Out of Bondage: Perry Sanford’s Account

Background:

In 1884, 20 years after the end of slavery, on a street corner in Battle Creek, Michigan, Perry Sanford met a newspaper reporter who asked him about his escape from Kentucky. Perry told his story in detail including where he was born, his experience of being sold, and his master’s name. Below is Perry’s account.

Thoughts of Escape:

Perry Sanford and a group of 11 other slaves decided to escape after an earlier group fled and reached the North safely. As a result of the first group’s escape, the slave owner, Milt Graves, planned to sell his slaves farther south, making escape more difficult. Most slaves feared being sold farther south because it meant separation from loved ones, who they might never see again. Sanford and the others thought they would be better off risking an escape to the North.

Escape Plan:

The group of slaves planned an escape one day when the plantation overseer (boss) was away. One of the members of the group got a pass to travel and used it to go to Covington. There, he met a white man who arranged to help the group across the river. The group was to leave the plantation on the night of Easter Monday. All agreed that this was a good time for escaping because slaves usually did not have to work on holidays. Sanford chose to work during the day on Easter Monday since working on a holiday allowed slaves to earn pay. Sanford earned 50 cents that day planting corn and added that amount to $2 he had earned working other holidays.

The Actual Escape

About 10 o’clock that night, Sanford and the 11 others started for Covington, which was a 12-mile trek. Of the 12, all but one, who was unable to keep up, reached Covington at 4 o’clock in the morning. They traveled 12 miles in six hours, so it took them 30 minutes to travel one mile! According to Sanford, they had to travel across the fields in order to avoid meeting groups of men on horseback and travelers on roads and to pass the toll gates at the entrance to some towns. (Entrances and exits to towns typically were guarded by members of a patrol. In the South, the patrol was made up of local landowners who wanted to monitor movement of slaves; in the North, a patrol may have been used for other purposes though slave catchers also probably staked out these areas.)

The group arrived in Covington late and missed the man who was supposed to meet them there. They were disappointed but walked down the bank of the Ohio River, where they found a boat called a skiff. All 11 of the fugitives crowded into the small boat – the sides of the boat came within an inch of the water! It was a dangerous trip across the water, but they made it safely to Cincinnati.

When they landed, they saw a black man and a white man standing together. The two men exclaimed: “Here comes some runaway slaves.” These men turned out to be friendly, and took the escapees through the back alleys of ‘Cincy’ to a station of the Underground Railroad. The runaways were divided up and hidden in the cellars of businesses, where they had to stay for a week.

The runaway slaves, with the help of their friends, still had to find a way out of Cincinnati. When a safe time came, the Underground Railroad conductors transported the runaways in carriages first to Hamilton, Ohio, then to Jonesborough, Indiana, and other cities, from one Underground Railroad station to another. They only traveled at night and in covered wagons. In the daytime, they were hidden in Quakers’ barns or in the woods. They stayed in some places for a night and in other places several days. It took the fugitives one month to reach Cass County, Michigan – the slave owners were very often close to capturing the runaways.

Though the slaves were fearful of being captured, they had trouble in only one town. They usually had a guide with them, but in this one particular town they had no guide. They were sent out on foot alone with instructions on how to reach the next station. They were given directions around a known troublesome town, but got on the wrong road and went right into the town.

Local residents recognized them as runaways and made remarks about them as they walked along the street. However, no one bothered them. When they got out of town they met two slave owners on horseback, who were evidently returning from an unsuccessful hunt after runaways. They stopped the group and said that they knew they were runaways and asked for their pass. One of the runaways replied, holding up a big club, “Here’s our pass, and it will make your eyes sore to read it.” At that, the slave owners moved to the other side of the road and departed.

The group set off again in search of the home of John Shugart, a Cass County Quaker active on the Underground Railroad. They arrived at his house without trouble and informed him of what had happened in the one town. Alarmed, Mr. Shugart hid the women in the cellar and hid the men in the woods. When safe, he took them to the home of his brother, Zach Shugart, on Young’s Prairie near Cassopolis.

The Kentucky Raid

Feeling safe, the runaways stayed in Cass County with Zach Shugart. They worked for another Quaker, Stephen Bogue, and lived in small cabins in an area that came to be called Ramptown. It was there that some 40 slave catchers swooped down on the runaways early one morning in 1847 and captured them. This event is today known as the Kentucky Raid.

Sanford and a few others got away. According to Sanford, that was one of the most exciting anti-slavery events that ever happened in Michigan. About 4 o’clock in the morning there came a knock at the door of the cabin where Sanford was staying with fellow slaves. Sanford asked, “Who’s there?” The visitor replied, “A friend,” but the fugitives inside recognized it as the voice of Jack Graves, one of the masters.

The man commanded the runaways to open the door, but they refused and yelled to awaken Bogue. The slave owners then smashed in the window and thrust a double barrel shotgun in. Sanford attempted to run but temporarily was captured along with his wife and daughter. Another man ran out and escaped. Because of the cabin’s thin roof, Sanford was able to push aside the roof’s pieces, crawl out, and jump to the ground. He reached a corn field and got away from the pursuers. He then alarmed Bogue, who got on his horse and rode to Cassopolis to alarm the people there. Bogue’s wife hid Sanford upstairs in their house.

Other slaves fought off the captors. Three slave owners came into the cabin of one man, who grabbed a three-legged stool and fought them. He struck his young master a terrible blow, from which he later died upon reaching his home in Kentucky. However, three men proved to be too many; they pounded him with clubs and captured him and his daughter. His wife luckily escaped to the corn field, where one of her young masters attacked her, but she gave him a dreadful licking and escaped. After the slave owners had secured what slaves they could, they started for Kentucky.

On the road out of town the slave owners were stopped by Bill Jones, another Quaker. Jones talked with them until a party of 40 men came up from Cassopolis under the command of Stephen Bogue. Bogue had gotten a warrant for their arrest for destroying his property and breaking into his houses. The slave owners were then taken into Cassopolis, where they and the captured slaves were jailed. The slaves were freed quickly and led out of the area on the Underground Railroad.

There was a trial and eventually the slave owners won the right to their slaves, but by then the recaptured slaves had gotten away. The slave owners sued the Quakers for aiding their slaves, and money was awarded to the Kentuckians, but they never received it. With several others, Sanford settled in Battle Creek. There, many ex-slaves settled in Cass County and surrounding counties for years to come. Sanford himself worked for area farmers.