Every age has its evils. Although the moral quandaries each generation faces differ, the ways in which people react to them are universal. In all times and places the majority accept life as they find it, either seeing no wrong, accepting a "necessary evil", or simply believing that there is nothing that can be done to change matters. At these times and places, a precious few have chosen to stand against the evils of their day, to convince others of the rightness of their cause and attempt to change the "inevitable". They have often done so at great risk to themselves and their families. Many have lost their lives and their liberty. Often they do not succeed, or at least, do not live to see that they have succeeded. Most are forgotten, for after the evil is gone, the majority do not like to be reminded of the fact that opposing that evil was, after all, possible. The stories are here to remind us all. But, they are also here so that we may remember and honor the few who have made such a difference in the lives of us all.
In the years before the Civil War, many slaves escaped from their masters in the slave states and fled to free states in the north and then on to freedom in Canada. People in the United States became increasingly opposed to slavery during these years. These people were referred to as "Abolitionists" because of their desire to abolish slavery. Members of the Society of Religious Friends (Quakers) reflected these attitudes.
Many Quakers felt the desire to help escaping slaves on their way to Canada. Because of the Fugitive Slave Act, this was, strictly speaking, illegal. Although slavery was strongly opposed by Quakers, there was much disagreement about how to oppose it, particularly in how to deal with the slave fugitives. Some members of the community became active very early in assisting runaway slaves. One such person was Levi Coffin, who helped fleeing slaves during his youth in North Carolina. After he later moved to Ohio and Indiana, he was derisively labeled the "President of the Underground Railroad" by the angry slave holders. Levi Coffin wrote a detailed account of his life's work in 1876. He included many heartrending stories of slave conditions and escape attempts, both successful and unsuccessful. His writings are of particular interest to us because of the backgrounds of many of the families who had migrated to this part of Minnesota from Ohio and Indiana. Levi Coffin had certainly met Henry Stubbs and influenced many of the Stubbs' as well as other Quaker families of West Elkton, to help him in the Underground Railroad. Henry's son Charles Rolla Stubbs wrote in his memoirs, "My brother Joel was very active in helping fleeing slaves. He and father Henry helped transport many of them across into Indiana. They fed and clothed them as needed, too. It was thirty miles from our farm at West Elkton to the next 'station' and they took a covered wagon at night with the slaves hidden under quilts and supposedly marketbound with farm produce heading to Richmond. It was a dangerous and risky business with fierce slave hunters seen frequently in our area."
While still living in Indiana, north of Richmond, Levi Coffin often had business in Cincinnati. On one such trip he was asked to take a slave girl from Boone County, Kentucky to a place of safety. She had made a daring escape across the Ohio River and was being pursued. The party stopped first at Hamilton and
"Next morning -- it being the Sabbath day -- we went on about eight miles to West Elkton, a Friends' settlement, to attend meeting and spend the day. Meeting had just commenced when we arrived. My wife took the fugitive into meeting with her and seated her by her side. This was the first time the girl had ever attended a Quaker meeting. At its close I introduced her to a number of our friends, as a runaway slave from Kentucky. She was the first that had been seen at that place, and a mysterious influence seemed to invest her at once. Men lowered their voices as if in awe, when they inquired about her, and some of them seemed alarmed, as if there was danger in the very air that a fugitive slave breathed. I spoke in a loud, cheerful tone and asked, "Why do you lower your voices? Are you afraid of anything? Have you bloodhounds among you? If so, you ought to drive them out of your village." We stopped at the house of Widow Stubbs, a thorough abolitionist, and soon afterward one of her neighbors, a man with whom I was well acquainted, came in to inquire concerning the girl. He asked if she was safe, whether she had not better be secreted, etc., all the time speaking in a low tone. I said, "What is the matter, Henry? What makes thee speak so cautiously? Is there anyone in your village who would capture a fugitive slave? If there is, hunt him up and bring him here. I would like to introduce this young lady to him. I think we could make an abolitionist of him. For my part, I have no fears of anyone in this village, and think thou may make thyself quite easy." In the course of the afternoon quite a number of people came in who seemed concerned in a similar manner for the safety of the girl, but seeing me so entirely at ease, their fear and anxiety passed away. This public exposition of a fugitive slave, at Friends' meeting and in the village seemed to have a good effect in the place, for West Elkton afterward became one of our best Underground Railroad depots, and the timid man first alluded to became one of the most zealous workers on the road."
At the beginning of the more organized efforts that Mr, Coffin took part in to help the fleeing slaves, his group was driven out of the main body of Quakers in Indiana, for a time. After a few years, the opinions of the majority of Quakers came around to the Abolitionist view and the factions were reunited. Mr. Coffin acknowledges the support of his friend, Jacob Grave from Richmond, Indiana during his efforts to obtain goods made without slave labor. Jacob Grave was Mary Stroud Grave's (Henry Stubbs' third wife) father.
"Besides the many obstacles I had to encounter in obeying the dictates of my conscience on this subject, I had to contend with innumerable discouragements, and to endure much ridicule. I had to meet the arguments of the pro-slavery party, but I also had the support of many warm friends, who harmonized with me and encouraged me in the work, and were willing, at any sacrifice, to abstain from the use of slave-labor products. In my own neighborhood such prominent men of our society as ...... were advocates of free labor, and in other neighborhoods I had many true friends, such as William Beard, Jacob Grave, Daniel Worth, and others."
Records in the Richmond, Indiana Historical Society tell of Jacob Grave being removed from the Quaker meeting in 1842 for his views in support of abolition.
QUAKER COMPASSION - A STUBBS STORY
Henry Stubbs, who was born in Ohio soon after his parents arrival, had not seen the slavery conditions firsthand, but he certainly heard much about it from the Georgia migrants. About 1848, he took his family down to North Carolina on a trip and even went down to Wrightsborough where he found that the ancestral farms had been taken over by slaveholders and was so shocked by the inhuman cruelty of slavemasters, whose sensibilities had degenerated.
About this same time, the Quakers at West Elkton raised a considerable amount of money and sent William and Delilah Stubbs down to Wrightsborough to pay for transportation for any penniless free Negroes they might encounter. But when the noble mission was discovered, furious plantation owners, fearful of their own slaves finding out about this plan, threatened the Stubbs couple and they had to flee for their lives. It was not uncommon for free Negroes to be rounded up like stray animals and in their hapless condition, be enslaved once again.
Naturally, the Negroes would try to escape and finding sympathizers in the southern states, many managed to flee to the Ohio River and cross in darkness near Cincinnati, and head north to West Elkton. (There were other routes in eastern states that were managed by Quakers)
One such escapee was Eliza Harris, a leading character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, the book that did much to reveal what was going on in the southern states. Many are the stories of how frightened Negroes were hidden in attics, cellars, barns, disguises, even in coffins with secret ventilation, under haystacks, and in the woods.
After the Civil War, some ex-slaves returned to their Quaker friends and settled around West Elkton. It was boasted that of some 3,000 that came through there, not one was caught there, although when they went on to Canada they were lost track of after that.
There are still some old homes in the West Elkton, Ohio area where the Stubbs families lived, that were havens during this hectic and dangerous period. The big rambling house of Jesse Stubbs, once a 'station' on the 'Underground Railroad', is now an historic site there.
