Notes on a Criminal Conspiracy
An annotated reader for The Underground Railroad by William Still
[Coming Soon ]
"In these Records will be found interesting narratives of the escapes of many men, women and children, from the prisonhouse of bondage; from cities and plantations; from rice swamps and cotton fields; from kitchens and mechanic shops; from Border States and Gulf States; from cruel masters and mild masters; — some guided by the north star alone, penniless, braving the perils of land and sea, eluding the keen scent of the blood-hound as well as the more dangerous pursuit of the savage slave-hunter;"
As chairman of the Vigilance Committee of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and conductor on the Philadelphia Underground Railroad station, William Still recorded the "hardships, hair-breadth escapes, and death struggles" of nearly a thousand self-emancipators who traveled through the Philadelphia station. Almost three hundred of these freedom seekers were fleeing slavery in Virginia.
This essay will pair the text of these testimonies with data visualizations that explore the identities of these individuals and their journeys to freedom. Still's records include detailed information about a person's age, sex, mode of transportation, literacy, date of escape, whether or not they were armed, and the reward amount for their capture, if any. These accounts also offer an opportunity for a textual analysis of the themes and topics discussed in the testimonies themselves.
Each of these stories is rich with reflections on family and friends, joy and pain, freedom and slavery, memories and future aspirations. I'm grateful for the efforts of the people documented in these records. That gratitude also extends to William Still, who in his efforts to preserve these stories risked his own life. He championed these fugitives as their own heroes and recognized the necessity of preserving their stories:
"The race must not forget the rock from whence they were hewn, nor the pit from whence, they were digged. Like other races, this newly emancipated people will need all the knowledge of their past condition which they can get."
Citations
[1] Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. (1872). William Still; The underground railroad, [Frontispiece and title page] Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/1f90dba0-c6ef-012f-9145-58d385a7bc34
[2] Still, William. (1872). The underground rail road. Porter & Coates. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5479/sil.1064014.39088018649533
[3] Still, William. (1879) The underground railroad. A record of facts, authentic narratives, letters &c., narrating the hardships, hair-breadth escapes and death struggles of the slaves in their efforts for freedom. [Philadelphia, Pa., Cincinnati, Ohio etc. People's publishing company] [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/31024984/.