Transcripts For CSPAN3 Secrets Of The Underground Railroad 2

Who are members, trustees. Fund, but the women who were in thank you. I just want to say thank you and salute you for all of your support because as a nonprofit, boston were not happy with this. You. Nt do it without they thought all the money should go to boston. So there was a big issue over for those of you who arent members, i dont know what you are waiting for. This between the women in new can go online and join the york city and the women in boston. However, today, i found this statement in consequence of a recent decision of the new york party any time. Ok . We are here tonight, it is part of a celebration on a black antislavery fair association, history month. We had a program at the you will receive a check for the beginning of the month with, which are hand, joyce gold, did a program on little africa. Net proceeds of the sales made out with three months [applause] that was good. Interest thereon. Tonight, we are going to present also 16 proceeds of sales made an author whos a is about the more recently. Underground railroad. This is what is significant. Did you know there were stopped it has been agreed by the on the underground railroad in society that Louis Napoleon Greenwich Village . What doesnt Greenwich Village should receive 100 for his have . Services in aid of fugitives during the present year, 1857. I want to introduce you to our speaker tonight, don papson. Of this sum, he has received he is coauthor of secret lives of the underground railroad in new york city 16. Now, i wanted to share those two things with you because i could he is founder of the north Star Underground Railroad museum. Possibly not remember. If you have never been there, it is beautiful. Remark, butepared he is an independent scholar and we are limited on time, so i am a member of the american going to do the best i can to organization of historians. Include everything of after his talk tonight, he will take a few questions and then significance that i want to share. His book be available for purchase and signing in the back put it a little bit of panic of the room. On me on the phone because he before don comes out, we have a special guest tonight. Said, i want you to put a berger. [applause] Greenwich Village twist on your presentation. I thought, oh my goodness, how am i going to do that . My book is about new york city. It is not about Greenwich Village. Then i remembered that there was a letter that sydney wrote to his friend Edmund Quincy in come over here. Lets nature sure the microphone is good for you. Boston after he and elizabeth were married. You may have to move donnas and he told him that they had notes we may have to move ,ented two rooms on 12 street dons notes a bit. And he said they were living with the craig family. Can everyone here . And that they were kind unitarians, and they were berger. Am otis favorable to antislavery. I was born in staten island. So, otis did a Little Research and she found out that where craig lived was probably were and about 50 years ago, my New York University is today. The problem is that the woman mother sold my who lived there was a widow, but greatgrandfathers papers to the Butler Library where two people eventually found them. It was not a family. I found in 1846, there was a man one was eric who published a book. Named thomas craig who lived at 122 12 street with his wife the other was don papson. They both came out last year and isabella and son william. Don papson is more like my i suspected that was the family that elizabeth and sydney had greatgrandfather. Their rooms from. It doesnt really tell us about the underground railroad because out in the audience is my great, we dont have evidence that the great granddaughter named after my great grandmother elizabeth involved with the who was married to sydney underground railroad. , we have a little howard gay, who i heard an awful lot about him. Bit of a story which we did not fully research. Don, tell people more if we had researched everything about all of this. Totally, we would have never [applause] published the book. At some point, you have to say, ok, we are going to stop that stop it and get the book out. It is a story of a woman who escaped from richmond, virginia [laughter] in 1855 in april. The story was in the newspaper thank you, otis. First through the offices of the one of the best things that has evening post. Happened in the last year is meeting otis. They said, that the woman had been owned by someone who had hired her out and that the woman and otiss cousin. I only wished i had known them said, i wanted to come and see when i was working on the book. But i was so engrossed in me, and the woman was on her way to see her, but since there were looking through her greatgrandfathers papers at free black people on the columbia university, i did not get out of the library. What happened is when eric came jamestown steamer, and at that one of them induced her to stay out with his book a month before on the steamship and to come all hours, there was an article in the waiting or exceeding come the New York Times and comments and beth made one all the way to new york city. She was taken to a colored family on sullivan street. Of those comments. Neil made another. Repeated the gay i said, i am point to contact these ladies. So we have become best friends story that was in the evening post of the standard, but he and its a wonderful experience added a few corrections because a man may mr. Drop was the because things i have found in second steward on the jamestown letters contain stories that visited gay in his office. Otis heard as she was growing and he said, that the womans up. So we have had a wonderful time comparing. Name was harriet. I am still in the research and that she had a child with her. Process. He also said that when the some of the things i am going to share are not in the book. Captain discovered harriet had ideagoing to give you an escaped, that he hired the same of the significance of the book. I cannot take everything that is driver quit taken her to sullivan street to take him to in it. It is way too much. But today, every time i come to sullivan street. But he also went to see a deputy new york city, i do more marshal, so he took the police research. Today, i found something really with him. House,n they got to the wonderful, which will give you an idea of the significance of what otiss greatgrandfather and try to persuade her to go back to the ship and pay for her passage, the people who were in was doing with the underground the building surrounded her and railroad. Would not let her go. This was a letter that was sent to the national antisavory in order to get away from paris, standard. She leaped out of a window into the yard. Sydney was the editor of that newspaper for 14 years. He started working there in 1845 now that is very interesting, but who were the people who in on march 22, 1846, a man lived in the house and where was the house . So i did some research, and i dayton, alabama, wrote a know to found there were a number of People Living at 78 sullivan sydney, and it says, sirs, your national antisavory standard has reached us. Street. The man who owned the house, it we have looked in it enough to was worth 4000, his name was know that you are working very moses shepherd. He was a black man and he was a busily about which you know nothing about. Steward. Your zeal for humanity is misdirected. And there was a man living in we say to you, let other the building whose name was John Napoleon. I have seen John Napoleon many other times and i dont know his relationship to lewis. If there was a relationship. At their want that many people named the polling in the directories in new york city, so i suspected they were related. It could have been lewiss sun. I dont know. Ok. To Say Something about the james town because it was built in 1853. I found an article in a richmond newspaper, which gave the name the last name of the man who escorted. Off the jamestown. Name of the man who escorted. Off the jamestown. The captain saw her go ashore at her destination. The steamer came on to new york and shortly after, a negro named johnson, who was employed as a cook, was seen escorting her up the street which was driven off before the captain could interfere. A pursuit was made and the parties traced to her house on sullivan street. Ok. This does not give his first name. But i did find a man named Henry Johnson that lived on sullivan street at another address. So, it could have been him. So that is a little underground railroad twist for Greenwich Village. I dont know if any of you have heard that story before, but it is a wonderful story. And it is yours. Ok. Um. I am going to talk about the Unlikely Alliance between Sydney Howard gay and napoleon. I say it is unlikely because her background for totally different. This is a cover of our book. We have the subtitle, secret lives of the underground railroad in new york city. But Sydney Howard gay and louis Sydney Howard gay wrote the accounts of people who came through his office in 1855 and 1856. There are accounts of over 200 people. The last time a record was published of this significance was 140 years ago. And nobody had ever written about Sydney Howard gay or Louis Napoleon. What louisow napoleon looked like because there are different accounts of him. Man ande a fair skinned the silhouette of a dark skinned man because he was described both ways. This is either copper. Hooper. He was Sydney Howard gays underground railroad mentor. Assisted Louis Napoleon on a case. It was a very important case, even the Louis Napoleon was not an educated man, he cannot read or write, he had to sign his on legal a x documents. But he knew the people to go to for help. In 1846 and when a man 18 years stowed away on a boat to new york city, Louis Napoleon found out and he went to isaac and said, i need help with this man. Isaac hopper said i want to to. O to see elias smith he was working at the antislavery office with Sydney Howard gay. So napoleon tells him about george kirk. His name was george. He did not take the name kirk until after the case. He asked him later, why is it that you took the name . He said, it was my fathers name. Elias said we are going to see hopper. So they both went back to see hopper and he said you need to judge jed edmonds edmonds. You could start a legal procedure and then the person would be declared a free person. That is what happened with george kirk. He was free. Lared but, the captain of the boat did not like that. So he went to the mayor of new york city, whose name was nickel, and he said he will have him rearrested. So there was a case in Lower Manhattan to try to the arrest george kirk. Smith and an architect name william johnson, pretended like they were part of a mob, and they steered george into the antisavory building, which was on nassau street. Gay was really in charge of this whole operation. By the time it was over, he was totally exhausted. He was really in charge of the operation. How in the world with a going to get him out of the building . They came up with the idea of putting him in a box. Onthere was a Sugar Refinery duane street owned by dennis harris. Dennis harris sent over a box. They had george climate of the box. They nailed it shut and put a tag on it to reverend manley in essex, new york. Thrilling because that is in the champagne valley with the museum is. Apparently, they were attempting to send him to essex, new york. Signed, these handle with care please handle with care. And foundd the box georgian side. So george was put back into the tunes. That was the Detention Center located with the civic center is today in the five points area. It was an ominous building. Anyway, edmonds declared he was free again and he was in the tunes and the abolitionists were concerned about how they were going to have out. So, they went together and they had him go out a side door because it was a mob waiting at the main entrance. They got him out beside entrance and put them in a carriage and it took them off to boston, where he learned to be a shoemaker. This is Oliver Johnson. I have him in here because he was a congregationalist minister. Oliver johnson was a close associate of day and a congregationalist. Sinceaid something someone to harrisburg, vermont. I am suggesting that it is possible that Oliver Johnson suggested sending george kirk up to the champagne valley. This is an image of the tunes. Toombs. I am going to talk about napoleon because he became andknown to isaac hopper his daughter, Abigail Gibbons and her husband. James were both involved in underground Railroad Work. In our book, you have some records that were after that were the record of fugitives. Napoleon was given some money, and thebons gibbons were involved in that. I want to share the story about a woman and a man or married in the gibbons home in 1845. Her name was sarah and she was a fugitive from slavery. Abigail wrote a wonderful letter, which we have in our book, about how excited she was to be a free woman. And how wonderful the wedding was. Well, 10 years later, james jacob,s word that sarahs husband, had betrayed and the slave catchers were after her. So napoleon was engaged to have sarah and the children taken to syracuse, new york. Lucy, on the left, ok, this is lucy. She is on the left. Her brother william, william died at a very young age. Abigail and their other two daughters and james givens. The reason i am showing you these images is because lucy wrote a romantic novel called racials stanwood. A story of the 19th century. He used her married name it was published in 1893. Is a disguised biography of the underground androad work of her parents Louis Napoleon. This is where the confusion comes in about what he looked like because in the book, she says, she said he was a light. Ilano mulatto then, in another passage, she said he was dark skin. But he had a underground railroad friend name john. John and napoleon used to work together. This is probably the most accurate description because he said he was cold, cold blood african. In rachel stanwood, it suggested that his name was Napoleon Lewis and he had reversed the words. I dont know if that is a fabrication of lucys, or if that was really the case. There is no way for me to know that. Ok, i am want to talk about Sydney Howard gay. Sydney howard gay onetime said that my ancestry is the best part of me. And he and his descendents are of their new england ancestry. On his fathers side, he was descended from a clinic colony. On his mothers side, he was a descendent of john otis. Napoleon and day grew up in very different worlds. You see, napoleon was born to a woman who was enslaved. He was born in 1800. New yorkbefore that, passed a law saying that children born to enslaved women would have to become indentured servants if it was a female child, until she was 25 years old. For a male child, it was until he was 28. To polling was indentured mrs. Miller at a tobacco factory. A philanthropist purchased his services and immediately sold it to napoleons first wife for 50. So he lost 200 on the deal in order to free this man. A napoleon said he immediately started rescuing people from slavery. Napoleon knew slavery, but Sydney Howard gay did not. Come to an understanding of the evil of the system. Which he did. Sensitive a very constitution. He was ill quite frequently. His father wanted him to become a lawyer and take over his legal practice, so he sent them to Harvard University when he was 15 years old. He became very ill and had dropped out. His father expected that he would go back to harvard, but he refused. He did not want to go back. He wanted to be a businessman. He borrowed money from his father and went to st. Louis, missouri where he squandered the money. Thinking that a man who said, hey, lets go to st. Louis and started trading business. Between st. Louis and new orleans. They went out to new orleans. On the way, down to new orleans, he observed, i think he was influenced by the slave owners who were on the voyage because he wrote a letter to his mother, which was a letter of apology for slavery. It is not what you would expect from an abolitionist. Bookletter is not in our because i did not know about it until last year after i met otiss cousin, beth. She inherited letter she never read. I spoke at the Old Ship Church in massachusetts. Beth came and we stayed up until 11 00 looking at these letters and one of them was really powerful. This is bad, my wife is on the right, and the minister of the old ships church. What i want to share with you is something from this letter. Andey road to his mother said, morally and physically, the phase were a better class of people and happier, too than their freight brother and in the north and east. They are better clothed, fed, lodged, and in every way, more comfortable than even the low class. They are well trusted by their masters. It makes my blood boil. A northerner as i am by birth, by education and by feeling, to look upon the cause these mathematics are pursuing which may these mad fanatics are pursuing. The downfall of their country. This is pretty powerful. Coming from somebody who became one of the most significant agents of the underground railroad in the united states. Old. Very young, 24 years he is very naive. He really does not understand what is going on. He did not get one client in new orleans. I guess the southerners did not trust him because he was a northerner. Whether he said he was in favor of slavery or not. Yet to beg his fathe