There was so much activity here in the Inner Harbor with escapes, captures, rescues and kidnappings that historians have called it “Baltimore’s Underground Entrepot,” a fancy word that means a center for trade and shipment.
LEAR GREEN - ESCAPE FROM SOUTH BROADWAY
Steamer and sailing ships would smuggle human cargo in from around the Delmarva region; and especially from Hampton Roads and Old Point Comfort, Virginia; Also vessel stowaways came from Wilmington, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina and from Jacksonville, Florida.
William Watkins Jr., a teacher at Sharp Street Church and School, and his three sons were some of Baltimore’s Underground Entrepot port operators.
Although frequently threatened by knife point and violence, abolitionists such as Elisha Tyson persevered in searching ships before they embarked to release illegally held freemen or freewomen and was able to foil many kidnappings.
Lear Green purchased an old sailor’s chest and in it stashed a “quilt, a pillow, and a few articles of raiment, with a small quantity of food and a bottle of water.” Her fiancé, William Adams, and his mother fastened the chest with heavy rope and placed it among freight on an Ericsson steamer. Adam’s mother, a free woman, came along as a passenger and was assigned to the deck, which put her near the sailor’s chest.
There she watched over the chest containing her daughter-in-law-to-be, and once or twice during the night, she untied the ropes circling the chest and lifted the lid allowing Green a breath of fresh air. After 18 hours in the chest, the steamer reached Philadelphia and the chest was delivered to a home belonging to friends of Mrs. Adams on Barley Street. After a brief stay in Philadelphia under the guardianship of William Still, Green moved to Elmira, New York, where she married William Adams.
WILLIAM “BOX” PEEL JONES
In 1859 William Peel Jones succeeded in transporting himself to freedom by steamship from Baltimore to Philadelphia, departing from what is now McKeldin Square.
Jones was moved to action because his master had been selling off his slaves and had threatened the slave with putting him on the market soon. Like Henry “Box” Brown, Jones obtained a box. u Unfortunately, it was smaller than Brown’s and forced Jones to keep his legs folded throughout the trip. Jones almost cried out in pain during his ocean journey, and he suffered such cold from the sea air as to give him constant chills. But such suffering was matched by the devotion of Jones’ white ally in his endeavor, who not only “mailed “Jones in Baltimore but also traveled by land to Philadelphia, where his ally discovered the box on the boat. When the box was transported to safety and opened an hour later, the men rejoiced at their successful teamwork.
JOSEPH G. JOHNSON – DETERMINED TO BE FREE
But not all escapes were successful. In 1860, Joseph G. Johnson escaped Baltimore aboard a Pennsylvania, Wilmington Baltimore or PWB Railroad Train. His owner, grocer William Jones, telegraphed his son in Wilmington, Delaware who captured Johnson at the PWB’s Wilmington Station. He was returned to Baltimore but, determined to be free, he later escaped again via the Baltimore Philadelphia Steamboat Company.
STEAMERS AND SAILING SHIPS; BALTIMORE’S UNDERGROUND ENTREPOT
Steamer and sailing ships would smuggle human cargo in from around the Delmarva region; and especially from Hampton Roads and Old Point Comfort, Virginia; from Wilmington, North Carolina; from Charleston, South Carolina and from Jacksonville, Florida.
William Watkins Jr., a teacher at Sharp Street Church and School, and his three sons were some of Baltimore’s Underground Entrepot port operators.
Although frequently threatened by violence, abolitionists such as Elisha Tyson persevered in searching ships before they embarked to release kidnapped freemen or freewomen and were able to foil many kidnappings.
There was always a high risk of capture on the Underground Railroad and captures of fugitive slaves who had stowed away on steamers and sailing vessels occurred frequently in the Baltimore Harbor. In January 1854, three enslaved men – Richard Bell, Thomas Brooks, and Willard Winfrie – were captured aboard the Steamer Baltimore which had entered the Port for repairs.
In Fall of 1860 a slave named Alexander, owned by a Mrs. Walker of Norfolk, was captured aboard the steamer Adelaide at Baltimore Harbor.
Free Blacks were never exempt from the threat of being kidnapped and sold into slavery and transported by ship. Kidnapped freemen would be smuggled out of Baltimore aboard vessels bound for Georgia or New Orleans.