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Oct 27th Arrived_ Mark Hamlet Thos. Goff, from Retirement, Mont. Co. Md_ Left home on the 15th of oct_ went to Washington & stopped with a man by the name of Lee_ obtained instructions and so came on_ was arrested soon after he reached the Pa line by 6 white men, but was soon released
He was brought to my house by C.L.R. and was examined by him and myself, and also next morning, by Mr M K.[1] at the A.S.O.[2] We was not as thoroughly satisfied with this case as we wished to be but were all agreed that it was advisable to send him a way __
Expences 1.75
Nov. 2nd Arrived_ Robt. Jackson [3] (shot man) alias Wesley Harris, age 22 Yrs. of dark complexion and of slender Stature. Robt. Was born in MartinsburgVa. and _____ by Philip Pendleton. From a boy had always been hired out. At the first of this year he commenced serving with Mrs. Carroll proprietess of the U.S. Hotel at Harpers Ferry; of Mrs. C. he speaks in very greatfull terms_ Saying that she was kind to him and all the Servants, and promised all their freedom at her death. She excused herself for not giving any their freedom on the ground that her husband had died insolvent, leaving her with the responsibility of his debts to settle. But while Mrs. C. was very kind to her Servants_ her manager was equally as cruel. About a month before Wesley left the overseer , for some trifling cause, attempted to flog him_ but was resisted & himself flogged. This resistance by the Slave was regarded by the overseer as an unpardonable offense; consequently he communicated the intelligence to his owner which had the desired effect on his mind, as appeared from his answer to the overseer_ which was nothing less than instructing that if he should again attempt to correct W, and he should repel the wholesome treatment?, the overseer was to put him in prison & sell him. Whether he offended again or not the following Christmas he was to be sold without fail. Wesley’s mistress was kind enough to apprise him of the intention of his owner & the overseer soon told him if he could do better he had better do so. So from that time his mind began to contemplate how he should escape the doom which had been planned for him. “A friend by the name of C. Matterson told me that he was going off. Then I told him my masters writing to Mrs. C. concerning selling me, and that I was going off too__ We then concluded to go together. There were two other Bros of Matterson [4], who were apprised of our plan to escape, and readily joined with us in the undertaking. So one Saturday night, at 12 o’cl. We set out for the north.
Notes
[1] James Miller McKim (1810-1874), a liberal Presbyterian minister, had been an early supporter of William Lloyd Garrison and the American Anti-Slavery Society. In the 1840s, McKim launched the antislavery newspaper, The Pennsylvania Freeman, in Philadelphia. Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, he actively assisted fugitives and was a member of the Board for the Vigilance Committee in the 1850s. He was also involved in the woman’s rights movement in the 1850s and attended at least one related convention with his wife, Sarah, in West Chester, Pennsylvania in June 1852. He supported numerous relief efforts for the freedmen in the South during and after the Civil War.
[2] Anti-Slavery Office.
[3] Further details of Robert Jackson’s escape are contained in Still, Underground Rail Road, 48-51.
[4] Further details of the flight of the three Matterson brothers are contained in Still, Underground Rail Road, 48-51.