in took them to the home of Thomas Garrett, a friendly stop along the railroad. Garrett penned a letter telling these men’s story. Harry ran away after his owner had stabbed him in the neck and planned to “ tie him up and cut him all to pieces for nothing.”5 Harry left a wife and eight children behind in order to save his own life. Another escaped slave, named Edward Lewis, from Franklin County, NC., tells of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his owner “a common farmer”6 named Carter Gay. Gay placed a $100 reward ad for Edward (called Edgar) in southern papers making him an even more hunted man. Through reminiscences, documents, reward ads, and narratives a picture of North Carolinians emerges. That picture shows the abolitionist influence that made many, like the Quakers, take an active role in undermining the oppression and sale of human beings as property. The portrait also displays “man’s inhumanity to man”7 with the slave holders view of all blacks as merely property and passage of laws to protect their interests in that property while punishing anyone who would interfere. Finally the portrait shows the sacrifices, horrors and courage of the black North Carolinians that had to flee along the Underground Railroad for their lives and freedom.Notes 1. Levi Coffin(1789-1877) , Reminiscences of Levi Coffin (New York: Arno Press, 1968) , 132. Coffin , 133. Coffin , 154. Coffin , 165. William Still(1821-1902) , The Underground Railroad (New York, Arno Press, 1968) , 4246. Still , 4267. Coffin , 14 ...
