Does anyone here know of any documented instances of ships being used by private individuals or abolishonist societies to convey escaping slaves to freedom? Reading up on this for class.
There were many ships smuggling slaves from the southern shores of Lake Erie (and Lake Ontario to a lesser extent) into Canada. The escapees had to take the land route to get to the lakes, though.
There were a couple of interesting cases of slaves having themselves mailed to freedom. They had themselves packed in crates and shipped to New York or Philadelphia, IIRC. I can’t remember where I read about it, though.
bibliophage: Yeah, the guy you’re talking about is Henry “Box” Brown, but as far as I know he was the only one who did this, but I suppose there could have been others. You can read about his escape here. I seem to remember reading this somewhere else with one of those old 19th century woodcuts as the illustration.
There were probably others that crossed the Ohio River on boats into Canada, too. Any bigger vessels, say, out of Charleston, SC or the Virginias, heading north?
Cincinatti, Ontario?
Or even Cincinnati, Ontario.
(Never try being a smart-alec if you can’t type.)