Chapter 12

FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

One of the first things that attracts the attention of the new visitor at the springs is the presence of so many colored people.They swarm the platform, they are thick on all the sidewalds. Here they are in the shades and colors, black, brown, yellow, and some so fair thatthey can scarcely be distinguished from the white. All styles and degrees of fress from the garb of a laborer to the dude. From the humblest dressed kitchen girl to the cream of Ethiopia. Previous to the Emancipation Proclaimation they were almost unknown in this part of the coountry. In 1858 Dr. Bowles brought seven negroes from Louisville to French Lick. The people were bitterly opposed to having the colored race in their midst, and it was not long until suit was brought against Bowles for keeping slaves in free Indiana. In the trial of the first case the court returned a verdict of guilty and fixed the fine at $40.

On an appeal to the supreme court the opinion of the lower court was comfirmed, and Bowles pleaded guilty to the other six indictments and paid the cost. The undergroung railroad is sometimes considered a myth. Sixty five years ago, however it was a real fact. And forty years ago I was acquianted with one man who, in his boyhood, escaped from his Old Kentucky home to become a free man. The step from servitude to freedom was not accomplished without terrible trial. The man when about twnety years old escaped from his master, crossed the Ohio river on his way to Canada.

The Underground Railraod was simply an organization frendly to the colored race and bitterly opposed to human slavery.It was a fact that while the stars and stripes proclaimed freedom and liberty to all white men, the British flag was the emblem of liberty to all human beings regardless of race or color. So, Canada became to the poor slaves "The Promised Land." The man from Kentucky above referred to was on his way north, but finding a friendly shelter in a family living some fifteen miles north of French Lick, he remained and worked as a farm hand. After this he went from this place to the wild regions in the neighborhood of French Lick. Here he obtained work with a whetstone maker. The young man was so near white that he found no diffuculty in passing himself as a white man. He was rather prepossessing in apperance, slender in form and as active as a panther.

His complexion a little dark, with rosy cheeks, relieved his features. His face was lit up with a pair of black eyes ahd his head adorned with shiny, wavy, black hair. The whetstone man had a beautiful daughter about sweet sixteen. Lewis (for that was the slave's name) soon fell in love with the damsel. He proposed marriage and was accepted and they were made man and wife. Shortly after this he became a full partner of his father-in-law in the whetstone business.

I due time a son was born, and all went merry as a marriage bell. Here was indeed a transformation from bondage to freedom, from obedience maintained by the lash to obedience to the dictates of love. His wife was his wife and not the property of the master, his boy baby his own, never to be sold. This was to him paradise on earth. He was destined to a new experience before he was absolutely safe. his master was offering a reward for his arrest and return to kentucky. His slavery home was less than one hundred miles from his retreat in the grit quarries at French Lick. His disappearance and prebable whereabouts were being discussed. Advertisements descriptive of his personality were posted in many places, and one at last at Paoli, only ten or twelve miles from his new found home.

This description met the eyes of a man who made it a part of his business to catch runaway negroes for the reward offered. Shortly after this the new partner of the whetstone factory accompanied his father-in-law to Paoli with a load of whetstones for the market. He was arrested and placed in jail for safe keeping until the next morning, when he was handcuffed and placed on a horse and carried back to his original master. His father-in-law made every effort to prevent his being taken away. His appeals in behalf of his wife and baby were of no avail. The father-in-law made every effort to prevent his being taken away. The father-in-law appealed to the old gentleman who sheltered Lewis on his first arrival in Indiana.

This man had a tender heart and a kindly feeling for Lewis, and accompanied the wetstone man to Kentucky, and after much entreaty the freedom of Lewis was purchased for $500. This transaction bankrupted the whetstone firm. Lewis returned to his wife and baby. He lived to a good old age and raised a family and furnished two sons for the Union Army.

Here we drop the curtain on the story strange and startling, and yet founded on actual fact.