick cash.

At one time the University of Iowa and the Iowa Historical Society had a listing of homes in Iowa that were part of the Underground RR. I would suspect they still do but would have no idea where to start looking in either locale. I also recall running across some underground RR documentation in my research at the Indiana Historical Society.

 

[major bill]

So are you looking at what someone wore as they moved escaped slaves from one station to the next station? Or are you looking at what a "conductor" would wear if they traveled south to help slaves escape?

In both cases I would assume that the Conductor would try to wear their normal clothing so as to blend in.

 

[archieclement]

Dr David Nelson and his Mission Institute and Dr Richard Eells both of Quincy Il would be examples. Besides fake UGRR luring slaves to be sold downriver, there was the danger of the abolitionists being turned in by the slaves

Heres an example of the danger involving three of Nelsons students
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/local-underground-railroad-story.144454/#post-1783140

 

[archieclement]

Nelson was driven from Missouri, then has one of his colleges destroyed
3 abolitionist students of his are caught and sentenced to hard labor
Dr Richard Eells is caught after a failed attempt that sent "Charley" back to Missouri with an uncertain fate and Eells convicted also
This is one little city on the Mississippi River

The failures of the UGRR are seldom presented

 

[byron ed]

So are you looking at what someone wore as they moved escaped slaves from one station to the next station? Or are you looking at what a "conductor" would wear if they traveled south to help slaves escape? In both cases I would assume that the Conductor would try to wear their normal clothing so as to blend in.

Thanks. I've also come to the conclusion that most "Conductors" simply blended in -- photos of famous abolitionists aside. Those engaged in the UGRR directly would not wear anything that would tag them as an abolitionist or an "agent." The freedom seekers themselves would simply be wearing whatever (often tattered) clothes they escaped with until supplied with common Midwesterner (city or farm) clothes, and with colder weather clothes as needed per the season.

I include sets of discarded fugitive clothes in my "camp," including some Union army issue for the men and boys since some had come through Union lines. Apparently it was also typical to disguise: boys as girls, young as old, fair-skinned passing as white etc. -- in order to frustrate slave catchers, who searched with very specific lists and descriptions of their quarry.

 

[byron ed]

...The failures of the UGRR are seldom presented

That should be mentioned, thanks. I have just recently included mentions of the "reverse UGRR" as it applied to the Southern Illinois / Missouri / Kentucky border access areas. There was active and organized enticement/trickery to capture escaped slaves in Illinois for the purpose of return or resale of them back in the South for profit.

 

[byron ed]

Depending on where you are geographically there are several noted UGRR stops in the midwest. To me the biggest thing to understand is that UGRR conductors were literally taking their lives in their hands acting to help runaways. The pro slavery forces would use every tool available to them to punish such to include murder.

Thanks, something to look into more. Up til this point I've not found evidence that "conductors" in the North were particularly fearful for their lives based on their participation in the UGRR. Heavy fines and imprisonment were the risks they expected. Meanwhile slave catchers, for their part, strived to keep a low profile, not to entangle themselves in things like murder as there was no profit in acquiring legal charges to their endeavor.

That's not to say there wasn't murder, but apparently it wasn't any more common along the UGRR (up North) than it was generally for any travelers outside of towns. The midwest "Banditti" preyed on anyone who seemed vulnerable. Federal Marshals simply could not provide proactive protection in the boonies. This as much as anything is why UGRR "Conductors" armed themselves, though of course it served to deter actual slave catchers as well. I have a colt pistol, a long rifle and a bowie knife in my impression, and I don't think I'm overplaying it with those (your opinion of that?).

But all that said, per your mention there were a few incidents of killing, skirmishes even, in specific cases where fugitives were being held in jail pending transfer to slave catchers and the local populace resisted that in mode of militia.

 

[archieclement]

Thanks, something to look into more. Up til this point I've not found evidence that "conductors" in the North were particularly fearful for their lives based on their participation in the UGRR. Heavy fines and imprisonment were the risks they expected. Meanwhile slave catchers, for their part, strived to keep a low profile, not to entangle themselves in things like murder as there was no profit in acquiring legal charges to their endeavor.

That's not to say there wasn't murder, but apparently it wasn't any more common along the UGRR (up North) than it was generally for any travelers outside of towns. The midwest "Banditti" preyed on anyone who seemed vulnerable. Federal Marshals simply could not provide proactive protection in the boonies. This as much as anything is why UGRR "Conductors" armed themselves, though of course it served to deter actual slave catchers as well. I have a colt pistol, a long rifle and a bowie knife in my impression, and I don't think I'm overplaying it with those (your opinion of that?).

But all that said, per your mention there were a few incidents of killing, skirmishes even, in specific cases where fugitives were being held in jail pending transfer to slave catchers and the local populace resisted that in mode of militia.

Would think would be somewhat regional and situational, in Lawrence KS probably not out of place.

However in the earlier examples I have in Illinois, Nelson a college president, Eells a medical doctor, three college students, all in a town setting. Doubt the five routinely went about town with a longarm, pistol, and bowie knife. The three students were captured on a slave stealing trip and the accounts don't have them armed at all.

Not to mention that there seemed to be Quakers and reverend \pastors of other faiths as conductors.

 

[byron ed]

Would think would be somewhat regional and situational...in the earlier examples I have in Illinois, Nelson a college president, Eells a medical doctor, three college students, all in a town setting. Doubt the five routinely went about town with a longarm, pistol, and bowie knife. The three students were captured on a slave stealing trip and the accounts don't have them armed at all.

I am familiar with that case. I was of the impression that because they operated in town, they didn't fear for their lives in the way "conductors" traveling through the countryside would. But again, apparently the banditti (horse stealers and robbers) posed a bigger threat than slave hunters. At the time, anyone (UGRR "conductors" or not) was prudent to carry heat when traveling through the countryside. I base that on the many county histories that are now available online.

Now in the territories, Kansas / Nebraska, or in the slave states I think as you do -- that the chance of bodily harm was much higher for "conductors." Slaveowners in those areas didn't take lightly to having their "property" stolen from them, and the local authorities were much more likely to avert their glance if someone happened to get shot while sheperding fugitives. "Their own darn fault for defying our Federal and local laws."

So thanks, I should be making the distinction between settings.