The Mysterious Underground Railroad

Swathed in secrecy, a literal Underground network that moved enslaved people from the south to free states and/or Canada has proved difficult for historians to pin down. While reality points to tens of thousands successfully reaching freedom, a lack of documents have left historians with little to go on. That is true in Alexandria as well. 

We can’t point to hiding spots with certainty, but we know people were concealed and helped, usually by free Black Alexandrians and occasionally by other enslaved people. We know this because of “runaway” ads placed in the Alexandria Gazette and because some Black Alexandrians were punished for helping people escape. Yet rumors persist, even in some tourist publications that mismark the Lloyd House as a stop on the underground railroad. (1)

For some reason, Americans yearn for a geographical place to visit. Perhaps they want to look at a building, a barn, an alleyway and imagine good people helping vulnerable people out of the brutal economic system that drove white people to enslave Black people. If that is true, it misses the point entirely. The significance of the Underground Railroad (UGRR) story is that individuals mustered the courage to defy their enslavers and strike out for freedom. Since before the country was established, Black people resisted, ran from and fought slavery. The personal accounts of freedom seekers are the history of the UGRR. 

The Constitution recognized slavery and set up penalties for those who would help freedom seekers. After its ratification the law of the nation became a tool to keep Black people enslaved. Southern state laws piggybacked onto federal adding penalties and punishments. Then, in 1850, Congress prioritized Fugitive Slave legislation empowering Southern governments to force federal officials and Northern citizens to return fugitives to chains and deny runaways a jury trial or the right to testify on their own behalf. Few were brave enough to defy the law (most who did were Black). For these reasons, documentation of people and places was avoided, leaving behind only rumor and legend. (2)

However, two men, one in Philadelphia, William Still, a free Black man and the other in New York City, Sydney Howard Gay, a white abolitionist, recorded the accounts of hundreds of people who fled enslavement. In the 1850s, at least seventeen people profiled in one or both of their records originated in Alexandria, Va. 

The focus of any study of the Underground Railroad should be on the people, not the locations where they hid along their journey. Still knew this, that is why in 1872, he shared the harrowing experiences of hundreds who came through Philadelphia on their way to freedom in The Underground Railroad Records Narrating the Hardships, Hairbreadth Escapes, and Death Struggles of Slaves in Their Efforts for Freedom. His account centered the fugitives' stories because he feared Americans were beginning to forget the horrors that drove the nation to war.

Building Switches & Connections

Most people living in the free Northern states did not like the federal government or southern slavers meddling in their affairs. New York City was an exception. By 1827, slavery was illegal in the state. Wall Street, though, ran on cotton, making it a hot bed of pro-slavery sentiment. 

Businessmen openly paid city police to “operate kidnapping clubs which sought to arrest as many Black men, women and children as possible.” 

Corrupt police and magistrates colluded with slave traders to sell Black people - free and fugitive alike - into the deep south for profit. They targeted and seized free children to the dismay of parents who never heard from them again. Corrupt judges denied free adults the chance to prove their status and ordered them onto southbound ships. On the legal side, escaped slaves were considered fair game, attracting bounty hunters, police officers and citizens who stalked fugitives for the reward money. 

The threats to New York City’s free Blacks grew and grew and after scores of kidnappings in 1835, free Black resident David Ruggles called a meeting of anti-slavery activists. On Nov. 20, the interracial group launched the Committee of Vigilance for the Protection of People of Color to put an end to the kidnapping ring, call out corruption and protect free Black New Yorkers and fugitives. Their public facing advocacy was legal, they raised awareness, exposed dirty officials and pursued legal cases. But some members engaged in civil disobedience by aiding fugitives - acts they called “practical abolitionism.” In the first year, Ruggles said they helped 300 freedom seekers. 

In the 1840s, Theodore Wright, an Ivy League educated free Black minister and journalist, chaired the Committee. Louis Napoleon, a free Black man who would team up with Sydney Gay, started out working with Wright, the two laboring tirelessly on behalf of the fugitives. The entire time the committee existed only a handful of activists engaged in the actual work, according to historian Eric Foner in Gateway to Freedom, The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad. 

If that wasn’t demoralizing enough, modernity further hobbled their cause. By the mid-1840s the freedom snatchers had communication technology, the speed of rail and the law on their side. The telegraph allowed news to travel faster than the freedom seeker and the train often helped slave catchers get ahead of fugitives. 

After 1850, things started to change. As federal agents began enforcing the unpopular Fugitive Slave Act in the Free States, they ignited an explosion of antislavery sentiment and activity. New York's Vigilance Committee inspired similar organizations throughout the Free States. 

The new momentum gave William Still the interest he needed to revive Philadelphia’s Vigilance Committee and command a vast network of advocates.

Back in New York City, the editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, Sydney Gay, was part of Still’s orbit, as was Louis Napoleon (of NYC’s Committee), who worked as a porter at the newspaper. Napoleon provided some coordination between the Committee and Gay, but the editor’s operation was independent. The two made a good team. Napoleon was able to go to the docks, train depots and other usual places to search for fugitives. Gay helped them hide, as well as coordinated and paid for their journeys. 

“The networks assisting fugitives offered a rare instance in Antebellum America of interracial cooperation and a link between the lower-class urban Blacks who provided most of the daily activism of vigilance committees and their more affluent white allies,” explained Foner.

For a few years in the mid-1850s, Gay wrote down the stories of those they helped. His and Still’s records share the fugitives' names, alias’ and ages, as well as, where they ran from and why they left. Sometimes, the same person appeared in both as did James Jones, alias Henry Rider. 

James Jones, 31, enslaved by Dr. William Stewart of Maryland, was hired out to someone in Alexandria. On Friday, March 28, 1856, Jones left the port in Alexandria on a schooner bound for Baltimore. He paid the Captain $2.50 to conceal him. A friend of the Captain who worked for the railroad met the ship and took Jones to a train where he secreted him in a freight car. The same man let Jones out in Wilmington, Del. Soon after, Jones arrived at William Still’s door. When he reached New York City, Gay gave him letters of introduction and sent him to Syracuse and eventually Canada at a cost of $4.50. (3)

Historians did not find Gay’s journal until the 21st century. It was in a box of his papers that had been donated to Columbia University. Once Gay’s notes were added to Still’s 1872 publication, historians finally had a way to document the route people took from the upper south to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, MD, Delaware, Philadelphia, PA and New York City, then Albany, Syracuse or Oswego and Canada. Other Freedom Seekers left New York City for cities in Connecticut, New Bedford and Boston, Mass. and beyond.

Arrival from Alexandria

What follows is the history of Alexandria’s UGRR as depicted in the stories Still and Gay collected from Freedom Seekers. While some Alexandrians ran toward freedom because they were brutally abused, the majority left because of an overwhelming desire for liberty, as Jones told Gay he “had not been treated badly, but was tired of being a slave.”

Each expressed a seemingly innate craving to control their own lives, experience dignity and acquire the autonomy to protect their families. The drive for freedom was so strong, they disregarded the danger all around them and waded into a city overrun with slave traders, where African Americans walked the streets strung together with iron coffles, and even Free Black people risked being sold into slavery without due process. 

A number of the people who escaped bondage in Alexandria were rented to businesses. Several used the cover of family visits at Christmas to make their escape. And while all enslavement was inhumane, a few ran from particularly brutal conditions, most feared being sold or inherited, and some followed the rumored path north in the hope of freeing family and friends once they reached safety.  

George & Jane Graham

George and Jane Graham were so cruelly abused by their enslaver “The Widow Beverely” that they chose the possibility of frostbite and death over staying any longer. On a cold January night in 1856, the newly wed couple left Alexandria with new names, Henry and Eliza Washington. By the time they reached Philadelphia, “they appeared to be in a sad condition,” wrote Still, but they were better off than in Alexandria, under a brutal mistress. 

At the young age of 24, George (Henry) had known nothing but abuse. In the year before he ran, he had been sold twice and was afraid he and his wife would soon be sold away from one another. 

Jane (Eliza) had recently been sold to Widow Beverely and said life under her “had been rendered most ‘miserable,’ so much so, that she was willing to do almost anything to be rid of her. That is why she joined her husband in running away.”  

From Philadelphia the couple went to New York City. They reached Gay’s newspaper office with a group of fugitives from Maryland on Jan. 18, 1856. At their request, they were all “sent to Canada.” (4)

Charles Carter

Charles Carter, 30, was enslaved by Richmond’s Master Inspector of Flour Daniel Delaplain, who hired Carter out for most of his enslavement. Carter had a family in Alexandria, and when he learned Delaplain was planning to sell him he decided to take advantage of his holiday pass to leave for good. About half of Alexandria’s African Americans were free and the District’s free population was even larger making it easier to hide there than in Richmond. Carter’s wife was most likely enslaved by William Gardner Cazenove - a prominent wealthy Alexandrian - whose residence was on the corner of Duke and Saint Asaph Streets. After visiting his wife and children for Christmas, Carter made it to Washington, D.C. where he spent the winter in hiding. Early in the Spring, he left for Harrisburg, traveling at night. It was still pretty cold and when Carter arrived in Philadelphia in April he was suffering from frost-bite. Still sent him to New York City where Gay helped him get to some of his friends in New Bedford, Mass. Carter was “determined to get his wife and children somehow,” Gay wrote. (5)

Peter & Lewis Burr [Burrell]

Christmas of 1855 was the last holiday Peter Burr would spend in bondage. His enslaver, Benjamin Johnson Noll “of the U.S. Treasury Office” was in Washington, D.C., but Burr was rented to Edward Plummer who ran the Marshall House Hotel in Alexandria. When the holiday was close, Burr told Plummer he wanted to visit his mother in Culpepper, Va. and he asked for some money. Plummer gave Burr $3 of store credit, with which he bought a shawl to give to a man in Washington, D.C. as payment for finding his brother Lewis. Noll’s brother-in-law Edward Clark, enslaved Lewis and rented him to A. Greene, an Auctioneer in the District. 

Once the brothers were reunited, they headed toward Gettysburg and waited for winter to end. (At some point in their journey they were guided by a free Black man named James Baker.) They made it to Philadelphia on April 21, 1856. Still wrote in his journal that both “young men seem remarkably intelligent and willing to make any sacrifices for freedom.” 

The pair left behind their brother Reuben Burr, a sister enslaved by Noll (who sold her) and two more sisters who were also sold into the deep south. Their parents and Lewis’ wife Wynnea Ann and children, Joseph and Mary were enslaved in Culpepper, Va. Lewis’ family, who he wanted to free as soon as he could, was owned by either Pembroke Toms (Still’s Account) or Col. John Thomas of Berry Hill (Gay’s account).

The brothers arrived at Gay’s newspaper on June 4, 1856. They made their way to Albany and eventually ended up in Toronto, Canada. In his absence, Lewis’ family must have been sold because he wrote to Still for help to get his wife from Baltimore, MD to Canada. (6)

William Triplett & Thomas Harper

Still was expecting William Triplett before he arrived in 1857 because of an advertisement alerting slave catchers and bounty hunters of his escape. 

Ran Away from the subscriber, on Saturday night, 22d instant, William Triplett, a dark mulatto, with whiskers and mustache, 23 to 26 years of age; lately had a burn on the instep of his right foot, but perhaps well enough to wear a boot or shoe. He took with him very excellent clothing, both summer and winter, consisting of a brown suit in cloth, summer coats striped, check cap, silk hat, &c. $50 reward will be paid if taken within thirty miles of Alexandria or in the State of Virginia, and $150 and necessary expenses if taken out of the State and secured so that I get him again. He is the property of Mrs. Fairfax, of Alexandria, and is likely to make his way to Cincinnati, where he has friends, named Hamilton and Hopes, now living. 

ROBT. W. WHEAT.

The ad provided plenty of clues for Still’s team - they were on the look out for a well dressed, light skinned man, possibly with facial hair, coming from the direction of Alexandria, escaped from the home of Elizabeth Mary Norris, the second wife of A.B. Fairfax. 

Triplett arrived on Aug. 28, 1857 with fellow Alexandrian Thomas Harper; they made the journey to Philadelphia in just six days. Triplett told Still that his enslaver treated him fairly, but he wanted his freedom. Of Slavery, he said “at best, it was robbery and an outrage.” Still followed up, “Even under the kindest mistress it had no charms for him [Triplett].”

Thomas Harper was a skilled blacksmith enslaved by another blacksmith, British Immigrant John Cowling who used him to increase production in an attempt to gain a foothold in Alexandria. Cowling let Harper take on side work as long as he paid him $100 a year. Still indicated the price and time were too high for Harper to get ahead. Harper’s wife and family were enslaved by someone else. Harper shared with Still that he felt helpless watching them be brutalized while he could do nothing to protect them. Ultimately, Harper took his life in his hands and ran because he was tired of “the system which was daily grinding the life out of him.” (7)

William Jackson

At 50, William Jackson (alias James Jackson) was one of the oldest enslaved Alexandrians profiled by Still. For decades, Jackson had been essential to Daniel Minor, a wealthy Fairfax plantation owner with a townhouse in Alexandria at the corner of Prince and Henry. For thirty years, Jackson was the foreman on the plantation. After Minor relocated to Alexandria, Jackson became the 84 year-old’s “right hand man.” He described his enslaver as “kind, though he had sold some of his slaves and was in favor of slavery.” 

Jackson left because Minor’s sons threatened to sell him when their father died. Robert and Albert Minor “kept low company” and were “incapable” of administering the family’s affairs, according to Jackson. “The sons, seeing that the “property” was trusted” more than themselves “naturally hated it, so the young men resolved that at the death of their father, William should be sent as far south as possible,” Still wrote. Jackson planned his escape with his wife, who was Free. She went ahead and he followed. (8)

Oscar Ball & Montgomery Graham

In less than two years, three people ran away from Elizabeth Gordon: Oscar Ball and Montgomery Graham in 1857 and Joseph Henry Ball in July 1858. A $400 dollar reward for Ball and Graham preceded their arrival at Still’s doorstep. “While both these passengers manifested great satisfaction in leaving their mistress, they did not give her a bad name,” according to Still. They described Ms. Gordon as “a spare woman, tolerably tall, and very kind, except when sick, she would not pay much attention then. She was a member of the Southern Methodist Church, and was strict in her religion.”

According to the advertisement, Oscar Ball was a young attractive man, six feet tall and mulatto. A single woman, Gordon raised Ball and made him her “pet.” When he was a child, she slept in the same bed with him to “prove” she bore no “prejudice.” Recently, Ball approached Gordon and asked if he could purchase his freedom. She agreed to accept $800. Oscar could only come up with $700 and instead of showing mercy, Gordon raised the price. She argued she could easily get $1500 for him and told Ball to buy himself he would need to pay her $1000. Soon after, Ball made the difficult decision to leave his wife, child, brother and two sisters to gain his freedom. In future correspondence with Still, Ball described how hard he tried to convince others to join him before and after he ran, even sending money to help them escape.

Montgomery Graham, who arrived with Oscar Ball, “could scarcely be distinguished from the white folks,” according to Still. Graham didn’t like Gordon, calling her stingy. He said he had been planning an escape for a very long time. “Arriving in Philadelphia, and finding himself breathing free air, receiving aid and encouragement in a manner that he had never known before, he was one of the happiest creatures,” wrote Still.

Both men traveled at least 466 miles from 505 Cameron Street to Philadelphia and then Oswego, New York. They both found work and Ball changed his name to John Delaney. (9)

Joseph Ball 

In November, Oscar Ball, now John Delaney wrote to Still to let him know that his brother, Joseph was planning to escape as soon as the weather was warm enough to avoid frostbite. He then confirmed that William Triplett and Thomas Harper made it to Oswego over the summer. 

Court records indicate that Joseph Henry Ball, who was also enslaved by Elizabeth Gordon, fled for freedom on July 10, 1858. Joe had stayed behind when Oscar and Graham left because he wanted to bring his wife, May and their five children. They were enslaved by James Irwin’s widow, and may have been in Alexandria where the Irwins owned a business or Washington, D.C. where the Irwin’s resided. (Alexandria had been part of D.C. until 1846). Irwin promised to free her slaves when she died and “they were daily living on the faith thus created.” 

When Joseph did leave, he went with eight others, including Oscar Payne who was also from Alexandria. Still doesn’t say how the group of runaways found each other, but he indicated they had planned together before heading out. Joseph was half white and in his mid-30s, he was allowed to hire himself out and while he didn’t have a problem with his enslaver he was sure when she died the “young tribe of nephews and nieces” would acquire and sell him. Leaving behind his family was temporary, he planned for them to join him in Canada. Once he settled in, he wrote to Still that his wife was on her way to Philadelphia. Ball asked him to look out for her, “get her a ticket and send her to me…Please send her as soon as you can.”

Oscar Payne

Ball’s companion, Oscar Payne, 30, was enslaved by another single older woman, Mary Dade, a member of Christ Church Episcopal who lived with her son, T.D. Fendall at 91 Fairfax Street. Dade rented Payne to Rev. J.P. McGuire, headmaster at Episcopal High School. While Payne told Still he didn’t feel physically mistreated, he bristled at not being allowed to study or read books at the educational institution where he labored. Payne wanted liberty and with no close relatives nearby - his three brothers and sister had been sold further south - and two brothers had already escaped to freedom - Payne decided to go. (10)

Lawrence Thornton & Townsend Derrix (Derrit)

In Oscar Ball’s letter to Still, he asked if Lawrence Thornton and Townsend Derrit had made it to Philadelphia yet. He informed Still he had heard they left Alexandria five or six weeks earlier which would have been in late Summer or early Fall of 1857.

“Lawrence was about twenty-three years of age, tall and slender, of dark complexion, but bright intellectually. With Lawrence times had been pretty rough,” Still wrote. The young man was enslaved by Dr. Isaac Winston, an unfair man who defrauded him. Thornton said the doctor was “anything else but a gentleman,” his wife was worse, and their daughter was even worse. Traumatic events led Thornton to run from his enslavers, he told Still, “last Sunday a week my master collared me for my insolence, he said, and told me that he would sell me right off. I was tied and put upstairs for safe keeping. I was tied for about eight hours. I then untied myself, broke out of prison, and made for the Underground Rail Road immediately.” Lawrence shared many more interesting stories about the doctor, his family and his experience of slavery, wrote Still. (11)

Townsend Derrix journeyed from Alexandria to Philadelphia with Thornton. Derrix was enslaved by German Immigrants Gottlieb and Gertrude Appich. They operated a confectionery in Alexandria and lived on Henry Street. Still was intrigued that Townsend was “owned” by a  “Dutchman” because it was “rare” for German Americans to be “slave-holders.” He wrote that the Committee wanted to know how Germans behaved when “given unlimited control over human beings.” 

Unfortunately, the answer was: not well. Derrix described Gottlieb as a harsh task master. There was an older enslaved woman in the house who Gottlieb worked very hard and beat  "savagely" about the head. Derrix gave an equally unflattering description of Gertrude, calling her a “great swabby, fat woman” who had a bad temper and drank too much. 

While his personal circumstances with the German family were tolerable, he and his new wife wanted to be free. When they found out her enslavers planned to move out of town they decided to take their chances and run. Sadly, she was captured by slavers and taken back to Virginia. (12)

Richard Bayne, Carter Dowling & Benjamin Taylor

In 1858, Richard Bayne, Carter Dowling and Benjamin Taylor armed themselves with pistols and dirks and left Alexandria. They said they had no intention of allowing anyone to drag them back into bondage.

Richard, who at 23 was the oldest of the three, was enslaved by Rudolph Massey, a heavy drinker and gambler. Massey also “owned” Bayne’s mother, but his father had been white, which was obvious, according to Still. They lived at 107 South Union Street. Massey was a merchant tailor who hired Bayne out for $10 a month, leaving the young man feeling the “injustice of having to till hard to support a drunkard and gambler.” 

Bayne feared Massey’s heirs would sell him and divide the profits as soon as the old man died. “He concluded he could not venture to risk himself in the hands of the young heirs.” His mother and sister stayed behind.

Carter Dowling, 21, had to leave his family without saying goodbye. He was enslaved by Anna Maria Fitzhugh on the East side of the 200 Block of N. Washington Street. Fitzhugh promised to manumit the 25 people she “owned” upon her death. But Dowling was young and anxious to be free and didn’t trust her to follow through. He stayed longer than he wanted to because Fitzhugh also enslaved his parents, five brothers and six sisters and he didn’t want to leave them. In the end, he couldn’t wait any longer, but he also had to go without telling anyone.

The youngest of the trio was Benjamin Taylor, 20, a fit and strong young man. His enslaver, a woman tied to an estate referred to as Meed, had recently died. Because of his physique, Taylor was in imminent danger of being sold. He feared being chained in a coffle and forced to march to the deep south. He left behind five enslaved brothers, four sisters and one free brother. (13)

In Conclusion

The testimony of Alexandria’s Freedom Seekers reveal that there is something innate about liberty that will drive people to ignore even the most perilous conditions to grasp it when it is denied or lost. Their stories illustrate the role love played both in keeping people in bondage as well as forcing them to run or risk separation. Over all of their stories loomed the deep south and the fear it generated for those who could, at any moment, be sold.

Each of the people profiled took a chance, lit out on little more than rumor and hope. They found “an interlocking series of local networks…which together helped a substantial number of fugitives reach safety in the Free States and Canada,” according to Foner. Taken together, we have an understanding of the machinations of America’s Underground Railroad.

Notes

(1) Benjamin Hollowell, a Quaker leader who lived in Alexandria ran a school at the Lloyd House, 220 N. Washington Street, which he rented from Mrs. Hooe from 1826-1832. Some tourist publications (not produced by the Office of Historic Alexandria) suggest his son, Henry (1829-1899) was a conductor on the UGRR. They further “suspect” the Lloyd House of being a station on the UGRR. This is doubtful because in 1832, when Henry was just three years old,  the house was sold to John Lloyd. Hollowell moved his school to a former sugar house. While Lloyd’s family was Quaker, he was an enslaver and had been dismissed from the Society of Friends. Read more about the Lloyd family.

(2) From the end of the Revolution to the Civil War, most antislavery activists, especially those who were white, engaged in legal protests such as, petitioning Congress, helping with manumissions and with freedom lawsuits. These anti-Slavery groups appeared and disappeared - usually in the wake of slave uprisings or the threat of one. In Alexandria, there was a Society for the Relief and Protection of Persons Illegally Held in Bondage that came and went, followed later by the Benevolent Society of Alexandria for the Ameliorating and Improving the Condition of the People of Color. Both pursued legal remedies for individuals and advocated for a gradual abolition of slavery. 

(3) Ten days before Jones escaped, on March 17, the Virginia General Assembly made it more difficult for fugitives to stow away. Northbound ships had to be inspected thoroughly and anyone who caught freedom seekers on board was given a $100 reward. If an African American was caught helping an enslaved person escape there were heavy fines to pay. People were encouraged to turn others in because they could claim a $500 reward. The new law resulted in the arrest of a number of ship captains and crew. 

(4) Widow Beverley’s husband may have been Peter R. Beverly. Beverely owned a large two story brick building at 2 Orinoco Street, on the north side of the road between Water [Lee] and Union streets. The building was sold in 1851 and then rented. Peter R. Beverely’s 1850 slave schedule showed that he enslaved six people. George and Jane who ran in 1856 spoke about having been recently purchased by “Widow Beverley.”

(5) Gay wrote that Charles Carter said his wife worked for Mr. Cuzneaw with a question mark. It could be a rough spelling for native Alexandrian William G. Cazenove, who was from a prominent family, had been educated at Princeton and held a law degree, but joined his brother Louis in the mercantile business. He was an active member of Christ Church Episcopal. The 1850 Slave Schedule shows he enslaved six people, three of whom were female aged  21, 25 and 50. Two children, both boys, aged 2 and 4.5. Gay indicated the Carters had four children. The census was six years before Carter arrived in New York City. Cazenove was pro-secession and represented Alexandria in the Rebel Government. When Alexandrians voted on secession they also voted for who would represent them in the Confederate Government. Cazenove and Edgar Snowden Jr. ran for the House and Cazenove won. In Cazenove’s 1877 obituary, the Alexandria Gazette expressed admiration for him saying he had espoused, “warmly the cause of his native State in the struggle which was forced upon her, he yielded to the solicitations of his fellow townsmen and allowed his name to be proposed as a candidate for the Virginia Legislature, was elected, and, narrowly escaping capture by the Federal forces which occupied Alexandria in the month of May, 1861, proceeded to Warrenton. He served in the Legislature for two years and was subsequently commissioned captain in the quarter master's department. At the close of the war he returned to Alexandria, where he spent the remainder of his life directing his energies to the welfare of the Virginia Midland Railroad, of which he was vice president at the time of his death.” After the Civil War, Judge Underwood attempted to hold Cazenove accountable by indicting him for treason against the United States. 

(6) Still recorded Peter and Lewis' surname as Burrell, but Gay recorded it as Burr. A search in Ancestry was able to locate Peter and Lewis with the last name of Burr. Gay also indicated that Peter took an alias as George Johnson. Both men’s enslavers resided in Washington, D.C. which hampered previous research that searched for them in Alexandria’s property and census records. In 1855, E.S. Plummer bought out his partner J.J. Roberts to take full control of the Marshall House Hotel. In a card in the Aug. 2, 1855 issue of the Alexandria Gazette, p. 3, he told potential guests “My porters and omnibusses are always in attendance at the Cars and Steamboats to convey passengers to the hotel.” Also see, Aug. 14, 1855, p. 3. Previous to 1820, the hotel was known as Washington Tavern. The property was built at 480 King Street in 1799. Plummer also owned a house at Princess and Henry with a stable attached which he rented out, Alexandria Gazette, Jan. 19, 1855, p. 3.

(7) William Triplett and Thomas Harper appear in Still’s account, but not in Gay’s. Triplett’s enslaver Elizabeth Mary Norris was the second wife of A.B. Fairfax - they married in 1852 (after the 1850 census). Both of their families had deep roots in Alexandria. Fairfax was a Commander in the U.S. Navy and was stationed in Washington, D.C. in 1859 and California after that. However, the couple was most likely in Alexandria at the time of Triplett’s escape as indicated in the advertisement that ran in the Alexandria Gazette that was signed by Robert Wheat who was an agent in Alexandria. On April 18, 1861, A.B. Fairfax resigned his commission in the United States Navy to fight for Virginia and the Confederate States. He initially coordinated with the 17th Infantry before being named Commander and serving as inspector of ordinance. The address associated with Thomas Harper’s enslavement was 100 North Pitt Street.

(8) William Jackson escaped in 1857 and his story was recorded on page 396 in Still’s book. In the narrative, Jackson described himself as the “property of Daniel Minne” and also identified two sons Robert Minne and Albert Minne. After researching newspapers and census, it appears the enslaver was Daniel Minor, a prosperous Fairfax Plantation owner who had an Alexandria townhouse where he spent most of his time in his later years. Census records show that Minor had two sons, Robert Minor and Albert Minor. When Daniel Minor died on Oct. 19, 1865 he was nearly 90 years old. These facts compliment Jackson’s testimony. Furthermore, in Minor’s will he freed two of his enslaved who were married, Margaret and William Burke. He then left explicit instructions for the others to only be sold to people they chose and the enslavers had to live in Alexandria or Fairfax County. He also restricted how his children could use and inherit his money. Read the obituary in the Alexandria Gazette

See Daniel Minor's will and last testament in Ancestry.com.

(9) Oscar Ball and Montgomery Graham’s escape and subsequent letters can be found in William Still’s book on page 399. Their enslaver Elizabeth Gordon was born in Northumberland County, Va. in 1804, but lived in Alexandria for many years; she died on July 1, 1863, according to the death notice in the Alexandria Gazette. Previous to her death, Gordon appeared in the 1850 and 1860 slave schedules. In the 1830s she ran multiple ads in the newspaper “forewarning” people from “trading with or employing any of my servants without my consent,” Alexandria Gazette, Aug. 14, 1832, p. 3. She was most likely a member of what is now Washington Street United Methodist Church. Enslavers broke away from Trinity Methodist Church when the leadership denounced slavery in 1844 and started a Southern Methodist Church.

(10) The 1860 Slave Schedule shows Mary Dade owned 14 slaves. Her agent was Richard Stewart. The stories of Ball and Payne begin on p. 465 in Still’s book.

(11) Still recorded Lawrence Thornton’s enslaver as Dr. Winslow, but there was no one by that name in Alexandria’s census. However, the 1850 Slave Schedule for Dr. Winston showed four enslaved people and the sole male was 18 years old. According to the 1860 slave schedule the oldest male was 12 years old. Together these corroborate Thornton’s escape, which occurred before 1860. Dr. Winston’s wife, Susan F. Winston (married May 14, 1806 in King George County)  died on Feb. 2, 1853 - before Lawrence Thornton ran away. Her obituary stated that they were members of the Episcopalian Church. In 1852, Winston ran ads for the sale of his farm on Little River Turnpike in Fairfax County, 4 miles from Alexandria and 6-7 from Washington, DC, Alexandria Gazette, July 22, 1852, p. 3. Several items of note that further document Lawrence Thornton’s testimony: a brief article in the Alexandria Gazette, Oct. 15, 1861, p. 1 tells the story of an enslaved youth who escaped by entering one of the Union military camps in Alexandria. Soon after he became ill and needed to see a doctor. He was sent to Dr. Winston, who was the Physician for the Poor, But he had also been the child’s enslaver. The youth died while in the doctor’s care. In April, 1863, Dr. Isaac Winston and several other men were arrested by military authorities during a meeting held “for disloyal purposes” at Dr. Winston’s home, according to the Gazette, Evening Star, Washington Chronicle, and Baltimore Sun.

(12) In a report for Archeology Terry Miller (2001) tried to document locations connected to the Underground Railroad in Alexandria. He was unable to find the enslavers for Derrix, writing, “Townsend Derrix escaped from a Dutchman by the name of Gallipapick.  There is currently no evidence of a Gallipappick in Alexandria census and personal property tax records.” However, Appich was an established family of German descent in Alexandria by the 1890s. It turns out the first Appich in town was named Gottlieb. He and his wife Gertrude Barbara Appich arrived in Alexandria from Stuttgart, Germany. Both belonged to the Episcopal Church, likely Christ Church. Gottlieb left a property he owned at 706 Duke Street to his wife and daughter Catherin Makely when he died in October 1866. However, his death notice said he died at his residence on Henry Street. It isn’t clear which or if both buildings are connected to Derrix enslavement.

(13) Richard Bayne, Carter Dowling and Benjamin Taylor, Arrival from Alexandria 1858, William Still, pp.478-80. Miller identified Bayne’s address at 107 South Union Street, using Property Tax records and Sanborn Maps. He also identified Miss Anna Maria Fitzhugh’s address on the 200 block of North Washington Street. Miller wasn’t able to locate a Meed in Alexandria at that time. I found a Drayton G. Meade, married to Annie Meade, who sold agricultural equipment at a Warehouse at 12 Fairfax Street, according to ads in the Alexandria Gazette. His family was from Loudoun County, but I did not find census records confirming an Alexandria residence.