Where the impossible becomes possible and
where hope might be fulfilled. It features William Still - known as the Father of the Underground Railroad - who, even in the 19th century embodied these modern feats. In the face of extreme challenges he prevailed to see many slaves reach freedom. His drive to see the vindication of the human spirit continued past the end of the Civil War and into the antebellum period when he fought Jim Crow. Still’s story makes a full circle journey through poverty to prosperity, ending at philanthropy (just one of Justice’s tools).
The rewards Mr. Still received for his good work is evident of his faithfulness. Bestowed with the reputation of being a renowned abolitionist permitted him to unknowingly forge the miraculous reunion between his lost enslaved brother, Peter Gist and their mother Charity. Lastly, he lived a long honorable and respectable life. The New York Times in 1902 reported he died worth nearly a million dollars.
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The Gist of Freedom is Still Faith tells the story of
William Still and Peter Gist. Their story is now a
part of the National Park Service’s National
Underground Railroad Network to Freedom!
Learn more about the book, or read it online.
Hush Harbor
As indentures, slaves volunteered to work a minimum of seven Years, after which point they would receive their freedom. Most of the original thirteen colonies, like Massachusetts prohibited slavery.
In Its first Constitution, the Body of Liberties, explicitly illegalized it. As the New World grew, corporations supported by the Crown began to use forced labor or chattel slavery to establish colonies while the religious colonies maintained the use of indentures. In fact, the men of faith mandated slaveholders Christianize their servants by teaching them how to read the catechism.
Fearing the evangelizing of slaves would lead to their liberation because Christian law taught it was sinful to enslave a Christian, the rebellious slaveholders refused to abide by the laws and banned the Bible and all books from all of their servants and slaves
In the eighteenth century, slavers finally bowed to the political pressure imposed by religious groups like the Propagation of the Society of the Gospel. They allowed the slaves to learn the catechism through rote, without the use of books.
However, it was too late. While the slavers blamed the slaves unbreakable spirit of seeking freedom to a “Slave run-away” cat disease they called drapetomania, the slaves gave the glory to the Bible and to its liberating powers. As a result, they began holding church in secret, in places called Hush Harbors.
Whenever slaveholders left their books and Bibles unguarded, they would take them and “steal away” into the hush harbor where they learned how to read, plan escapes and discern parables.
“Hush Harbors,” were primarily located in places like the Dismal Swamp or ravines, ditches and thickets. Because of the fear of being caught and brutally punished they never held clandestine church Services in the same place. Encrypted directions lead believers to the sites. The first people to arrive at the meeting used a broken tree bough to point towards the hush harbor. The slaves then hung quilts to create a tabernacle. In an effort to suppress the sounds, the slaves dampened the quilts and filled a kettle with water.
Henry Box Brown and William Still
In 1870, William Still published his journals in The Underground Railroad, a collection of short biographies of fugitive slaves. Conscious of the importance of his work, Still described the appearance, character and training of each man and woman. He also explained their means of escape. Henry “Box” Brown, for example, shipped himself in a box to freedom. It is only one of the many acts of bravery that captures the cooperation between the races. Stories of the united spirit of Abolitionists were equally enlightening, their unselfish and unprovoked actions resuscitated and sustained the heart of the Declaration of Independence “that all men have God given alienable rights ….among these are Life, Liberty.” After reading the stories I was determined to buy a copy of this book. Until then, Alex Haley’s book and miniseries Roots defined my perception of race relations during the slave era. When I thought of a fugitive slave, I thought of Haley’s ancestor Toby, who had a part of his foot chopped off after a failed attempt to escape.
The Underground Railroad spoke of God’s mercy and deliverance for ancestors who resisted and attempted to escape slavery. This was the proof that God heard the prayers and cries of many Toby's and Kizzy's were in bondage. He did not forsake the slaves, but as he had done with Moses, commissioned abolitionists like William Still, Levi Coffin and Harriet Tubman to help free them. Moreover, He inspired hundreds of ordinary people to take part in the legendary Underground Railroad.
Certificate of Freedom
Now on the road to freedom, Peter bade his family good-bye and promised to return for them. Setting out for Cincinnati, Ohio, Friedman made arrangements with his brother Levi to assist them.
Since the passage of the Northwest Ordinance Ohio, which prohibited the expansion of slavery, Ohio became the designated state for abolitionist activities such as issuing of Certificates of Freedom and the establishments of settlements for emancipated slaves.
Peter was no longer a piece of property. In Ohio, he was a free man. After forty years of enslavement, he was free. He was joyous – at least until he learned of the Ohio Black Laws which were designed to re-enslave freed blacks. Southern Ohio was a dangerous place for free blacks; they were threatened with fines, arrest and/or re- enslavement for vagrancy, assembling in groups of more than seven, traveling at night without a pass, traveling during the day without a contract of labor or license from the police, breaking curfew, being absent from work, seditious speech, insulting gestures or acts.
One of the first and largest settlements in Ohio, The Gist Settlements, were established by Samuel Gist a former indenture servant and wealthy Englishman. He established the Gist Settlements in 1810 near Ripley Ohio. The catalyst for his action was a desire to free slaves from his estranged daughter, Mary Anderson, an heiress and wealthy Virginia planter. The legal war culminated when Mr. Gist threatened, in his will, to bequeath Mary a mere shilling if she did not honor his wishes and emancipate her slaves. In addition to emancipation, Gist stipulated that settlements include churches and schools. He ordered that she give each a plot of land.
His will was met with political resistance which prompted Samuel Gist to wage the most publicized legal war against slavery prior to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. In 1804, Gist hired the most learnt dream team of his day, led by William Wickham, (known for representing Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton's murderer). Executing Samuel Gist's will, Wickham purchased over 2000 acres of land in Brown and Highland Counties. At the time, this represented the largest recorded transaction dedicated to slave emancipation. The Gist Settlements proved vital in the development and operation of the Underground Railroad. This large haven for free African Americans attracted fugitives seeking temporary asylum on their journey to freedom
The Canning of Charles Sumner
The same landless men they had denied the vote suddenly were worthy of citizenship. Three years, before the passage of the Kansas Nebraska Act Congress passed the Manhood Suffrage Act. This act allowed landless white men to vote. These men were offered land grants in exchange for voting to accept Kansas into the Union as a slave state. The Missourians accepted the offer. Led by militia men, they strapped on their gear, left their homes with their guns went to Kansas and stole countless votes.
The abolitionists protested. They felt the election had been stolen and they accused the Missourian ruffians of election fraud. The Kansas abolitionists set up their own government in Lawrence, Kansas. Congress, which was pro- slavery, refused to recognize the abolitionist government. Consequently, the militia and the abolitionists were left to iron out their own problems. The Missouri militia raided the Lawrence, which is near the African Cherokee town of Humboldt.
In Washington, an abolitionist congressman, Charles Sumner, enraged over the incident known as “Bloody Kansas,” the burning and murders in the city of Lawrence, he blamed South Carolina’s Senator Butler and pro-slavery Senators for the death of his abolitionist friends. Two days later, Senator Butler’s cousin, Representative Preston Brooks, marched into Congress and attacked Senator Sumner from behind with a cane.
Harpers Ferry John Brown
Two days later, John Brown sought to avenge the attack on his friends, Senator Sumner and the deaths of his abolitionist friends in Lawrence, Kansas. Exasperated, with a wagonload of guns and angry White and Black protestors, he went to Harper’s Ferry and raided its arsenal. They then went hunting for the murderers of the abolitionists. They dragged five suspects from their beds and slit their throats. With tensions rising, members of Congress began carrying guns before entering the building.
The pro slavers captured John Brown and hung him.
During this time of grief, William Still cared for John Brown’s family. He invited them to live with him in his home in Philadelphia. Later, Brown’s daughter, Annie wrote Mr. Still a note, “Mother sends a lock of father’s hair which she promised you. She also sends her love to you and your family. ”
Statue of The Freed Slave
Lincoln like Jehoshaphat, despite the advice given to him by the religious abolitionist Charles Sumner, stubbornly proceeded with his course of action. Senator Sumner advised Lincoln to use the Confiscation Act, a war law, to emancipate the slaves.
Unfortunately, Lincoln and Jehoshaphat were seduced by their new found friends and prominence to the extent Jehoshaphat agreed to stand in and sacrifice his life for Ahab. He strolled bravely onto the battlefield, wearing the regalia and driving the royal chariot while Ahab who initiated the war, went in disguise. However, Lincoln encountered a similar crisis. After the Confederates instigated the War, he made every effort to maintain his friendship with slaveholders.
He went to battle, in lockstep with the five border slave states, (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and West Virginia) to preserve the Union, even if it meant preserving slavery. Jehoshaphat and Lincoln both went to war with the enemies of the Lord and they soon found themselves in great distress. They began to lose. They both hollered out to the Lord for help. The Lord spared Jehoshaphat’s life. The soldiers, realizing that Jehoshaphat was not Ahab halted their attack, for they had been directed not to kill anyone except Ahab.
The Lord heard Lincoln’s cries too. He gave him a second chance, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With his pen, his sword he signed the Second Confiscation Act in 1862. It declared that “any slave that reached the North was free” As a result of this divine bill, African American fought in the Civil War, the Union won, America was unified and her Slaves were free.
Fourteenth Amendment Multi Racial celebration
This 1866 illustration shows black and white families celebrating the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. It was a historic moment in race relations. Insofar this Civil Rights Bill was an extension of the Emancipation Proclamation, it benefited everyone. The bill was the first step in the quest for making free education and affordable housing available to the disenfranchise population. As citizens they were now eligible to receive federal grants such as the Southern Homestead Act, and Morrill’s Education Land Grant. These two bills were similar to the “forty acres and a mule grant” offered by General William Tecumseh Sherman. The difference was that the Homestead and Morrill bills lasted longer than a year; countless people benefited from them.
During the reconstruction era the majority of southerners were poor whites and newly freed blacks. All suffered from high illiteracy and homelessness. One percent of the population owned five-sixths of the land. Only the wealthy could buy farmland or send their children to school. The public school system had yet to be established. Former abolitionists saw the Fourteenth Amendment as the first step in dismantling the Confederacy’s monopolization of land and education.
Homer Plessy and William Still
After the Civil War, Mr. Still went to the cemetery and retrieved his buried treasured: all the notes he had written about the Hundreds of fugitives he assisted. He then published their stories in a book, The Underground Railroad. William’s book is a legendary gift to humanity. It illuminates the best of us, our oneness with God and each other. Our innate nurturing qualities allow us to be our brothers’ keepers and to do unto others, as we would want them to do unto us. The United in faith is the one consistency throughout history they bespeak of these Underground Railroad characteristics. Their effortless struggles and miraculous victories are paramount testimonies only second to those written in the Bible.
Although he was blessed to witness and partake in the abolishment of slavery, Mr. Still, understood as long as he was alive he had to continue to run his race, and fight the good fight of faith, for faith without deeds is dead. One of his most public deeds occurred after the Civil War. Jim Crow laws, informal independent discriminatory practices by racist people, attempted to enact the infiltrate and contaminate the city of brotherly love’s Philadelphia streetcars. Racist politicians introduced and attempted to enforce policies that discriminated against blacks. Mrs. Still a member of the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League rallied thirty thousand protesters. The group drafted a bill to prohibit discrimination on streetcars. They forwarded it to State Senator Morrow he signed the bill. It became a law in 1867.
Unfortunately, Philadelphia was not the only city Jim Crow tried to rule. In 1890, he challenged New Orleans. New Orleans was one of the most cosmopolitan cities of North America. Before the Pinckney Treaty of 1795 and the Louisiana Purchase in 1802, it was home to people from all over the world. So thoroughly intertwined were these New Orleanais that they gave birth to new ethnic groups or racial groups, notably Creoles and Mulattoes. The Dixie-crats aware of the strength of diversity and unity in New Orleans planned to counteract and disintegrate the Spirit of unity their enemies defeated them with in the Civil War. Therefore, seccionist placed physical wedges between Blacks and Whites, they passed Jim Crow laws to prohibit the socialization and the uniting of the races.
Like William Still’s Marie LeCount before him and Martin Luther King’s Rosa Parks after him, Homer Plessy decided to be the symbol of protest in New Orleans. He joined a civil rights group and volunteered to be their spokesperson. In 1890, Homer Plessey was the perfect icon for America’s civil rights struggle. He was an idyllic American symbol, for like the United States, his racial makeup was visibly unidentifiable, a tapestry of endless and countless ethnicities.
Moreover, Plessy’s Caucasian features posed a problem for Jim Crow. His supporters could not distinguish his race therefore They could not reasonably explain how they expect the streetcars to be responsible for Negro detecting and ejections. The secessionist remained consistent, whenever they could not justify their actions biblically or morally they resorted to fabrications, their own text, racist science; like the runaway slave/cat disease, drapetomania. Only this time they conjured up a new theory, the one-drop rule. This rule stated if an individual had one drop of blood in their DNA then Jim Crow deemed the said person a Negro.
The secessionist lost the South and it was clear their new frontier was the human soul, the segregation of the heart and mind. If they could convince people to mistreat and judge others solely on the basis of their appearances then they considered themselves the winners in the battle over America’s soul. On November 4, 2008 Americans set the historical record straight and reclaimed the victory of humanity and passed the torch from the abolitionist to the spiritual progressionist, across all demographic lines they elected a president by all appearances is a Black, African American, man.
