1892

The attending physician in our family, Dr. N. M. Thomas, whom I afterward married, was an ardent anti-slavery advocate. He was a birthright member of the Society of Friends and from youth had been taught to abhor slavery. I thought him fanatical when he asserted, "Slavery cannot continue to exist under our government. If it is not put down by the ballot, it will go down in blood." That was many years before William H. Seward wrote of "The Irrepressible Conflict."

Through my marriage with Dr. Thomas in 1840, I became connected with "the Underground Railroad." His anti-slavery views were so known, that, while a bachelor, boarding at the hotel, fugitives from slavery had called on him for assistance and protection, on their way to the Queen's dominations and freedom.

After we began housekeeping, they came singly and by twos and threes. The first was a woman, advanced in years, who had made her way on foot and alone from Missouri, at first helped by people of her own color, then by Friends (or Quakers), who were always ready to aid the fleeing slaves. This woman was an eloquent talker. She told me of what some women had to endure from cruel and licentious masters. From that time I felt it was my duty to do the little I could for those attempting to escape from bondage.

About the year 1843 a Mr. Cross stopped with us. He was arranging for safe and speedy conveyance for fugitives from slavery to Canada. This was "the Underground Railroad." Our home was to be a station. Zachariah Shugart, a Quaker on Young's Prairie, in Cass County, was to bring the cargoes here, and my husband was to have them taken to Mr. Erastus Hussey, a Quaker in Battle Creek. They soon began to arrive in loads of from six to twelve. This brought much hard work to me and great expense to my husband. Often after my little ones were asleep and I thought the labor of the day over, Friend Shugart would drive up, with a load of hungry people to be fed and housed for the night.

My husband's extensive acquaintance with the anti-slavery men in this state frequently gave us the pleasure of entertaining genial, cultivated gentlemen. At the time the Presbyterian church was organized here (it was Congregational I believe at first), two elderly clergymen, who had often visited us, came to our house, accompanied a young man, a recent graduate from the Andover Theological School. He was sent by "The Home Missionary Society" to form a church in the west and they decided upon this place. They came Saturday afternoon and we had an agreeable, social visit.

About dark Friend Shugart drove up with a lumber wagon filled with colored people, whom I soon fed and ushered into my husband's office, where couches were to be prepared for their rest until morning. The young candidate for the ministry asked if I was willing to have him pray with them. I assured him I had no objection.

Soon after his return to the sitting room, one of the elderly clergymen inquired, "Where is the doctor this evening?" I answered, "He has gone to engage a man and team to take these colored people in the morning to Mr. Hussey's in Battle Creek."

The youth turned a censorious glance toward me saying, "It does seem, when the Lord has protect them thus far on their road to freedom, that they ought to be allowed to rest on the Sabbath day."

"Sir," I said, "How would my Sabbath be passed, if I had all of these colored folks to cook for?"

The older minister laughed heartily, adding, "and the ministers too." I responded, "and the ministers too." Long before the clergyman had arisen the next morning, the fugitives had eaten their breakfast and were on their way. Friend Shugart, too, had left for his own home.

When visiting relatives in Ann Arbor in 1844, we told of the aid we gave to fugitive slaves. Our hostess, who was a member of the Baptist Church and whose husband was a deacon in the same church, remarked, "I think it right and I am glad to have them escape, but I could not take them into my home." I told her, when overburdened with work, I had often to recall the words, "Even as you have done it unto one of the least of these, you have done it unto me." It occurred to me that she could never had read James Montgomery's "The Stranger and his Friend" with the same feelings with which I perused that little poem, when scarcely more than a child.

One of the most intelligent of escaping fugitives, Henry Bibb, came to our house with Mr. Treadwell of Jackson. My husband invited a house full of friends and neighbors to hear him tell of his life in slavery. He also sang some of Whittier's anti-slavery songs with a voice and feeling that were very affecting.

In 1847 slave hunters came to Cass County, claiming men, women and children as their property. The people rescued them from their clutches and sent them post haste to Canada. A courier came to us, telling of their danger, adding, "They will soon be here." He asked us to get food for them, as they could halt but for a few moments. I hastened to prepare what I could and asked for a loan from a kind neighbor, who often so accommodated me. They soon arrived, took the provisions without alighting, and passed in safety to Canada. Their rescuers in Cass County were heavy losers financially, as they resisted the officers of the law. Friends subscribed generously for their relief, yet several were obliged to sell their farms. And they moved to Oregon.

After the passage of the fugitive slave law of 1850, greater precaution was observed, and less passed-on the regular route. Yet during the next ten years many came to us. It has been estimated that, during the twenty years our house was a station, between one thousand and fifteen hundred received our aid.

At the close of the Civil War, a colored man, George Harris, who had lived in this county several years, after escaping from bondage, came to see us and told of his experience as a soldier. He said he offered to enlist in this state, when the first troops were called for, but was refused on account of his color. Later he learned his name was on the roll for drafting. Preferring to go as a volunteer, he went to Boston and enlisted in a colored regiment and was at the taking of Charleston. He said he knew many in the same regiment, who had been in Canada and came to help fight for the freedom of their brethren. They told him of being aided by my husband, when escaping from slavery. Then he turned toward him, saying, "Doctor, that is the way you helped take Charleston."

It is now between thirty and forty years, since the last of the long train of fugitives stopped at our home on the road to freedom, and I, an old lady of seventy-six years, feel glad and proud of my small share in the glorious emancipation, consummated by our martyr president in his proclamation of 1863.

Pamela G. Thomas
Schoolcraft, Michigan
December 1892

Source: Nathan Thomas Collection, Box  1, History of the Underground Railroad, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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