Abolition and the Underground Railroad

Abolition and the Underground Railroad. . Michigan’s Anti-Slavery Society was born in Ann Arbor in 1836. Starting in 1841, its weekly newspaper, The Signal of Liberty, was published in the Huron Block on Broadway by Rev. Guy Beckley and his co-editor Theodore Foster in an office above the store of Guy's brother Josiah Beckley., Some abolitionists-individuals with strong convictions and considerable courage-helped fugitive slaves make their way to freedom. Guy Beckley was a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, even though it was a federal crime to help escaping slaves. His house at 1425 Pontiac Trail was one of several secret "stations" in the area where "passengers" could stay while fleeing, Caroline Quarlls, who wrote about her flight from a Missouri plantation, stayed with Beckley in 1842 on her long journey to Canada., Guy Beckley, an ordained Methodist Episcopal minister, arrived from New England in 1839 to join his prosperous brother Josiah, who had acquired considerable farmland and commercial properties in Lower Town. Both men built fine houses on Pontiac Trail and shared in the operation of Josiah's successful Huron Block general store. Guy had only recently lost his wife Caroline. She was much on his mind and in his letters, but opposition to slavery dominated his thoughts and actions: "I think that while I have my reason I shall continue to 'agitate, agitate, agitate,’ and if no other good is done I have the satisfaction of believing that I shall go down to my grave, as I have lived, the unflinching advocate of ‘equal rights.’", Guy Beckley kept his promise-as did others in his family. Much of his time was spent lecturing and writing for the anti-slavery cause. He died in 1847 at a time when controversy was still stirring in the churches over the abolition of slavery. His brother Josiah, who had died four years earlier, and Josiah's children had been there to provide financial and moral support. Nancy Beckley Felch, sister of Guy and Josiah, was the wife of Sabin Felch, a local Liberty Party leader. Sabin Felch was on the executive committee of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society and a candidate for various local and state offices. The Felchs lost two sons in the Civil War, "a sacrifice on the altar of liberty".