Quotations

What Levi heard from the enslaved at 7 years old

“They have taken us away from our wives and children, and they chain us lest we should make our escape and go back to them. . .as I listened, the thought rose in my mind – ‘How terribly we should feel if father were taken away from us.’” – Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, pp. 12-13

Levi noted that this was the beginning of his being in sympathy with the oppressed.

Levi talking to and feeding the enslaved

“Runaway slaves used frequently to conceal themselves in the woods and thickets in the vicinity of New Garden, waiting opportunities to make their escape to the North, and I generally learned their places of concealment and rendered them all the service in my power. . . Many a time I sat in the thickets with them as they hungrily devoured my bounty, and listened to the stories they told of hard masters and cruel treatment.” – Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, pp. 20-21

Levi & Vestal Coffin and Sol, regarding interviews with runaways

“. . . Sol would manage to bring the person, by night, to some rendezvous appointed, in the pine thickets or the depths of the woods, and there Vestal and I would meet them and have an interview. There was always a risk in holding these meetings, for the law in the South inflicted heavy penalties on any one who should aid or abet a fugitive slave in escaping, and the patrollers, or mounted officers, frequently passed along the road near our place of concealment.” –Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, p. 21

The Story of Ede, enslaved by David Caldwell

“[Ede] made her way to our house. . . was kindly received, though we knew we laid ourselves liable to a heavy penalty by harboring a fugitive slave. . . The dictates of humanity came in opposition to the law of the land, and we ignored the law.” Levi went to visit Caldwell and “used all the earnestness and eloquence I was master of, quoting all the texts of Scripture bearing on the case. . .” In the end, David Caldwell consented not to penalize the Coffins and to allow Ede to remain at his home with her loved ones, rather than be sent as a gift to his newly married son. – Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, pp. 23-28

The Story of Arch & Vina Curry

Arch Curry was a free black man and was required by law to carry manumission papers or other proof of being free. His wife Vina was a washerwoman at New Garden Boarding School. When Arch died, his papers stayed with Vina. “She decided to loan these to male slaves bearing some resemblance to her late husband, so they could travel north safely. . .” Levi Coffin, through a courier, returned them to Vina when the man was safe.” No one knows how many slaves won freedom on Arch Curry’s papers.” – Hiram Hilty’s By Land & By Sea, p. 76

The Story of Henry “Box” Brown

Henry Brown, enslaved in Richmond, VA, convinced Samuel A. Smith to nail a box shut around him and ship it to a member of the Vigilance Committee in Philadelphia. The box was 2 feet 8 inches wide, 2 feet deep and 3 feet long. It had tiny holes made so he could breathe.

Henry was 5 feet 10 inches tall and 200 lbs. He took very little water and some biscuits for the 27 hour trip.

When the box finally arrived in the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Office, four people locked the door behind them, knocked on the box and opened it. Henry stood up and reached out to shake their hands!

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center website, accessed 3/20/17

John Dimrey, 1819

John Dimrey was “a free black man. . . [who] became the first known fugitive to be spirited away from guilford County to the free states.” He had been freed by his master elsewhere in North Carolina, and come to live with his wife in New Garden. In 1819 the old master died and his sons came to New Garden to collect Dimery in the night. Dimery enlisted his daughter to “run for Mr. Coffin.” Vestal Coffin and his friend Isaac White caught up with and detained the kidnappers at a neighbor’s house while “the woman of the house” quietly untied Dimery, who “disappeared into the woods.” Addison Coffin (Vestal’s son) reports that Dimery “was started on the Underground Railroad that night and soon landed at Richmond, IN.” Addison Coffin’s Life and Travels, pp. 20-21

Moving along the Underground Railroad - in secret

“The enslaved walked from station to station at night and when necessary hid in cornfields, forests and friendly homes to avoid being captured by owners or patrols. According to Addison Coffin, the system continued from 1830-1860 [most active years in New Garden were 1819-1852, with Levi Coffin leaving for IN in 1826 and Vestal Coffin dying the same year] without anyone finding out about the secret system.” M. Gertrude Beal’s The Underground Railroad in Guilford County, The Southern Friend, Spring 1980; p.21

The Story of Benjamin Benson

In 1817 there was a lengthy legal case in the Guilford County Supreme Court regarding a free black man named Benjamin Benson who was kidnapped in Delaware and sold in Guilford County to a slaveholder, John Thompson of Greensboro. Benson was finally freed in 1820. He was the first African American to use the legal system to gain his freedom.

The backlash from slaveholders sparked the idea of an organized method of helping enslaved people escape. Quakers in the New Garden community and other anti-slavery neighbors partnered with local African Americans, both enslaved and free, to provide a significant base of support for fugitives escaping from slavery. Author Fergus Bordewich calls it our “country’s first racially integrated civil rights movement.” Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America, p. 4

Query #38 from Britain Faith & Practice

“If pressure is brought upon you to lower your standard of integrity, are you prepared to resist it? Our responsibilities to God and our neighbour may involve us in taking unpopular stands. Do not let the desire to be sociable, or the fear of seeming peculiar, determine your decisions.”

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