Barney Ford, Civil Rights Pioneer
1847
Barney turned and looked at the reflection in the mirror. There stood the slight form of a twenty-five-year-old woman dressed in a blue gown and cape with long white gloves. Her head was adorned with a frilly bonnet. Lace encircled her face. Her eyes, a combination of hazel and blue, peered out from a complexion of white and pink powdered greasepaint. The transformation was unbelievable, but Barney couldn’t help but worry what kind of punishment he might receive if he were caught impersonating a white woman.
Barney was born in Virginia on the plantation of Charles S. Darlington, his master and biological father. His mother, Phoebe, had drowned when he was fourteen while trying to make contact with someone who was going to help facilitate an escape. Barney was not about to let his mother’s dream for him to run away and get an education go down with her.
In 1836 Matt Bartlett bought Barney for his brother-in-law, James Fenstanton, but was allowed to keep him as long as needed. Bartlett, a hog and cattle trader, traveled considerable distances transporting his animals. On their long journeys to market together, he read aloud and Barney gained an education about the world.
After three years Barney was sent back to the Fenstantons near Columbus, Georgia, along the Chattahoochee River. Mistress Fenstanton took a liking to him and encouraged Barney to continue learning to read and write by secretly allowing him the use of Master Fenstanton’s library. His education improved a great deal in his seven years with the Fenstantons, but he was warned never to reveal he could read or write, as it was against the law.
In 1846, when Barney was twenty-four years old, his owners moved to Saint Louis, Missouri. Barney was hired out to work on the Mississippi steamboat Magnolia Blossom. The expansive riverboat was something to behold, with its glass-enclosed deck, giant paddle wheel, and powerful steam engine. It traveled from Louisville, Kentucky, down the Ohio River to the Mississippi, all the way to New Orleans then back again. Barney saw more sights than he had ever imagined possible.
While working on the Magnolia Blossom, Barney was befriended by a British Shakespearean actor named J. Anthony Preston, who entertained on board. Preston realized Barney had great potential and thought he would do well if he ever escaped. He told Barney about abolitionists who opposed slavery, and he gave Barney Northern newspapers to read.
About a year later, Master Fenstanton decided Barney’s time on the Magnolia Blossom was over. He wanted him back on the plantation in Georgia. Barney thought about his mother’s dream—freedom and education for her son. Barney trusted J. Anthony Preston with that dream and told him he wanted to be free. Preston realized Barney would never have a better chance to escape than when the riverboat was docked on the Mississippi River next to a free state.
Preston taught Barney how to read the stars by always looking for the North Star, which served as a guide to Canada. He outlined the Big Dipper (also referred to as the “drinking gourd”) as a picture in the night sky. He showed Barney the two stars on the Dipper’s edge that pointed to the North Star, which never changed position. He explained how fugitive slaves used other signs to aid them heading north: to look for moss growing on the north side of trees, and to notice the northerly direction birds migrated during the summer.
Barney also learned about the workings of the Underground Railroad in Quincy, Illinois, but beyond that area Preston did not know who Barney could trust. He warned him to rely on his instincts about whom he should approach along the way. Preston told him local people wearing red handkerchiefs were the ones who could help forward him on, and he gave Barney the code words to use that would help him meet up with his contacts.
As Preston applied his stage makeup for his nightly show in his dressing room, he stared in the mirror. That’s when he arrived at the idea of dressing Barney up as a woman. Applying stage makeup on Barney would be easier due to the advantage of his light eyes and skin.
The next morning after Barney finished serving breakfast, he snuck into the actor’s dressing room. Preston got to work disguising Barney as “Miss Cora May.” Then he had to wake Barney from the trance he had fallen into while staring at himself in the dressing room mirror. The Magnolia Blossom had docked at Quincy, Illinois, and it was time to depart. As they left the dressing room, J. Anthony Preston was engaged in a lively conversation with the charming young Miss Cora May, who held his arm and hung on his every word.
It was a cacophony of noise and confusion on the deck of the Magnolia Blossom. Bells rang above the splashing water from the great paddle wheel. Deckhands yelled directions as they unloaded crates. Hovering seagulls squawked overhead. Outwardly calm but inwardly terrified, Barney sashayed down the gangplank on the arm of Mr. Preston. His heart briefly stopped when the ship’s captain came toward them, but the captain only nodded good day to the actor and then passed by—taking no notice of Miss Cora May.
Preston found a carriage for hire, gave the password to the driver, and assisted Miss Cora May inside. He kissed Cora May’s gloved hand and watched as her fluttering handkerchief waved good-bye from the window. Tears of joy would have ruined his makeup, so Barney composed himself as the carriage took him away on the Underground Railroad.
His first stop was a barn. Inside, Barney was given a chance to clean up and put on men’s clothing. The costume dress and wig were packed to be returned to the actor. Barney hid in the hayloft until evening, at which time he was put in a wagon and covered with straw. He traveled until daybreak, and then once again was hidden in a barn loft. The plan was to forward him to Peoria, Illinois, but word had it that slave hunters and their bloodhounds were scouring the area, looking for runaways.
To avoid capture, Barney’s conductor backtracked. While this seemed counterproductive, Barney realized that he had no other choice but to trust those who were helping him. Barney was given falsified papers stating his owner in Alabama had given him manumission and he was free.
Barney boarded a boat going south on the Illinois River. He worked on the boat as directed, loading and unloading crates. After several days a farmhand wearing a red handkerchief came by to hire some men. He asked Barney in code, “Who’s your friend?” Barney replied, “The North Star is my friend,” and the contact took him on.
Barney was informed that his escape from the Magnolia Blossom had been discovered and an advertisement for his capture had been circulating. Now it was necessary to be forwarded north along an alternate route. He was pointed to a town and told to knock on the door of a certain doctor’s office. He was then whisked to a nearby cellar, where he spent the day. That evening he was hidden in a wagon that took him to a funeral home. Barney was put inside a casket with small air holes and driven forty miles. He was let out, given some cursory directions and signposts, and told that he was to follow the North Star to a town called Vandalia.
Barney traveled at night and hid during the day in fields or woods. When he heard dogs barking in the distance, his heart raced and the hair stood up on his neck. At one point he narrowly escaped a group of patrollers. Muddy, thirsty, hungry, and exhausted, he braved all sorts of weather and walked a seemingly endless number of miles. At times he found churches that offered him food, and at other times he went hungry. But always, he kept the North Star as his compass.
In what would become Kankakee, Illinois, Barney searched for a certain church he’d been told about. He found his next contact and was hidden in the church’s belfry and given food. A few days later he was transported out of town in the false bottom of a vegetable wagon. Barney completed his circuitous route to freedom and arrived safely in Chicago, Illinois, having been delivered to a livery stable.
Barney became friends with the owner of the livery, H. O. Wagoner, and began working with him on the Underground Railroad, assisting many fugitive slaves. In 1849 at the age of twenty-seven, he married Wagoner’s sister-in-law, Julia Lyoni. She had asked Barney to take a surname, as all freemen had, and suggested Lancelot Ford, after a popular railroad steam engine of the day.
Barney L. Ford was destined for success. In 1851 he and his wife set out for the California gold fields by ship. However, when they reached Central America, Barney decided to stay in Nicaragua. He purchased and managed several hotels and restaurants, which turned out to be a successful enterprise. However, political unrest in Nicaragua prompted the couple’s return to Chicago. Barney Ford bought a livery stable and assisted with the Underground Railroad once again.
Barney was then lured west by the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush in 1860. At age thirty-eight he went to Colorado to try his luck. After he was cheated out of his mining profits by a claim jumper, Barney brought his wife and three children to Denver and began a career as a barber and small restaurateur. His business and much of Denver were burned in the great fire of 1863, but Barney borrowed money to rebuild. He became a prominent restaurateur, caterer, and hotelier whose businesses were frequented by presidents and other dignitaries. The well-respected tycoon became one of Colorado’s wealthiest men.
Barney Ford started adult education programs and was highly regarded as a black rights pioneer. He held up Colorado’s bid for statehood until voting rights for black men was approved. In 1992, 145 years after his daring escape, Barney L. Ford was listed as one of the one hundred greatest Coloradoans. Eventually known as the “Black Baron of Colorado,” he was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame.