The Underground Railroad - Research Paper Example

?The Underground Railroad Introduction Since the periods when slavery began in America, Captives escaped for freedom. They made their escape into the deserted areas and lived among the welcoming Indians. Legislations were passed by puritan New England and Quaker Pennsylvania to completely end slavery. This caused an enormous migration towards the North which was later known as the “Underground Railroad.” In essence, it described the network of ordinary citizens whose only place of security was their own houses. This research paper will look at the major contributors to the Underground Railroad and how each of them was related to it. Some of these contributors that will be discussed in this paper include Henry Ward Beecher, The Plymouth Church, Rev. Charles B. Ray, Peter Williams Sr., The Mother African Methodist Zion Church and the Bowne House. In short, this paper will unravel this great mark in history. Henry Ward Beecher He was the First Minister of Plymouth Church and was the one who headed the great campaign against slavery. This he did with massive support from the church membership and this could have been the biggest reason why the people chose him as the pastor. In most of his preaching, Beecher attracted great audience, not only from the local surroundings but also from other areas. The sermons were packed with antislavery messages. Beecher also invited other legends such as Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass and Wendell Philips to also add on to the antislavery gospel (Times). Beecher's most successful tactic of arousing what he referred to as ‘a panic of sympathy’ for slaves was to openly mock the slave auctions and this caused the congregation to bid with great rage for the freeing of the captives. Beecher is also remembered for auctioning off a nine year old slave girl who went by the name Pinky. She had been brought from Virginia to Brooklyn so as to be sold off into freedom. Beecher managed to raise not only the money that was needed for her freedom but also an extra amount that was sufficient enough to cater for all her education. Members of the congregation gave generously and among them was one Miss Rose Terry who was a renowned writer of the time. Having not enough money, she gave her ring and Beecher placed it upon the girl’s hand and named it as the ring of her freedom. The girl was later named Miss Rose Ward, after Miss Rose Terry. The girl was later educated and became a teacher among her own people. She also got married and lived in Washington D.C. which became the place of her Dwelling till her Demise in 1928.The girl lived up to her full potential all thanks to Rev. Beecher. The Reverend went on with pushing his purpose for living: fighting for freedom. It was in 1927 when Plymouth Church celebrated with the 80th Anniversary of Beecher’s first sermon. This man was very instrumental in pushing for the freeing of the captives of the times. The Plymouth Church This church that became established in 1847 was later referred to as the ‘Grand Central Depot’ of the Underground Railroad. Oral tradition memoirs tell that slaves who sort passage to Canada May have hidden in the tunnel like basement beneath the church sanctuary (Church). The minister of the church, Beecher, was often quoted as saying that he opened the church so as to provide a safe haven for the escaping relatives. He said, “I took them into my own home and hid them. I piloted them and sent them toward the North Star which to them was the star of Bethlehem.” Another major player was Rev. B. Ray who was an African- American living in Manhattan who was also the founding editor of the colored American Newspaper.He was also quoted as saying, “I regularly drop off fugitives at Henry ward Beecher’s Plymouth Church in Brooklyn.” The Plymouth Church was that one of those few churches that housed Underground Railroad congregations in New York still stands in its original location to date. Beecher and his fellow ministers in this church were greatly influenced by the second Great Awakening, which was a religious revival among the Protestants that was aimed to bringing slavery to a final end. While at the seminary, Beecher contributed to an anti-slavery newspaper but it was later destroyed and shut down by the faculty. There was great publicity that surrounded Beecher’s first antislavery acts at Plymouth. In 1848, 77 fugitive slaves were exchanged in a transaction in Washington following the failure of one of the largest group attempts to escape on the Underground Railroad. In that group were two young girls known as the Edmondson sisters. Beecher left no stone unturned in the quest for freeing these two girls. This made him to be named as the ‘Brooklyn Eagle’ due to his active participation in the Underground Railroad. It was believed that a great majority of the Plymouth church was involved in the activities of the Underground Railroad. The members were hospitable enough to offer refuge to the escapade slaves. For instance, the church treasurer at the time had made a small chamber for hiding runaways. Another leading activist in the same church was Lewis Tappan who is best remembered for having organized the efforts to release escapade slaves of the Amistad. He had also been instrumental in funding the starting of the Plymouth Church. Charles B. Ray He was born a free man but he devoted his life in antislavery movement. Still, he was at the forefront of the advancement of the African American Race. His land of birth was Falmouth Massachusetts and it was the same place where he got his education. He then relocated to Westerly Rhode Island. In 1832, he entered Wesleyan University as an inspiring minister. He was met with a lot of resistance from the student body who abhorred black students. Due to racial pressure, the trustees of the University resolved that they would only admit white students subsequently revoking Ray’s admission. The state prevailed for three years when Wesleyan revoked its decision, and allowed students of all race to enroll. With time, the University established The Charles Ray Scholarship to assist students of color who were needy but later opened the scholarship to all who needed financial assistance. It was after his life in the University that he joined the American Antislavery society. This was what led him to working with the Underground Railroad. During the height of his involvement in the network, Ray Sheltered fourteen fugitive slaves within his home and led a whole family to freedom, including a grandmother and a toddler. In this very period, the Underground Railroad was using new methods of transporting slaves. They included steamboats, cargo-sloops, and canal boats all of which were operated by black men. In the early 1840s Ray became a member of the vigilance committee of New York City and also a senior editor of ‘The Colored American.’ This gave him access to the company of Gerrit Smith who would later become the president of the organization. In this movement, Ray worked with many prominent abolitionists including Reverend Theodore. Ray went on holding many positions in antislavery organizations and thus became a legend who would be counted among those who participated in the Underground Railroad. He was very much aware of the existence of a route which linked New York and Washington by way of Baltimore and Philadelphia. New York was a kind of a receiving point from which fugitives were assisted to Albany and Troy (Times, Underground Railroad). All his life he worked for the fleeing of captives and his children followed suit. Peter Williams Initially, in Black Amsterdam, which is the present day New York, slaves had the right to own property and were viewed as citizens with legal rights. However, this came to an end when the British colonized that land. The conditions became more repressive and oppressive with each passing day. This is what led to founding of the first African American Church in New York by Peter Williams Sr. Williams was born of slave parents (Williams). They were slaves of James Aymar. His slave mother encouraged him to be a regular church attendant. From his place in the slave gallery, Williams listened to white clergy preach and developed into a devout and pious Methodist. While still a slave, the young man worked as sexton of the church. Church records from 1778 note that Williams received payment for his labor. It was in that same chapel that he met and married Mary Durham, an indentured servant from St. Kitts in the West Indies. Taking the young couple with him, Aymar, a British loyalist, left New York to avoid the American revolutionaries. Their only child Peter Jr. was born around 1780 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Three years later Aymar decided to move to England. Unlike his master, Williams was a devoted nationalist. The young father contacted the officials at John Street Church, and in 1783, at Williams’ request, Aymar sold the Williams family to the John Street Methodist Church, the successor to Wesley Chapel, for ?40. The arrangement required him to repay the money to the church. The Williams family moved in the basement of the parsonage. While the young man worked as the church sexton and undertaker, his wife Mary, affectionately known as Molly, worked as cook and maid for the single ministers in the area. Williams’ hard work and gentility earned the respect of the white Methodists. From his experiences working in his former master’s shop, he had learned the tobacco business. When not occupied with church duties, the young man made and sold cigars. Using the money he earned, Williams paid installments on his debt to the church. His first payment was a gold watch, probably earned through a special service he rendered. Church records affirm that on November 4, 1785, Williams completed that last of his promised payments and as a result, he became a free man. Although the arrangement seems curious, black men and women in New York had a tradition of purchasing their freedom and then buying the liberty of relatives. For reasons unknown, despite the fact that Williams paid for his freedom in 1785, it was not until October 20, 1796 that he received his formal certificate of freedom. The paper symbolized his enduring stance as an abolitionist and as a patriot. Until his death, Williams considered that event as one of the most joyful days of his life. Williams had received a lot of support from his father who though not learned, was a staunch businessman. With entrepreneurial spirit, Williams opened a tobacco business. The success of his venture enabled him to buy a house in 1808. There the tobacconist traded tobacco and made cigars in a shed behind his home. Despite his inability to read or write, Williams was a staunch supporter of education. He provided his son, Peter Williams, the opportunity to attend the New York African Free School run by the Manumission Society. Later, his son became the first rector of St. Philip’s Church, the earliest African American Episcopal parish in New York City. The mother African Episcopal Church In the late 1700s, the Methodists of the mostly white John Street Church welcomed Africans and their descendents, and many came to worship there. Peter Williams, born a slave, became a sexton and James Varick became a deacon of the church. In time, however, the worshipers in the Negro pews grew frustrated. They wanted to speak out against slavery and to worship as equals. Finally, in 1796, James Varick led a group of about 100 worshipers to an old rented building on Cross Street to worship separately. This congregation would found the Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the first black church in the state. By 1800, the group moved into a small wooden building at the corner of Church and Leonard Streets. The church thrived, and by 1820, Mother Zion had a new brick building. That same year the leaders voted to leave the White Methodist Episcopal Church because it would not ordain black bishops. James Varick became the first Bishop of the new church. It was a time when more and more black New Yorkers were gaining their freedom. These newly free African Americans were determined to end slavery in the South and racism in the North (International). The Methodist Church played a big part in the activism of that time. It was a stop on the Underground Railroad and many, who worshiped there, such as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, became leaders and abolitionists. As African Americans moved uptown, so did the church. Today Mother Methodist Zion Church is located at 140-7 W. 137th Street in Harlem. The Bowne House John Bowne is best known for his courageous defense of religious freedom. Flushing was then part of the colony of New Netherland, and its town charter, granted by the Dutch West India Company in 1645 guaranteed "liberty of conscience." When Governor Peter Stuyvesant prohibited the practice of religions other than the Dutch Reformed Church, town leaders delivered the Flushing Remonstrance to Stuyvesant, challenging his edict, which was aimed chiefly at Quakers (Society). In 1662, John Bowne openly defied the ban and allowed Quakers to hold services in his home. Bowne was arrested and imprisoned, and when he refused to pay a fine or plead guilty, Stuyvesant banished him to Holland, where he argued his case successfully before the Dutch West India Company. Stuyvesant was ordered to permit dissenting faiths to worship freely. John Bowne returned home victorious in 1664, and the principle of religious freedom was established in the New York Colony. His actions and those of his fellow residents of Flushing established principles that evolved into the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution. Conclusion The Underground Railroad has been elaborated as the long struggle that the Americans of color had to go through in order for them to regain their freedom. They were treated as the lesser party in the society with minimal or no rights to enjoy. They were then slaves in the homes of the white people. These scenarios lead to the emergence of a great rebellion against the oppressions. This struggle, though it consumed much time, came to bear fruits where the captives and the fugitives were able to regain their freedom, thanks to the unbowed men and women of courage. Appendix An interview that I have already conducted with Lois Rosebrooks, the director of History Ministry Services (loisrosebrooks@plymouthchurch.org)  ?http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/henry_ward_beecher/index.html  ?http://www.plymouthchurch.org/our_history_henry-wardbeecher.php  An interview that I have already conducted with Lois Rosebrooks, the director of History Ministry Services (loisrosebrooks@plymouthchurch.org)  ?http://www.plymouthchurch.org/index.php  http://www.bownehouse.org/house_history.htm  ?http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/students/ash3002y/gomez/bownepaper.html http://www.amez.org/news/amezion/aboutourchurch.html  ?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_African_Methodist_Episcopal_Zion_Church  An interview that I have already conducted with Lois Rosebrooks, the director of History Ministry Services (loisrosebrooks@plymouthchurch.org)  ?The Journal of Negro History: The Life of Charles B. Ray by M. N. Work  ?http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/ray-charles-b-1807-1886  http://www.amez.org/news/amezion/aboutourchurch.html  ?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_African_Methodist_Episcopal_Zion_Church  The Journal of Negro History: The Life of Charles B. Ray by M. N. Work  ?http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/ray-charles-b-1807-1886  Works Cited Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Lewis Tappan. "The War against slavery." Western Reserve University Press (1969): 37. Church, Plymouth. Playmouth Church: About our Church. 13 January 2012. 18 April 2012 . International, Curriculum Concepts. Mapping The African American Past. 12 June 1975. 12 April 2012 . Society, The Bowne House Historical. The Bowne Family Biographies . 12 May 1695. 18 April 2012 . Still, William. The Underground Railroad. Chicago: Johnson Brothers, 1872. Switala, William J. Underground Railroad. New York: Stackpole Books, 2006. Times, New York. Underground Railroad. 17 June 2007. 18 April 2012 . —. Underground Railroad. 12 June 1825. 12 May 2012 . Williams, Peter. Online encyclopedia. 01 January 1823. 18 April 2012 . Read More