Escape by Sea

Escape by Sea. Wilmington's Maritime Underground Railroad. , The Rocks by Moonlight - Freedom's Landing , The Rocks were used by abolitionist sea captains and freedom-seeking fugitive slaves as a landing site in Wilmington's Underground Railroad network. Located in today's Fort Christina Park, a unit of the First State National Historical Park. The Rocks were used not only as a landing site for the original Kalmar Nyckel in 1638 but also by ship captains of the maritime Underground Railroad in the 1840s and 1850s. Shooner captains carried freedom seekers from Southern ports in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina to the Rocks, where agents from the networks of Thomas Garrett in Wilmington and William Still in Philadelphia would be waiting. Records are sketchy, secrecy being vital to the operations, but at least 200 and perhaps as many as 400 fugitive slaves made it to freedom after escaping by sea and stepping ashore at The Rocks.¹, The Maritime Underground Railroad , Maritime escapes were a vital part of the history of the Underground Railroad. Before the Civil War, 30% or more of all those who escaped enslavement traveled by sea to reach freedom.² Many fugitives who came by boat had worked as watermen or as dockhands in seaports. Those with seafaring or watercraft experience sometimes absconded with boats and piloted their own way to freedom, especially in the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. Others found passage on ships with sea captains who were either anti-slavery minded or opportunists willing to risk breaking the law for profit., Collaborators on the Maritime Underground Railroad , Captain Fountain, Captain Robert Lee, and Captain William Baylis were active agents ("pilots") who carried fugitives to freedom onboard their schooners and made several stops at The Rocks.³ Free black agents who worked with Thomas Garrett and William Still, including Harry Craige and Severn Johnson, often met the fugitives at The Rocks and helped them on the final stages of their journey to freedom. Sometimes, Captain Fountain met fugitives at The Rocks and transported them up the Delaware River to League Island in Philadelphia, where members of Still's Vigilance Committee would meet them with carriages., Watercraft of the Underground Railroad - "Many Rivers and Few Bridges" , Watercraft of some kind , from small skiffs and canoes to large sailboats and steamers , were used in nearly every successful journey to freedom. Watercraft proved essential due to the relative absence of bridges prior to the Civil War and the many rivers that most freedom seekers needed to cross before reaching sanctuary in free states (and sometimes Canada)., the first bridge to span the Ohio River, for instance, was the Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati, which did not open until Dec. 1, 1866. And the few bridges that did exist, like the South Market Street Bridge across the Christina River in Wilmington, were known chokepoints watched by slavecatchers., Letter from Thomas Garrett to William Still ,

Wilmington, 3d mo., 23d, 1856, Dear Friend, William Still, Captain Fountain has arrived all safe, with the human cargo thee was inquiring for, a few days since. I had men waiting till 12 o'clock till the Captain arrived at his berth, ready to receive them; last night they then learned, that he had landed them at the rocks, near old Swedes church, in the care of our efficient Pilot, who is in the employ of my friend John Hillis, and he has them now in charge. As soon as my breakfast is over, I will see Hillis and determine what is best to be done in their case. My own opinion is, we had best send them to Hook and there put them in the cars to-night and send a pilot to take them to thy house. As Marcus Hook is in Pennsylvania, the agent of the cars runs no risk of the fine of five hundred dollars our State imposes for assisting one of God's poor out of the State by steamboat or cars., As ever thy friend, , Thos. Garrett

, [Footnotes:] , 1. See William Still, The Underground Railroad (1872), and the Letters of Thomas Garrett and William Still., 2. Maritime escapes figure prominently in published slave accounts. Of 103 extant published accounts by fugitive slaves over 70% describe using oceangoing vessels as a means of fleeing slavery. In addition, William Still documents 152 escapes by sea from a recorded total of 350 , or about 43%., 3. Captain Fountain is referred to as "Alfred" in a letter from Thomas Garrett to William Still dated July 10, 1860. Researchers Priscilla Thompson and Debra Martin have found a "James Watson Fountain" residing in Wilmington during the period and evidence suggesting this was Captain Fountain. "Alfred Fountain" may have been a mistake on the part of Thomas Garrett, but most secondary sources follow Garrett's letter and still refer to Captain Fountain as "Alfred.", [Captions:] , Captain Fountain offloads freedom seekers at The Rocks, with Harry Craige, a free black agent who worked with "stationmaster" Thomas Garrett, awaiting with horses and a wagon. , Drawing by Hal Taylor, The Rocks on the Christina River in Wilmington, DE. Plan of the City of Wilmington (1847), inset from Map of New Castle County, Delaware, published by Smith and Wistar, 1849., Featured in William Still's 1872 The Underground Railroad, this illustration depicts four fugitive slaves, William Thomas Cope, John Boice Grey, Henry Boice, and Isaac White, as they row a skill across the Delaware Bay from Lewes, Delaware, to the free state of New Jersey. The four then found help from an oyster boat captain, who piloted them to Philadelphia where they received further assistance from William Still and other Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society agents.