Arthur Shaffer was living at 813 South Mulberry Street in Muncie when he was interviewed about his grandfather, Hillery Chavious, whose ancestry was African American, Native American, and German. Freeborn in 1833, Hillery, one of fourteen children, lived near Richmond, Virginia. Knowing what free- dom meant and seeing the misery of blacks held in slavery, Hillery, only seventeen, and his two older brothers helped slaves escape from southern plantations to freedom.
The Chavious brothers secretly went into the fields during the day and the slave quarters at night and offered to help slaves escape. They arranged to meet the runaway slaves on a particular night at a designated spot, from which the runaways were taken to a hiding place, perhaps a stable loft, a haystack, or, in emergencies, a place in the woods where they were covered with brush. They gave the runaways food and water and hid them until the roads were safe to travel. Then they took them to the next station on their flight across the Mason-Dixon Line.
The slaveholders generally organized a group of men with bloodhounds to chase the escaping slaves. The dogs were allowed to sniff shoes or pieces of clothing of the runaways to give them a scent to track. Rarely did the dogs leave a track until they were dragged from the heels of the terrified slaves. Sometimes when overtaken by dogs, escaping slaves climbed up trees or on buildings. They rarely were bitten if they had the courage to stand still. To throw the dogs off the scent, though, the Chavious brothers carried the runaways the last half-mile, for with the slaves’ feet off the ground, the dogs could not pick up the scent.
The Chavious brothers moved from plantation to plantation helping slaves escape. They estimated that they moved at least 200 slaves over the Mason-Dixon Line into freedom.