Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture Enduring Connections: Exploring Delmarva's Black History

Record Detail

Record #89 from Abstracts from William Still's Underground Railroad

Traveler's Names Silas Long
Age 27
Description quite black, spare-built
Alias
Origin- Town/City Cambridge
Origin- County Dorchester
Origin- State Maryland
Destination Canada
Birthplace
Slaveowner's Name Sheriff Robert Bell
Chapter Title Arrival from Cambridge, 1857
Page Number 394
Other Travelers Silas Long, Solomon Light
Other Conductors
Additional Names
Method of Travel
Additional Resources
Items in Possession
Full Narrative SILAS LONG and SOLOMON LIGHT. Silas and Solomon both left together from Cambridge, Md. SILAS was quite black, spare-built and about twenty-seven years of age. He was owned by Sheriff Robert Bell, a man about "sixty years of age, and had his name up to be the hardest man in the county." " The Sheriff's wife was about pretty much such a woman as he was a man ? there was not a pin's point of difference between them." The fear of having to be sold caused this Silas to seek the Underground Rail Road. Leaving his mother, one brother and one cousin, and providing himself with a Bowie-knife and a few dollars in money, he resolved to reach Canada, "or die on the way." Of course, when slaves reached this desperate point, the way to Canada was generally found.

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[Author (if known)], Abstracts from William Still's Underground Railroad, [Date (if known)], Enduring Connections: Exploring Delmarva’s Black History, Nabb Research Center, Salisbury University.

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