INTRODUCTION

Yes this is another world, another age, a nineteenth century New England village, rebuilt here in Battle Creek, Michigan. Walking around these houses, you get the feeling of what life must have been like, back in the 1850s and 60s, from Boston, Massachusetts to Burlington, Vermont.

But today you’re going to discover something quite remarkable. These New England towns actually embodied freedom, a very different life—for runaway slaves. Here’s where many found a way out of the cruelest kind of existence. It happened because of the Underground Railroad. In our program, you’ll see how that became one of the most heroic voyages in history.

The story of the Underground Railroad actually begins here, in America’s southern plantations, like the Magnolia Plantation, near Charleston, South Carolina. Quite the elevated farmhouse, isn’t it? These plantations represent the high life in the Antebellum south – that’s the southern world before America’s Civil War.

It’s the kind of manor house that was featured in the classic movie, Gone With the Wind. Yes, a lot of banquets and festivals and romances and dramas played out in these elegant rooms.

But the foundation underneath this high life was something very low: slavery. Plantation owners prospered so much, only because the people picking their cotton, feeding their cattle, and cleaning their manor, were black slaves.

Lisa Randle, ‘Magnolia Plantation’; Carl B Westmoreland & , National Underground Railroad Freedom Centre; Anita J Ellis, Cincinnati Art Museum;

LR: The impact of slavery on the southern states was very huge and very instrumental, because the South was predicated on slavery. They were predicated on the fact that they had enslaved labour and the south was very agricultural.
So without slavery the south never would have existed, it wouldn’t have functioned like the North, [which] had a lot of industry. So slavery actually was the foundation of the South.

Slavery kept going in the American South, many decades after it finally was legislated away in Europe – and Canada. Also, decades after it had been outlawed in Puritan New England.

CBW:  Alexander Stevens, who became the vice-president of the Confederacy after 1861, wrote a document, and made a famous speech, where he talked about the absolute right of each individual to determine who would be free and who would be enslaved.

And then he went on to delineate the fact that without slavery the South would economically not be able to compete with the rest of the world. And he felt that in owning human beings it would be just like owning a piece of industrial equipment right now. 

He had the absolute right – he and his neighbours – had the absolute right to own people of African descent, to own native Americans, to own anyone who was not Anglo-Saxon, and to exploit them for free labour. 

This tradition had started – if you remember – in Europe in earlier generations, where there were serfs [for] free labour; there was slavery in Rome, slavery in Greece, slavery in China…man has always exploited another man or woman who was different.

Some slaves just had to find a way out, no matter how perilous the journey. Some would sneak out of these gardens, through these trees, at night and head north. In the mid-1800s, north was the only possibility of freedom.

Thousands of African-Americans, fleeing the bondage of slavery, would actually find homes in New England – houses that welcomed them in. Several escape routes of the Underground Railroad passed through Battle Creek, and then crisscrossed Massachussetts and Vermont; they were lifelines of liberty.

CBW:  The Underground Railroad was not a railroad, but it did mean the movement…the free movement, of people. But the concept came up just 15 miles of where we’re sitting now, where a gentleman from Kentucky was chasing an African man who was running away, and the man disappeared – he jumped into the Ohio River and he suddenly disappeared.

And apparently this gentleman swam under the water and he couldn’t figure out where he came up. And so in exasperation the gentleman who was in pursuit of this black man said to the people who were with him, “He must have taken the underground to get to wherever he’s gone…” . They never saw him again. Than then became a general term that was used in describing people who were running away. 

When I was a little boy during World War II, in Europe they talked about the Underground – in Poland, in Romania, and France – and I looked at my father one day, and I said, “Daddy, they’re just like us. They’ve gone underground, fighting the bad guys from Germany.”

This monument honours those who sought freedom. In houses like this one depicted here, they were welcomed; they were clothed and fed; they could talk about their terrifying experiences.

Who were welcoming them in? Well, they were called ‘station masters’ or ‘superintendents’; people like Erastus and Sara Hussey, who dedicated their homes as Underground Railroad depots, safe houses for fleeing slaves. 

It was extremely important to have a safe house, where African-Americans, who’d been scurrying through fields and forests at night, could find a hiding place during the day. Sometimes under trap-doors hidden by rugs. Sometimes in sheds concealed within haystacks.

 And those station masters actually put their home, and family in danger. Why? Because slave-catchers and slave owners would take off from a place like this house in Charleston, and go up north, to catch their runaway property. 

It was what made this elegant Antebellum South possible. They were determined to re-capture the people behind their prosperity. And sadly, captured runaways were often beaten and mutilated, sometimes branded with an ‘R’ for ‘Returned.’

And what’s more, these slave pursuers going up north, had the law on their side. In 1850 the US Congress passed a new Fugitive Slave Act. Fines for hiding a runaway slave went up to a thousand dollars. Slaves could legally be returned to their owners, even after living in the North free for years. A man pursuing someone even had the right to go into a home and look around – if he thought his runaway slave might be there.

The couples, the families, operating these safe havens in New England, faced real danger. And yet, so many people did, anyway. Some were able to guide the fleeing slaves through dangerous territory, from one safe house to the next. They were called Underground Railroad ‘conductors’. 

Sometimes they could take them on wagons, hiding under a pile of straw. But often they had to run with them into forests, flee from angry slave owners carrying rifles and from howling dogs in pursuit.

Believe it or not, some of the Underground Railroad conductors, who were black, snuck into a slave house like this, pretending to be one of the slaves. There they would give basic, vital information to those wanting to seek freedom.

No one could ask for directions of course, while fleeing. “Look into the night sky for the North Star,” they’d say. That’s the brightest one, near the Big Dipper constellation. On cloudy nights they could check trees. Moss almost always grows on the north side.

Step by step, station by station, slaves made the journey to a house of freedom. What kind of people got involved in that Underground Railroad? Well, let me give you one example:

Captain Daniel Drayton was a ship-owner going up and down the East Coast. But at first he wasn’t at all sympathetic with slaves seeking freedom. You see, it was common at the time to assume that black people were not truly human.

But sailing ships, he actually began to meet a few slaves on the road to a new life. And, face-to-face, they began to seem surprisingly like him. After a while he had to admit they had the same desires, the same wishes, the same hopes he did.

And then Drayton met an African-American mother of five children. She was desperately trying to rejoin her husband, who’d been freed up north. So he let her bring her five kids on board, and stowed them away secretly.

That began his role in the ocean part of the Underground Railroad.

You know, the truth is, slavery isn’t just an issue in the American South, in the 1800s. Slavery is an issue that affects the entire human race.

SLAVERY,  YOU AND I

So how does slavery affect you and me? Well, the Bible, in fact tells us, that sin can turn human beings into slaves. Our sinful nature can keep us bound up. Now it’s pretty easy for many people to ignore that idea. We’re just having fun, right? We’re just pursuing our goals. We’re not slaves!

But if you look at the specifics the Bible lays out about our basic problems, well it’s not so easy to pass off. Here’s Galatians 5:19-21. [Paul says,] “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality… hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition…envy…”

Anything ring a bell? Of course! Remember  Captain Drayton [who] finally realized slaves had the same desires, wishes and hopes he did? Well, biblical sinfulness has the same problems we do! These are common human weaknesses. And they do bind us up. They do keep us in ruts.

So what’s the answer? Is there a solution to the human problems that typically keep us bound up, enslaved? Can we find our own Underground Railroad?

Well yes, I believe we can. And I believe that just as the Bible points out our real problems, it also points out real solutions. There’s a definite way in which Jesus Christ has created a road to freedom for each of us.

Did you know that He was actually behind the Underground Railroad of this New England in the 1850s? I’ll show you why.

The Cincinnati Art Museum is one of the oldest art museums in the United States. It’s also home to a very famous painting. It’s a reminder of the dangers faced by the early abolitionists in Cincinnati, and their bravery in taking a stand against slavery.

LEVI COFFIN

One of the most famous opponents of slavery was Levi Coffin. He’s depicted here transporting and sheltering escaping slaves. 

AJE: The painting depicts a scene taking place on the Underground Railroad. We have reason to believe that it took place around 1856-58, and we believe that it was on Levi Coffin’s farm on the outskirts of Cincinnati.

Levi Coffin was a Quaker who came from New Jersey. He probably transported about 3000 slaves to freedom, and became noted as the reputed president of the underground Railroad.

The artist knew them, had painted their portraits when they were alive, and so he almost certainly had heard stories about what they were doing, and used that as inspiration for his painting of the Underground Railroad.

For 20 years Coffin’s simple eight-room farmhouse became an
active safe haven for escaping slaves. He would admit fugitive slaves any hour of the night. He welcomed them in, cared for them, provided for them, and then guided  them on to their next destination.

Levi Coffin’s farmhouse on the outskirts of Cincinnati remained such a key safe place, in spite of all the dangers, it became known as the ‘Grand Central Station’ of the Underground Railroad.

 He was one of the most famous station masters and eventually he would be identified as the president of the Underground Railroad.

Levi Coffin had strong Christian beliefs, and was devoted to the Bible and basic New Testament principles. He’d actually grown up in North Carolina, where slavery was common and accepted. But the abuse he saw shocked him. Levi Coffin just had to find a way to help African-Americans. He felt morally compelled to become active in the anti-slavery movement.

CBW:  He was working to help people of African descent move north into Canada – he and his wife. And they had a loosely organised association of people every 20 or 30 miles apart, so that the distance from here to Canada is 300 miles, so theoretically the trip – walking – would take about 30 days.

He also espoused the use of trying to convince people to use products that had been harvested with free labour. So, ‘Buy your cotton from poor white people in the South who ran their own farms, rather than wealthy white people who used slave labour.’

So he dedicated his whole life – adult life – to helping people become physically free; but then to try to share the idea that if, in fact, you used free labour we would have a more productive and a more harmonious society.

HARRIET TUBMAN

Do you know who the most famous Conductor is? A former slave named Harriet Tubman. Over 10 years she made 19 trips into the South to meet and assist those seeking freedom. She would escort more than 300 slaves to the North, and reports suggest this conductor never lost a single passenger.

Yes, hiding in the day, traveling at night—over mountains, through rivers and thick forests. Fugitives often became very exhausted, with bleeding feet and aching bones. Some just wanted to give up.

But Harriet kept them going. “Life is ahead,” she’d say, “death is behind you.”

Well, Harriet Tubman was a committed Christian as well. She relied on God for guidance regularly. In fact, one of the Underground Railroad leaders said this: “I never met any person of any colour who had more confidence in the voice of God, as spoken direct to her soul.” She would become known as the Black Moses of the Nineteenth Century.

CJW:  A small Black woman, barely 5 feet tall, who helped her family escape out of Maryland into Canada. But then she came back several times and helped other people, and as her life moved on in her late 30’s she helped the Union army go in to South Carolina. 

And because of her skin colour – she was very dark brown – because of her broken English, all the Black people in South Carolina trusted her. She was able to convince them during the war to run away from the plantations on which they were slaves, and to join the Union army.

And they also acted as spies for the Union army, and they were responding to a leadership of a very small Black woman.

JOSIAH HENSON AND UNCLE TOM’S CABIN

You know, there’s one thing that propelled the abolitionist movement forward more than anything else. And that is actually a novel called Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by Harriett Beecher Stowe. 

CJW:  There’s a story of Josiah Henson, and he was described by Harriet Beecher Stowe… and the public, when they think about a gentleman called Uncle Tom, that’s the person she’s describing. And he was not a fictional character. 

He was a gentleman who in fact lived, and he was enslaved, in Kentucky. And if you can imagine, he had a 5-year old son, and a 7-year old son, and a wife. And he made 2 cotton sacks. He put one son in one bag, the other son in another bag, he put them on each shoulder and he and his wife would walk almost 15 miles a day; and they walked almost 500 miles from Kentucky, through Cincinnati, then they went due north to a place called Sandusky, Ohio.

And from there they went to Canada. And he not only successfully escaped, but he was able to escape with his wife and two sons…later he would come back and help other people to get out. 

There was one particular crossing point in that Underground Railroad, that was a huge step to freedom. And that was the Ohio River.

ELIZA HARRIS

Eliza Harris was a slave in Kentucky just south of the Ohio River. She’d already buried two of her children. And now a third was about to be sold off. She just had to escape. And she knew the Ohio River, just north of her master’s plantation, was frozen.

And so in the dark of night, she snuck away, with her baby in her arms. Well, it didn’t take long for her pursuers on horseback, to catch up to her, waving their rifles in hand.

When Eliza got to the river bank she gasped. The ice had broken up into large floating chunks. It was too dangerous. But she just couldn’t go back, and lose her last child.

So this young African-American woman jumped out onto the first slab of ice, clasping the baby tightly with one arm. She managed to leap to another slab of ice floating along, and then another! Sometimes the piece of ice would sink under her. But Eliza managed to slide her baby to the next piece, and pull herself onto it.
She would get wet up to her waist in that icy water. Her hands and feet were numb. Exhausted, she reached the Ohio side of the river, and almost collapsed. But a man had seen her cross, and directed her to a safe house. 

Eliza would be able to stay a while in the wonderful home of Levi Coffin. Yes, the station manager! He would listen to her story and share it, telling people this woman felt the Lord was preserving and upholding her, and that nothing could harm her.

In fact Eliza Harris would become the real figure behind one of the lead characters in Harret Beecher Stowe’s historic novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

THE PATH TO FREEDOM

Now why was crossing this Ohio river so critical? Because it divided Kentucky, a slave state, from Ohio, a free state. Such an enormous difference between two lands separated by a flow of water. South of the Ohio River you would remain an abused slave forever. North of the Ohio River you could walk into a life of freedom.

CJW:  When I was a little boy in the third grade – 8 years of age – we had a Virginia legislator who was famous for a speech in which he said, “Give me liberty or give me death…” And he was complaining about the British occupation of the state of Virginia, [and] he was a member of the House of Burgesses there. 

And when I heard that, I thought about being the age I am, and the fact that black people could not go into public accommodations. I couldn’t go to recreation parks, I couldn’t do things that most Americans could do.

And that’s the dark side of slavery – the breaking of the spirit, the breaking of the self-respect. That’s what survived with Margaret Garner. That’s what survived with Josiah [Henson], when he went to Canada and became a teacher…a man who couldn’t read, whose own son taught him to read, and the reading became the tool of freedom. 

We too can wave goodbye to our slavemaster – with confidence. He’s been defeated. His claims on us, as fellow sinners, have been knocked down by the cross. Jesus Christ purchased our path to freedom. We can get in His boat. We can cross the river. We can sail to freedom, because the blood of Christ has created the way there.

We can get a new life, because Jesus laid down His life for us!

Isn’t it time that you responded to this historic sacrifice? Isn’t it time you got into     God’s Underground Railroad?

You can’t just drift in. You have to make a clear choice. You have to make a clear move across that river. Jesus is waiting for you. Jesus is offering you everything he laid down on that hill called Golgotha, where He died on that cross.

So accept it. Seize it. Claim your right to freedom. And put your trust in the One who has earned it – like no one else.

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CLOSING PRAYER

If you’ve enjoyed our journey along the Underground Railroad and our reflections on following Jesus, then be sure to join us again next week when we will share another of life’s journeys together. Until then, let’s pray for God’s guidance and leading in our lives.

Dear Heavenly Father, we admit that we’ve been wrapped up, chained, enslaved by old habits and chronic weaknesses. We want to confess our sins and face up to the fact that we just haven’t responded well to all that you’ve offered us. But we do now. We accept your act of redemption with all our heart.

We place our faith in the cross of Jesus Christ. We place our life in your hands. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.