“Take up another!” Abbott, p. 147.
“There, Mary, is that white man . . .” Stowe, p. 165.
“Received from W. L. Chaplin . . .” Washington National Era, November 30, 1848.
“You are free!” Stowe, p. 166.
“the sisters Mary Jane and Emily Catherine . . .” National Anti-Slavery Standard, November 30, 1848.
Chapter 13: The Trial of Captain Daniel Drayton
“It is said that some . . .” Congressional Globe, 30th Congress, 1st Session (December 1847–August 1849), p. 520.
“suffer death as a felon . . .” Drayton, p. 28.
Chapter 14: A Radical Education
“Slavery is a state of suppressed war . . .” New York Independent, December 21, 1848.
Chapter 15: Chaplin’s Surrender
“We call on every man . . .” Hugh Humphreys, “Agitate! Agitate! Agitate! The Great Fugitive Slave Law Convention and Its Rare Daguerreotype” (monograph). Madison County History Society Heritage, no. 19. Oneida, N.Y.: Madison County Historical Society, 1994.
“by all the rules of war . . .” Humphreys.
Chapter 16: Pardoned
“must not blame him . . .” Mary Kay Ricks, Escape on the Pearl: The Heroic Bid for Freedom on the Underground Railroad. New York: HarperCollins, 2007, p. 228.
Chapter 17: “The Last Two Drops of Blood in My Heart”
“I have been the mother of seven children . . .” Henry Louis Gates Jr., The Annotated Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2007, p. xxxv.
“If I had only two hours . . .” Stowe, p. 157.
“Hush, children!” Stowe, p. 167.
“The public and shameless sale . . .” Gates, p. 464.
“the last two drops of blood . . .” Stowe, p. 166; Paynter, Fugitives, p. 15.
“Milly Edmonson is an aged woman . . .” Stowe, p. 56.
“living example in which Christianity . . .” Ricks, p. 236.
Chapter 18: Emily, Alone
“Though I am in Washington . . .” Emily Edmonson to Mr. and Mrs. Cowles, June 3, 1853. Henry Cowles Papers, Box #3, Series: Correspondence, Personal; Folders: Aug.–Dec. 1852 and Jan.–July 1853; Record Group 30/27, Oberlin College Archives.
“Give me anything you have . . .” Ellen O’Connor, Myrtilla Miner: A Memoir. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1851, p. 26.
“Emily and I live here alone . . .” O’Connor, p. 51.
“Mob my school! You dare not!” O’Connor, p. 56.
“I have been seen practicing . . .” O’Connor, p. 51.
“It is now more than thirty years . . .” O’Connor, pp. 21–25.
Chapter 19: Homecoming
“Don’t you never marry . . .” Stowe, p. 157.
“Heigho, I see you have a passenger . . .” Paynter, Fugitives, p. 9.
“I hope you may recover . . .” Paynter, Fugitives, p. 9.
“Captain Drayton, Commander of the Schooner . . .” New Bedford Evening Standard (Massachusetts), July 2, 1857.
Bibliography
Abbott, Lyman, and S. B. Halliday. Henry Ward Beecher: A Sketch of His Career with analyses of his power as a preacher lecturer, orator and journalist, and incidents and reminiscences of his life. American Publishing Co., 1887 (www.quinnipiac.edu/other/abl/etext/beecher/beechercomplete.html).
Drayton, Daniel. Personal Memoir of Daniel Drayton, for Four Years and Four Months a Prisoner (for Charity’s Sake) in Washington Jail. Boston: B. Marsh, 1853 (e-book release December 8, 2003, Project Gutenberg; www.gutenberg.net; e-book #10401-8).
Foner, Philip S., and Josephine F. Pacheco. Three Who Dared: Prudence Crandall, Margaret Douglass, Myrtilla Miner, Champions of Antebellum Black Education. Westpoint, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984.
Gates, Henry Louis Jr. The Annotated Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2007.
Hanchett, Catherine M. “What Sort of People & Families … The Edmondson Sisters.” Afro-Americans in New York Life and History 6, no. 2 (1982), pp. 21 – 37.
Harrold, Stanley. Subversives: Antislavery Community in Washington, D.C., 1828 –1865. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003.
_____. “The Pearl Affair: The Washington Riot of 1848.” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. 50 (1980), pp. 140 –60.
Humphreys, Hugh. “Agitate! Agitate! Agitate! The Great Fugitive Slave Law Convention and Its Rare Daguerreotype” (monograph). Madison County History Society Heritage, no. 19. Oneida, N.Y.: Madison County Historical Society, 1994.
Loguen, Jermain Wesley. The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a slave and as a freeman: a narrative of real life. Syracuse, N.Y.: J. G. K. Truair & Co., 1859; Sabin Americana, Print Editions, pp. 1500 –1926.
Melder, Keith. City of Magnificent Intentions: A History of Washington, District of Columbia. Washington, D.C.: Intac, Inc., 2001.
O’Connor, Ellen. Myrtilla Miner: A Memoir. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1851.
Pacheco, Josephine F. The Pearl: A Failed Slave Escape on the Potomac. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.
Paynter, John H. The Fugitives of the Pearl. Washington, D.C.: The Associated Publishers, 1930.
_____. “The Fugitives of the Pearl.” The Journal of Negro History 1, no. 3 (July 1916). Reproduced by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Inc., Howard University, HU ArchivesNet, WorldCom (2000), <huarchivesnet.howard.edu/0008huarnet/paynter1.htm> [May 22, 2010]
Ricks, Mary Kay. Escape on the Pearl: The Heroic Bid for Freedom on the Underground Railroad. New York: HarperCollins, 2007.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Presenting the Original Facts and Documents Upon Which the Story Is Founded Together with Corroborative Statements Verifying the Truth of the Work. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co., 1853; replica: Elibron Classics; elibron.com, Adamant Media Corporation.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co., 1852.
For More Information
About Harriet Beecher Stowe
Fritz, Jean. Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Beecher Preachers. New York: Puffin, 1998.
Hedrick, Joan. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Koester, Nancy. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Spiritual Life. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2014.
Morretta, Alison. Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Abolitionist Movement. New York: Cavendish Square, 2014.
About Abolition and Slavery
Aronson, Marc. Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science. New York: Clarion, 2010.
Davis, David Brion. Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Horton, James Oliver. Slavery and the Making of America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Lowance, Mason, editor. Against Slavery: An Abolitionist Reader. New York: Penguin Classics, 2000.
Marrin, Albert. A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown’s War Against Slavery. New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2014.
McNeese, Tim. The Abolitionist Movement: Ending Slavery. Reform Movements in American History. New York: Chelsea House, 2007.
Sanders, Nancy. Frederick Douglass for Kids: His Life and Times. Chicago: Chicago Review Preview, 2012.
Stewart, James Brewer. Holy Warriors: The Abolitionists and American Slavery. New York: Hill and Wang, 1997.
Thomas, William David. William Lloyd Garrison: A Radical Voice Against Slavery. Voices for Freedom. New York: Crabtree Publishing, 2009.
Slave Narratives and Oral Histories
Burton, Annie L. Women’s Slave Narratives. New York: Dover, 2006.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. The Classic Slave Narratives. New York: Signet Classics, 2012.
Mellon, James. Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember: An Oral History. New York: Grove Press, 2002. First p
ublished 1988.
Perdue, Charles Jr. Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1991.
Yetman, Norman. Voices from Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1999.
_____. When I Was a Slave: Memoirs from the Slave Narrative Collection. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2002.
In addition, many 19th and early 20th century slave narratives are in the public domain and are available to download free or for a nominal fee. Most are available in print editions as well.
Burton, Annie L. Memories of Childhood’s Slavery Days, 1909.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 1845.
Du Bois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk, 1903.
Hughes, Louis. Thirty Years a Slave from Bondage to Freedom: The Institution of Slavery as Seen on the Plantation and in the Home of the Planter, 1897.
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself, 1861.
Northup, Solomon. Twelve Years a Slave, 1853.
Truth, Sojourner. Narrative of Sojourner Truth, 1850.
United States Work Projects Administration. Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, 1936–1938.
Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery: An Autobiography, 1901.
Museums and Organizations of Interest
Alexandria Black History Museum
902 Wythe Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
(703) 746-4356
www.alexandriava.gov/BlackHistory
Frederick Douglass National Historic Site (National Park Service)
1411 W Street, SE
Washington, DC 20020
(202) 426-5961
www.nps.gov/frdo
The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center
77 Forest Street
Hartford, CT 06105
(860) 522-9258
www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org
National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum
5255 Pleasant Valley Road
Petersboro, NY 13035
(315) 366-8101
www.nationalabolitionhalloffameandmuseum.org
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
50 East Freedom Way
Cincinnati, OH 45202
(513) 333-7500
www.freedomcenter.org
The Pearl Coalition
(202) 650-5606
www.pearlcoalition.org
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
1400 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20004
(202) 633-1000
www.nmaahc.si.edu
Acknowledgments
I offer special thanks to those who helped with this book, specifically:
Dr. Edna Green Medford, Professor of History at Howard University, for reviewing the manuscript;
the writing community at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, especially The Bat Poets and my VCFA critique group, for inspiring me as a writer;
Sarah Davies of the Greenhouse Literary Agency for representing my work;
Emily Parliman, Anne Winslow, Laura Williams, Steve Godwin, Brunson Hoole, Kelly Bowen, and the rest of the team at Algonquin;
Judit Bodnar for watching my p’s and q’s;
and, of course, Elise Howard, my editor. To paraphrase Wilbur in Charlotte’s Web, it is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good editor. Elise is both.
Index
Page numbers in italics refer to photos or illustrations and their captions.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
A
abolitionist movement
American Anti-Slavery Society and splinter groups, 86
artwork and images depicting slavery, 2, 4, 5, 36–37, 48, 64, 69, 82, 87, 111
attitudes concerning equality of black people, 109
Cazenovia Fugitive Slave Law Convention, 114–15, 116
controversy over ransom of slaves, 90, 92
mob attacks on abolitionist institutions, 2, 40–43, 90
Pearl escape plan, 13, 97–98
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, role of book, 128, 129
Underground Railroad, 109–10
use of press to promote agenda, 39, 48
Alexandria, Virginia, slave pen at, 7, 12, 49, 50, 78, 79
American Anti-Slavery Society, 86
“Am I not a man and a brother?” (woodcut), 87
antislavery movement. See abolitionist movement
B
Bailey, Gamaliel, 40, 40–43, 129
Baltimore, Maryland, slave pen at, 53–54, 78
Beecher, Henry Ward, 88–93, 89, 91, 107–9, 138
Bigelow, Jacob, 77
Black Code of the District of Columbia, 12
black people
curfew for, 11
laws discriminating against, 12
literacy, 21
placage system in New Orleans, 67, 67
race classifications, 66
teachers’ school for, 137–40, 140
Brent, Elizabeth (formerly Elizabeth Edmonson), 4, 72, 78, 145
Brent, Emily, 141
Brent, John, 34, 46–47, 145
Broadway Tabernacle (New York), 88–93, 90, 107–9
Brooke, John, 23
Bruin, Joseph
admiration for Edmonson family, 50–51
backyard slave pen, 49
Emily and Mary as house slaves for, 50, 79, 81
price for ransom of Emily and Mary, 49, 51, 79–80, 84, 94–95
purchase of Edmonson siblings, 46–47
Bryant, William Cullen, 82
C
Cammack, Horace, 73, 145
Cammack, Tom, 145–46
Cazenovia (New York) Fugitive Slave Law Convention, 111, 114–15, 116
chain gangs (coffles), 6, 82, 82–83
Chaplin, William L.
arrest and imprisonment, 114–17
financing of Emily’s and Mary’s education, 109, 125
organization of Pearl escape plan, 97
portrait of, 114
ransom efforts on behalf of Edmonson family, 55, 84, 94–95, 107
scheme to draw attention to abolitionist cause, 113–14
self-doubts and abandonment of antislavery work, 117
children of slaves
birth into bondage, 1–4
mixed-race classifications, 66
Chittenden, S. B. and Henry, 92
Clephane, Lewis, 121–22
Cleveland, Charles, 97, 122
clothing worn by slaves, 7, 64, 81
coffles, 6, 82, 82–83
Compensated Emancipation Act, 149
Compromise of 1850, 112
Congress. See United States Congress
Constitution, Thirteenth Amendment to, 148
Cowles, Henry, 135
Cox, Samuel H., 107
Cranch, William, 105, 115
“Creole women of color taking the air” (painting by Marquis), 67
Culver, Amelia. See Edmonson, Amelia “Milly”
Culver, Rebecca, 3, 5, 125
curfew for black people, 11
D
Diggs, Judson, 17, 18, 24, 52
discrimination, legal, 12
Dodge, Francis, Jr., 24
Douglass, Frederick
at Cazenovia Convention, 114, 116
on Miner’s mission to open school for black girls, 138, 142
on music and song among slaves, 83
photo of, 83
Downing, Joseph, 23
Drayton, Daniel
Christianity and antislavery convictions, 15, 103
escape from Washington to Philadelphia, 122
failing health, 123, 150
imprisonment and charges against, 97–99, 102–5, 119–21
memoirs, 150
participation in Pearl escape plot, 30, 35, 38, 97–98
portrait of, 103
presidential pardon, 120–21
protection of Pearl escape organizers, 97, 98, 119
suicide, 150
Dunlop, James, 105
E
Edmonson, Amelia “Milly”
marriage and loss of children to slavery, 1–4
meeting with and impression upon Stowe, 126–31, 133
move to campus of Normal School for Colored Girls, 140
photo of, 133
religious principles, 2, 20, 130, 133
values instilled in children, 3, 4, 5, 51, 66, 130
Edmonson, Eliza, 4–5, 72
Edmonson, Elizabeth. See Brent, Elizabeth
Edmonson, Emily. See also Edmonson sisters, Emily and Mary
decision to flee, 6
escape to Pearl, 9–13, 10
false cheerful expression, 63–66, 73
at Mary’s failing health and death, 135–37
observation of indignity and brutality, 6, 53–54, 65, 67–70, 82–83
overseer’s assault on, 63, 65
photos of, 108, 116
teacher training, 137–40
wedding day, 143–44
Edmonson, Ephraim, 14, 74
Edmonson, Eveline, 4–5, 72
Edmonson, Hamilton, 71–73
Edmonson, Henrietta, 4–5, 72, 130
Edmonson, John, 14, 74, 144
Edmonson, Josiah and Louisa, 72, 125–26, 130–32
Edmonson, Martha, 4–5, 72
Edmonson, Mary. See also Edmonson sisters, Emily and Mary
death, 135–36
escape to Pearl, 10, 10–13
photos of, 108, 116
Edmonson, Paul
on children born into slavery, 2–3
emancipation with death of mistress, 3, 46
farm, 46, 126
fundraising for ransom money, 85–93, 126
marriage to Milly, 1–2
at Mary’s deathbed, 136
move to campus of Normal School for Colored Girls, 140
negotiations for Emily’s and Mary’s ransom, 51, 78, 79–80, 93–95
Edmonson, Richard
aboard Pearl, 14, 30
ransom of, 55
return home as free man, 71, 74, 77
search for brother in New Orleans, 71–72
Edmonson, Samuel
at capture of Pearl, 29–30
death, 147
escape to Pearl, 9–11, 10