Newspaper Clippings
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Green Mountain Freeman, October 11, 1844, "Fugitive from Injustice"
A young gentleman by the name of Giles, late from New Orleans, spent last night with us, on his way to Canada. He is a remarkably intelligent piece of property, 21 years old, and seemed to have an irrepressible desire to be a man. he is undoubtedly honest in his professions, for he has his certificates with him; that is, the scars of the whip, the shackels, the branding iron, the rifle ball, and two toes cut off. His is the son of his master, whose name is Jeffries, who lays claim to 150 more. Hope our friends will cheer him on his way.
Green Mountain Freeman, February 7, 1845
"We have just received a call from an Agent from Charleston, S.C. It is only twenty one days since he left that place. His name is Francis Shoemake, about 20 years of age and appears very intelligent. He did not come by the especial direction of the governor, but on his own hook. The narration of his escape and sufferings is very interesting. He escaped by secreting himself in a vessel and was not discovered until a short time before he reached Providence, R.I. The Captain then gave him a few lashes and told him he would take him back, but the sailors assisted him in getting away. He was five days & nights without food, previous to his being discovered."
Burlington Free Press, March 27, 1854
"Four young men represented as fugitives from Slavery recently passed through St. Albans, on their way to Canada. They were, it is said, from Richmond and Wheeling Virginia and came north by the U.G.R.R."
Green Mountain Freeman, February 7, 1845, "For the Freeman"
Amid the sympathy which we all feel for the case of a daughter of the Green Mountains immuted in a Kentucky dungeon, (a sympathy honorable to our natures, and especially due from Vermonters,) let us not forget that there are in this slavery-cursed land, near a million and a half of females in bondage, a thousand times worse than hers; and from the sympahty spontaneously outbreaking for her, learn what we ought to feel for the woes of the great multitude of our enslaved countrywomen, each of whom is in the eye of heaven, a Webster.
Teaching Tools
Information
These clippings are from the Green Mountain Freeman, the Burlington Free Press and the St. Albans Messenger. The Green Mountain Freeman was an anti-slavery newspaper, published in Montpelier. These newspapers frequently printed notices from other states about runaway slaves. It is more rare to find notices about fugitives passing through Vermont.
Questions:
- What are the "certiicates" Giles’s profession?
- How did the Francis Shoemake escape from South Carolina?
- How would you characterize the fugitives (male? female? families? young? old?)?
- Who was being held in a Kentucky dungeon (hint: look on the “Activists and Fugitives” page)?
- What was the point of the notice about her?
