![]() ![]() When Spring Hill’s main home was completed in 1821, several places became potential hiding places for fugitives. (Photograph by Jim Brand, Collection of the Massillon Museum) There are no known photographs of the entire springhouse. When it was safe, fugitives traveled to the next station in northern Ohio near Stow, Hudson, or Painesville. Any more than a few days would bring attention, putting the homeowner and fugitives in danger. Fugitive slaves hid in the upper story of the springhouse until a trusted conductor was found. The springhouse provided hiding place for fugitive slaves until the main home was built. Remains of Spring Hill Farm springhouse, 1970. (Photograph by George McCall, Collection of the Massillon Museum, gift of the Karl Spuhler Estate, ) The farmhands surrounded DeCamp with weapons, such as pitchforks, and he was encouraged to leave the grounds. Thomas Rotch told him to leave, but DeCamp reminded him the Fugitive Slave Act. He tracked a fugitive slave woman and her children to Spring Hill farm and demanded their surrender. Myrtle Kisner, BC 2371.1)Ī notorious slave catcher, known only as DeCamp, helped slaves to escape, only to track and return them to their masters for a reward. (Collection of the Massillon Museum, gift of Mrs. Harsh gave a substantial $10,000 bequest to help establish the Massillon Public Library in 1899. 1870.Īccording to Harold Boerner’s map of historic locations, the home of George Harsh on Fourth Street Northeast was a station on the Underground Railroad, near the State Road (Cherry Road). George Harsh and his home (no longer standing), c. (Photograph attributed to Abel Fletcher, Collection of the Massillon Museum, gift of Albert Hise, BC 1624) Fugitive slaves found employment in houses, in hotels, and on farms. This daguerreotype photograph depicts an unidentified young man, possibly a former slave who found a new home in the villages of Kendal or Massillon, Ohio, which provided opportunities for all people. Some scholars say 40,000, while others say 100,000. ![]() Since not every escape was documented, it is hard to say how many fugitives escaped. They attempted to take them as far north as possible, from Kendal north to Hudson, Ohio, and typically to Canada. Several Quaker families from Ohio to Massachusetts visited friends in Wheeling, West Virginia, and helped fugitive slaves cross the Ohio River. Ohio freedom networks were established in the late 1810s. Levi Coffin later moved to Indiana and is credited with naming it the Underground Railroad in 1831. William Siebert’s 1898 book, Mysteries of Ohio’s Underground Railroad, and newspaper articles, those who assisted in ferrying runaway slaves were James Austin, James Bayliss, Isaac Bowman, Charles Coffin, Matthew and Samuel Macy, Isaac Robinson, Irvine and Richard Williams, Charles Grant (black conductor), William Moffit, Robert Folger, and Levi and Catherine Coffin. With many Kendalites and Massillonians involved in the Underground Railroad. Thomas Rotch served on Yearly Meeting committees that improved slave conditions and worked towards their emancipation. She wrote to her sister, Anna Hazard, “poor things, they excited so much sympathy and so prey upon my feelings that I should be glad to have but little of their company.” Through original Rotch letters, there are well-documented stories of the family helping fugitive slaves obtain food, clothing, and guides for their journeys. This law presented a moral dilemma for dutiful citizens who wished to help runaways.Ĭharity Rotch wanted to help fugitive slaves, but the stressful situations caused exacerbation of her illnesses. #The underground railroad story slavery freeYet, if runaway slaves reached a free state, they were likely to be left alone, until the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which further enforced the recovery of runaways by compelling citizens of free states to return slaves to their masters, making it illegal to harbor slaves even in free states. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 guaranteed slaveholders could recover escaped slaves if pursued. Isaac Russel wrote from a southern state to Thomas Rotch in 1816, “I can have little satisfaction in remaining long in this state when abominable slavery is tolerated with all its concomitant evils, evils which I witness with disgust and dismay.” Though slavery was the law of the land, Quakers did not believe in human bondage. Written by Mandy Altimus Pond, Archivist, Massillon Museum Black History: Underground Railroad & Anti-Slavery Underground Railroad & Anti-Slavery in Massillon & Kendal ![]()
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