James Williams (b. 1825 - d.?)
MSA SC 5496-8793
Fled from slavery, Cecil County, Maryland, circa 1838.
James Williams (b. 1825 - d.?)
MSA SC 5496-8793
Fled from slavery, Cecil County, Maryland, circa 1838.
Biography:
Changing his name after escaping from slavery, James Williams, born John Thomas was born on April 1, 1825. Williams was born on the farm of William Hollingsworth in Elkton, Cecil County. Williams claims in his narrative that his first thoughts of running away came to him when his master beat him after an older slave woman lied to their master about his behavior. Although the incident occurred when he was ten, it left a lasting impression on Williams, and at age thirteen he stole one of his master’s horses and ran north.
Williams made his way to Pennsylvania simply by asking people he met along the road the name and direction of the next town. Once in a town named Somerset, Pennsylvania, Williams found his mother, who also ran away from Hollingsworth. His mother and her new husband were able to pass Williams to people who aided his continuing escape. Williams himself uses the term “Underground Railroad” to describe the vehicle that helped him along the way.1
Once he found himself settled, Williams states
that he
became an active participant in Underground Railroad activity. This
excerpt
from his narrative is his description of how slaves were pulled from
the south
into the north:
The way that we used to conduct
the business was this: a white man would carry a certain number of
slaves for a
certain amount, and if they did not all have money,
then those that had had to
raise the sum that was required. We used to communicate with each other
in this
wise: one of us would go to the slaves and find out how many wanted to
go, and
then we would inform the party who was to take them, and some favorable
night
they would meet us out in the woods; we would then blow a whistle, and
the man
in waiting would answer "all right;" he would then take his load and
travel by night, until he got into a free State. Then I have taken a
covered
wagon, with as many as fourteen in, and if I met any one that asked me
where I
was going, I told them that I was going to market. I became so daring,
that I
went within twenty miles of Elkton. At one time the kidnappers were
within one
mile of me; I turned the corner of a house, and went into some bushes,
and that
was the last they saw of me. The way we abolitionists had of doing our
business
was called the underground railroad; and in all my travels I always
found the
Anglo-Saxons to be my best friends.2
Williams spent good part of his life evading people who tried to return
him to Maryland. He spent this time in Philadelphia, and New York,
before moving to California in the 1850's. Williams returned to
Maryland and his master's home in 1869 and found a very different place
than the one he escaped from. The trip home ended with a short ride to
Philadelphia to commerorate the passing of the fifteenth amendmant.
Return
to James Williams' Introductory Page
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