MDMD: Dixon's nonviolence: another Web resource

[Doug Millison]

http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/UGRR/underground.html

Because of its location on the Mason-Dixon line Franklin County was
intimately involved with both pro- and anti-slavery forces. Slaves who
escaped would travel to Franklin County via the Underground railroad and
receive shelter there. The mountainous terrain made it particularly
attractive, as well as the presence of substantial free black communities
in Chambersburg, Greencastle, and Mercersburg. Several local people, white
and black, are known to have maintained "stations." They included Henry
Watson, a free black barber in Chambersburg, Hiram Wertz of Quincy, and the
Shockey family, neighbors of Wertz. Others included the free black Coles
family, and Michael Buck.

At the same time, several slave hunters were operating in the county as
well. The men who captured two of the John Brown conspirators, Dan Logan
and Claggett Fitzhugh of Quincy, were reputed to be slave catchers by
profession.

During the 1870s, William Still, a free black active in anti-slavery
activities in Philadelphia, compiled a history of the Underground Railraod.
His book, The Underground Railroad, was composed of the stories of scores
of slaves who had escaped and made their way to the offices of the
Anti-Slavery Office and Vigilant Committee in Philadelphia. There many of
the escapees were given assistance in reaching safety in Canada. The three
episodes listed below describe slavs whose escape routes led them through
Chambersburg.

*	"White Lady and Child With a Colored Coachman, Traveling"
*	Owen and Otho Taylor's Flight With Horses Etc.
*	William Henry Moody