The Underground Railroad by William Still (best fiction books of all time txt) 📖

From Hon. Henry Wilson, late Vice President of United States.

I have glanced over a few pages of your History of the Underground Railroad, and I most earnestly commend it. You have done a good work. This story of the heroic conduct of fugitives from oppression, and of the devotion of their friends, will be read with deep interest, especially by the old friends of the slave in the stern struggle through which we have passed. I hope your labors will be rewarded by a grateful public.

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From Horace Greeley.

Dear Sir:—For most of the years I have lived, the escape of fugitives from slavery, and their efforts to baffle the human and other bloodhounds who tracked them, formed the romance of American History. That romance is now ended, and our grandchildren will hardly believe its leading incidents except on irresistible testimony. I rejoice that you are collecting and presenting that testimony, and heartily wish you a great success.

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From Hon. Charles Summer, late U.S. Senator from Mass.

The Underground Railroad has performed its part, but must always be remembered gratefully, as one of the peculiar institutions of our country. I cannot think of it without a throbbing heart.

You do well to commemorate those associated with it by service or by benefit—the saviors and the saved. The army of the late war has had its "Roll of Honor." You will give us two other, rolls, worthy of equal honor—the roll of fugitives from slavery, helped on their way to freedom, and also the roll of their self-sacrificing benefactors. I always hesitated which to honor most, the fugitive slave or the citizen who helped him, in defiance of unjust laws. Your book will teach us to honor both.

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From John G. Whittier.

The story of the escaped fugitives—the perils, the terrors of pursuit and re-capture—the shrewdness which baffled the human blood-hounds—the untiring zeal and devotion of the friends of the slave in the free States, are well described.

The book is more interesting than any romance. It will be of permanent value to the historian of the country, during the anti-slavery struggle.

I cheerfully commend it to the public favor.

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From J. Wheaton Smith, D.D.

I am happy to find that material for this interesting work exists. I had feared that much which will be here recorded, would perish with the brave and worthy men who were personally interested. These verities of history contain the interest of romance, and our children's children will read them with wonder and admiration.

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From, Hon. S.P. Chase, late Chief Justice U.S. Supreme Court.

Your book will certainly be an interesting one. No one probably has had equal opportunities with yourself of listening to the narratives of fugitive slaves. No one will repeat them more truthfully, and no stories can be more fraught with interest than theirs. Let us rejoice, that, in our country, such narratives can never be heard again.

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From Wm. Lloyd Garrison.

I congratulate you that, after much patient research, careful preparation, and untiring labor, you have completed your voluminous work on "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD." I am sure your work will be found to be one of absorbing interest, worthy of the widest patronage, and historically valuable as pertaining to the tremendous struggle for the abolition of chattel slavery in our land. No phase of that struggle was so crowded wifh thrilling incidents, heroic adventures, and self-sacrificing efforts as the one you have undertaken to portray, and with which you were so closely connected, to wit: "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD." While it will be contemplated with shame, sadness, and astonishment, by posterity, it will serve vividly to illustrate the perils which everywhere confronted the fugitives from the Southern "house of bondage," and to which those who dared to give them food and shelter were also subjected.

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From Gen. O.O. Howard.

You could not prepare a work that would afford more instruction and interest to me than a detailed history of the operations of the so-called "UNDERGROUND RAILROAD." I am delighted at the casual examination I have been permitted to give it. Thousands will rise up to call you blessed for your faithful record of our "legalized crime," and its graphic terrible consequences set forth by you in such true pictures and plain words.

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Hon. Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior.

I have no doubt you can make the narrative a very interesting contribution to the history of an important period of our national development. It will be calculated to strengthen in the whole American people a just sense of the beneficent results of the great social revolution we have achieved, and to inspire the people of your own race with a high appreciation of the blessings of liberty they now enjoy.

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From Hon. W.D. Kelley, Congressman from Pa.

The stories you tell with admirable simplicity and directness of the suffering heroically endured by such numbers of poor fugitives, will instruct and inspire many who have regarded the American slave as a member of an inferior race.

Office "THE PRESS," Philadelphia, Pa.My Dear Sir:—I have read most of the proof sheets of your forthcoming book, entitled "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD," and have just examined the letter-press preparatory to its publication, and the accompanying engravings, and I cannot refrain from stating, that I believe it to be a consummate work of its kind. Its chief merit, of course, consists in its extraordinary revelations of the injustice and cruelty of the dead system of slavery, but it is gratifying to notice that it will be printed and sent forth to the world in so complete and admirable a style, I commend it most cheerfully as a book that every citizen should have in his library. Very truly, yours,

JNO. W. FORNEY.

WM. STILL, Esq.

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I join very cordially in the preceding statement and recommendation.

HON. MORTON McMICHAEL,

Ex-Mayor of Phila., Editor of N.A. & U.S. Gazette.

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I most cordially unite with Col. Forney and other gentlemen in recommending to the public Mr. Still's work, entitled "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD." The thrilling narratives cannot be read, even at this day, without exciting the deepest emotion.

GEO. H. STUART.

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I fully and heartily concur in the opinion of Col. Forney respecting Mr. Still's work, entitled "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD."

HON. CHAS. GIBBONS.

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Mr. Still's work appears to me to be one of great interest, and I most heartily unite in recommending it to the public attention.

HON. HENRY C. CAREY.

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From, J. Miller McKim.

I have read your book with feelings of mingled pleasure and pride; pleasure at the valuable contribution which it furnishes to anti-slavery history and anti-slavery literature, and pride that you are the author of it.

But the chief value of the book will be found in its main narratives, which illustrate to the life the character of slavery, the spirit and temper of the men engaged for its overthrow, and the difficulties which had to be overcome by these men in the accomplishment of their purpose.

A book so unique in kind, so startling in interest, and so trustworthy in its statements, cannot fail to command a large reading now, and in generations yet to come. That you—my long tried friend and associate—are the author of this book, is to me a matter of great pride and delight.

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From Hon. Jno. A. Bingham of Ohio.

You will please accept my thanks for the opportunity given me to examine your record of the struggle for freedom by the slave and his friends. It will doubtless be a work of great interest to many of our citizens.

From the North American and U.S. Gazette.

Here is an authority that cannot be questioned, competent and correct by many endorsements, that shows without argument, after the true pattern of Herodotus and the chroniclers, what slavery in America was in the decade immediately preceding its overthrow.

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From the "Philadelphia Inquirer."

"Never before has the working of the Underground Railroad been so thoroughly explained. Here we have in complete detail the various methods adopted for circumventing the enemies of freedom, and told, as it is, with great simplicity and natural feeling, the narrative is one which cannot but make a deep impression. Thrilling incidents, heroic adventures and noble deeds of self-sacrigce light up every page, and will enlist the heartiest sympathies of all generous souls. It was eminently just that such a record of one of the most remarkable phases of the struggle against slavery should be prepared, that the memory of the noble originators and supporters of the railroad might be kept green, and posterity enabled to form a true conception of the necessity that called it into existence, and of the difficulties under which its work was performed. The labor of compiling could not have fallen into more appropriate or better qualified hands."

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From the "Baltimore American."

Mr. Still was one of the most courageous managers on the Underground Ralroad, and is therefore well qualified to be its historian. He speaks of his own services with modesty, and, in fact, there is no attempt at exaggeration in any one of the most wonderful series of narratives which he relates. Baltimore was one of the great depots from which the trembling fugitives set out on their trip to Canada, and Mr. Still deals freely with the names of person, yet living, who, no doubt, would be very glad if this most extraordinary book had never been published. It was their misfortune to have furnished a number of passengers for the "Underground Railroad," and now they cannot escape being named in connection with the slaves, who dared, everything for liberty.

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From the San Francisco Bulletin.

We have often longed to know how the drab-coated philanthropists of Philadelphia managed to furnish systematic assistance to the slave fugitives, and the desire is