Fugitive Slaves: The Cost of Caring
In 1852, during a meeting of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, a new Vigilance Committee was created with Robert Purvis as the head of the General Committee and William Still as the chairman. William Still documented the cases that the Vigilance Committee handled from 1852-1857. Through the analysis of Still’s journal, students will explore the personal accounts of fugitive slaves and will build a profile of those individuals who either came through Philadelphia or stayed in the city and sought the services of the Vigilance Committee. Still's compelling documentation of the names, ages, physical descriptions, treatment, motivations for seeking freedom, skills, and the details of the physical and emotional journeys of fugitive slaves provide rich content for discussion about slavery and escape. The Vigilance Committee expenditures as well as the Still journal reveal another aspect of the Underground Railroad, the financial cost of caring. This lesson is designed to have students understand the Underground Railroad as an intricate system powered, on the one hand, by personal motivation and determination for freedom, but also supported and aided by individuals in the larger, particularly free black, communities.