Tom and Liz’s Big Fight
1847
After almost one entire year of freedom up North, “George” walked one hundred miles south, back into slave territory. As soon as he crossed the border, he took up his former name, Tom, and sneaked into his wife’s slave quarters after dark. He put his hand over her mouth so she would not scream as she awoke. Liz almost fainted at the sight of her husband. Releasing his hand from her mouth, he whispered in her ear, “I tell you, Liz, I ain’t got whole freedom without you.” Tom quickly outlined his plan to ask his master to take him back, feigning he was sick of freedom, and then vanished back into the night.
One year earlier, in the autumn of 1846, Tom and his friend Jim had escaped north, briefly hiding in the basement of the Zion Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. A white woman named Laura Smith Haviland, also known as “Aunt Laura,” saw that they were fed and clothed. Tom dressed in linen pants, a blue-checked gingham coat, and a straw hat. Jim donned thin pants and a palm-leaf hat. The fugitives took new names to further conceal their identities and were secreted to another safe house. Mrs. Haviland made arrangements for them to be taken on to a Quaker community eighty miles farther north. She never expected to see either of them again.
Jim continued on to Canada, but Tom remained among the Quakers, finding work and saving his wages. He continued to wear the clothes he had run away in, patching them over and over until they were near rags. No one knew of his plans to return to slavery. Nearly twelve months after his escape, Tom stole away in the dark of night, returning to Kentucky.
The morning after visiting Liz, Tom walked eight miles to his old master’s house, wearing the tattered clothes he had run away in. Master Carpenter was shocked to see him return to his plantation but even more stunned when Tom spoke.
With a big grin Tom told his former master that he was happy to be back and that he never wanted to leave again. He claimed that the free black man was overworked and underpaid in the North. He told of how he never was given any new clothes and never had enough to eat. Tom shook his head and said, “Abolitioners the greates’ rascals I ever seen. I wants no more ov’ em. They tried hard to git me to Canada; but I got all I wants of Canada. An’ I tell you, Massa Carpenter, all I wants is one good stiddy home.” Then Tom fished the crumpled $80 he’d earned out of his pocket, and with an outstretched arm, he said, “I don’t want this money; it’s yourn.”
Master Carpenter was shocked but pleased to see his former slave and welcomed Tom back. Carpenter bragged of Tom’s return to the neighboring planters, explaining that apparently Tom had left on account of a big fight with his wife. It was clear Tom hated Liz, but he wanted to come back home. Carpenter told them, “He came back perfectly disgusted with abolitionists; he said they will work a fellow half to death for low wages.” Even so, the other masters found it hard to trust a runaway who had sampled a taste of freedom. Tom was warned that if he stepped onto his wife’s plantation, he would be shot. This gave Master Carpenter a good laugh, claiming, “You couldn’t hire Tom to go near Liz.”
Tom became as dedicated and trustworthy a slave as there ever was. At first Lizzie’s master had a bloodhound trained to keep Tom off his property, fearing he might come for her. After a couple months, however, her master became convinced of Liz’s disgust with Tom, and he returned the hound to its owner and let his guard down.
After three months Master Carpenter’s friends had heard enough good things about Tom being obedient, hardworking, and content to be back that they had no objections when Carpenter allowed him to attend slave gatherings on neighboring plantations. They even thought it might be a good deterrent if their slaves heard about the evils of freedom and how abolitionists “pretend to be your friends, but they were your worst enemies.”
Tom appeared uninterested in joining with the other slaves who were socializing, singing, and praying, so Master Carpenter had to urge him to go. Tom insisted on only attending day meetings so the owners could keep an eye on him. He was overheard telling other slaves how awful it was up North.
One day Liz raised a fuss about possessions Tom had left in her cabin when he ran away. She made it known that she meant to burn them or pitch them to the pigs if he did not claim them soon. She wanted no reminder of a man who left her to chase a foolhardy dream that turned out bad. Word was sent to Tom to come to the meeting the following week for his things.
Tom’s master instructed him to retrieve his clothes, perhaps so that he would not have to spend money replacing them. Tom dutifully obeyed and made his way to Lizzie’s plantation. Seeing Liz, he caused a huge scene by hurling insults at her. She retorted with name-calling and said that his leaving did nothing to make her feel bad and she didn’t care if she ever saw him again. The two raised a ruckus, with Liz yelling how she didn’t care he had left and Tom hollering how he never liked her anyway. Tom’s feelings were clear: “I never wanted to see her face agin, an’ we almos’ come to blows.”
Tom and Liz’s act convinced others of their hatred for each other. Secretly they saw each other infrequently and communicated only through a trusted messenger. Several months later, the second phase of the plan was ready.
A holiday was approaching and Tom, who wished to visit his aunt, had no problem getting a pass from Master Carpenter. Likewise, Lizzie received a pass from her master to go see friends. The night before they were to leave, Tom snuck onto Liz’s plantation. Again he covered her mouth so as not to startle her and laid out the details of their rendezvous. The next day after sundown, they both left their respective plantations, with Tom heading six miles in one direction and Liz walking five miles the other way.
They walked until it was dark. Then they each turned toward the Licking River in Kentucky, one of them walking upriver and the other downriver until they met. Away from the watchful eyes of plantation owners, they were free to embrace and speak lovingly to each other before quickly carrying out the third phase of the plan.
Tom searched the riverbank for a usable skiff. This took some time, since boats were often secured to the shore without oars, rendering them useless to possible runaways. After finding a small boat with oars, they jumped in, and Tom rowed off in darkness, pulling north for the Ohio River.
At daybreak they hid the skiff in the brush near the river’s edge, hiding the oars in some undergrowth to retrieve later. Tom and Liz found cover farther inland in a thicket. They felt safe until some mischievous boys stumbled across their skiff, using poles to propel it off the bank for a joyride. It was a close call for Tom and Liz, who had almost been ferreted out while the boys searched for the missing oars.
After nightfall Tom and Liz explored the riverbank for a suitable skiff. Near midnight they found one. Once again Tom rowed hard until close to daybreak, when at last they approached the junction of the Ohio River.
Just when they thought their bondage was a thing of the past, two men beside the Licking River spotted them. They yelled out, asking where Tom and Liz were headed. Tom replied that they were going to market. The men seemed suspicious and inquired what they were carrying in their boat to sell. Tom replied they had butter and eggs and bid them farewell. The men began making their way to a boat at the water’s edge, and at that moment Tom knew he was in for the race of his life.
Forgoing polite conversation, Tom turned his skiff for Ohio’s shoreline and took off, heaving at the oars with every ounce of strength he had. Even with freedom in sight, both Tom and Liz knew that if they were caught, it would likely lead to a fate worse than death. Neither of their masters would take being fooled lightly.
Tom gasped for breath, sweat dripping off his flushed face, and his aching muscles burned as if they were on fire. Halfway across the Ohio River, he nervously glanced behind him to see how close his pursuers were. Apparently, when the men had seen that they would not be able to catch Tom and Liz, they had turned back—luckily they were not armed. Tom felt physically and emotionally drained but was thankful that he and Liz were out of immediate danger.
Once ashore, Tom led Liz to the Zion Baptist Church that had sheltered him the year before. They hid in the basement until Laura Smith Haviland came to see to their needs. Tom remembered Aunt Laura immediately and was quite excited to see her. Mrs. Haviland, in meeting so many fugitives, could not place him at first. Tom replied that he was none other than the man “George” who had come through last summer. He reminded her that she had given him the linen pants, blue-checked gingham coat, and straw hat that she had pulled from her large market basket. Mrs. Haviland remembered having arranged for the two men to be taken in a wagon to a Quaker community. When she asked how he came to pass through again, Tom replied, “It was for this little woman I went back.”
Tom and Liz, renamed George and Mary, joined other fugitives that Laura Smith Haviland was conducting along the Underground Railroad through Toledo and then to Detroit and finally on to the safe haven of Canada.
There is no account of how Tom’s and Lizzie’s masters took the news of their escape. Master Carpenter was surely dumbfounded, if not embarrassed. And it must have brought a smile to Tom’s face knowing that, through his fine acting, he had outwitted the lot of them. Apparently, he had wanted something to do with Canada after all.