She is stopping in our city, and wants to hear from her children very much indeed. She left her dear little children behind (two children). Susan Bell, who was at your city some time in September last. Still.ĭEAR FRIEND STILL:-I write to you for Mrs. I am living at Yorkville near Toronto Canada West. And I trust you will try what you think will be the best way.

Collins at the ferry boat at Portsmouth, and Rose a coloured woman at the Crawford House can tell where she is. You can find her out by enquiring for Dr. Wray in Murphysborough, Hartford County, North Carolina Emma lives with a Lawyer Baker in Gatesville, North Carolina and Susan lives in Portsmouth, Virginia and is stopping with Dr. Their names are Charles and Patrick and are living with Mrs. SIR:-I take the liberty of writing to you a few lines concerning my children, for I am very anxious to get them and I wish you to please try what you can do for me. Jones, Elmira, and the next day they were on the fresh hunt of said box it got safe to Elmira, as I have had a letter from Jones, and all is safe. We received it, and forwarded it on to J. The reason of the excitement, is: some three weeks ago a big box was consigned to us by J. We knew not that these goods were to come, consequently we were all taken by surprise. Our reason for sending by the Reading Road, was to gain time it is expected the owners will be in town this afternoon, and by this Road we gained five hours’ time, which is a matter of much importance, and we may have occasion to use it sometimes in future. When you write, please inform me what signs or symbols you make use of in your dispatches, and any other information in relation to operations of the Underground Railroad. This is our first case, and I hope it will prove entirely successful. Lately we have formed a Society here, called the Fugitive Aid Society. You will please send me any information likely to prove interesting in relation to them. They arrived here this morning at 8-1/2 o’clock and left twenty minutes past three. Depot).įRIEND STILL:-I suppose ere this you have seen those five large and three small packages I sent by way of Reading, consisting of three men and women and children. You will please communicate this to the friends as soon as possible.

However we will raise all the money that is wanting to pay for his safe delivery. But I hope the friends of humanity will not withhold their aid on the account of money. The best for him is to make his way to Petersburg that is, if you can get the Capt. Tell my uncle to go to Richmond and ask my mother whereabouts this man is. All I wish to say is this, I wish you to write to my uncle, at Petersburg, by our friend, the Capt. It is not for me to tell you of his case, because Miss Wever has related the matter fully to you. Kind Sir, as all of us is concerned about the welfare of our enslaved brethren at the South, particularly our friends, we appeal to your sympathy to do whatever is in your power to save poor Willis Johnson from the hands of his cruel master. Hill will commence to make up the articles tomorrow. I think they will be married as soon as they can get ready. You may imagine the happiness manifested on the part of the two lovers, Mr. Hill, a fugitive, appealing on behalf of a poor slave in Petersburg, VirginiaĭEAR FRIEND STILL:-I write to inform you that Miss Mary Wever arrived safe in this city.

The passages shed light on family separation, the financial costs of the journey to freedom, and the logistics of the Underground Railroad. In these excerpts, Still offers the readers some of the letters sent to him from abolitionists and formerly enslaved persons. William Still was an African-American abolitionist who frequently risked his life to help freedom-seekers escape slavery. Stories from the Underground Railroad, 1855-56

Underground railroad story