At the closing meeting of the PENNSYLVANIA ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, held in Philadelphia, May 5, 1870, the following was unanimously passed:
Whereas, The position of WILLIAM STILL in the Vigilance Committee connected with the "UNDERGROUND RAILROAD," as its Corresponding Secretary, and Chairman of its Active Sub-Committee, gave him peculiar facilities for collecting interesting facts pertaining to this branch of the anti-slavery service; therefore,
_Resolved_, That the PENNSYLVANIA ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY requests him to compile and publish his personal reminiscences and experiences relating to the "UNDERGROUND RAILROAD."
* * * * *
HON. JOHN W. FORNEY, in a letter to the Washington _Sunday Chronicle_, said:
"Slavery and its mysterious inner life has never yet been described. When it is, Reality will surpass Fiction. Uncle Tom's Cabin will be rebuilt and newly garnitured. A book, detailing the operations of the 'UNDERGROUND RAILROAD,' is soon to be published in Philadelphia, by WM. STILL, Esq., an intelligent colored gentleman, which, composed entirely of facts, will supply material for indefinite dramas and romances. It will disclose a record of unparalleled courage and suffering for the right." * * * * *
And again, in a letter to the same paper, Mr. Forney says:
* * * * "A coincidence even more romantic is soon to be revealed in the pages of the _remarkable book_ of Wm. Still, of Philadelphia, entitled 'THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD,' referred to in my last. Mr. Still kept a careful memorandum of the sufferings and trials of his race during the existence of the 'Fugitive Slave Law,' in the belief that they would be instructive to his posterity, rather than from any hope of the overthrow of the revolting system of human servitude * * * he resolved to spread before the world this _unprecedented_ experience. When his book appears, it will accomplish more than one object. Interesting to the literary world, it will undoubtedly facilitate the reunion of other colored families long divided, long sought for, and perhaps to this day strangers to each other. * * * * The volume containing this and other equally romantic yet truthful stories will soon be out, and, _my word for it, no book of the times will be more eagerly read or more profitably remembered._"
* * * * *
The San Francisco _Elevator_ says:
* * * * "Mr. Still is one of the pioneers of 'THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD' in Philadelphia, where he still resides. He has aided more slaves to escape than any other man, Bishop Lougan, of Syracuse, _perhaps_ excepted. * * * * We hope his book will have a wide circulation, as it will be a valuable addition to the history of the anti-slavery struggle _such as no other man can write._"
* * * * *
Having been, during many years, associated with WILLIAM STILL, in laboring for the abolition of American slavery, we heartily bear our testimony to his abundant opportunities for acquiring information relative to the subject of this book; and to his vigilance and fidelity in all the departments of anti-slavery work in which he was engaged, and especially in that department usually called "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD."
We gladly avail ourselves of this opportunity to express our confidence in his ability to present to the public an authentic and interesting history of this enterprise.
_Prominent Members of the Anti-Slavery Society._
LUCRETIA MOTT,
J. MILLER McKIM,
ROBERT PURVIS,
MARY GREW,
E.M. DAVIS,
SARAH PUGH,
DILLWYN PARRISH,
JOSHUA L. HALLOWELL,
HENRY M. LAING,
MARGARET J. BURLEIGH,
EDWARD HOPPER,
CHARLES WISE,
JOHN LONGSTRETH,
J.K. WILDMAN,
JAMES A. WRIGHT.
Certainly no volume ever met with higher or more extensive endorsement. From the time the author announced his intention to prepare a book from his notes and records until it was given to the public, it was the subject of favorable comment by leading minds of the country, without reference to race. Since its publication it has received the endorsement of the Press generally, and of Statesmen, Preachers, Lawyers, Doctors, Students, in fact men of all ranks.
Brief Extracts from Letters to the Author by Prominent Men.
_FROM HON. HENRY WILSON, LATE VICE PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES_.
I have glanced over a few pages of your History of the Underground Railroad, _and I most earnestly commend it_. You have done a good work. This story of the heroic conduct of fugitives from oppression, and of the devotion of their friends, will be read with deep interest, especially by the old friends of the slave in the stern struggle through which we have passed. I hope your labors will be rewarded by a grateful public.
* * * * *
_FROM HORACE GREELEY_.
_Dear Sir:_--For most of the years I have lived, the escape of fugitives from slavery, and their efforts to baffle the human and other bloodhounds who tracked them, formed the romance of American History. That romance is now ended, and our grandchildren will hardly believe its leading incidents except on _irresistible testimony_. I rejoice that you are collecting and presenting _that testimony_, and heartily wish you a great success.
* * * * *
_FROM HON. CHARLES SUMMER, LATE U.S. SENATOR FROM MASS._
The Underground Railroad has performed its part, but must always be remembered gratefully, as one of the peculiar institutions of our country. I cannot think of it without a throbbing heart.
You do well to commemorate those associated with it by service or by benefit--the saviors and the saved. The army of the late war has had its "Roll of Honor." You will give us two other, rolls, worthy of equal honor--the roll of fugitives from slavery, helped on their way to freedom, and also the roll of their self-sacrificing benefactors. I always hesitated which to honor most, the fugitive slave or the citizen who helped him, in defiance of unjust laws. Your book will teach us to honor both.
* * * * *
_FROM JOHN G. WHITTIER_.
The story of the escaped fugitives--the perils, the terrors of pursuit and re-capture--the shrewdness which baffled the human blood-hounds--the untiring zeal and devotion of the friends of the slave in the free States, are well described.
_The book is more interesting than any romance_. It will be of permanent value to the historian of the country, during the anti-slavery struggle.
_I cheerfully commend it to the public favor_.
* * * * *
_FROM J. WHEATON SMITH, D.D._
I am happy to find that material for this interesting work exists. I had feared that much which will be here recorded, would perish with the brave and worthy men who were personally interested. These verities of history contain the interest of romance, and our children's children will read them with wonder and admiration.
* * * * *
_FROM, HON. S.P. CHASE, LATE CHIEF JUSTICE U.S. SUPREME COURT_.
_Your book will certainly be an interesting one. No one probably has had equal opportunities with yourself of listening to the narratives of fugitive slaves. No one will repeat them more truthfully, and no stories can be more fraught with interest than theirs_. Let us rejoice, that, in our country, such narratives can never be heard again.
* * * * *
_FROM WM. LLOYD GARRISON_.
I congratulate you that, after much patient research, careful preparation, and untiring labor, you have completed your voluminous work on "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD." I am sure your work will be found to be _one of absorbing interest, worthy of the widest patronage, and historically valuable as pertaining to the tremendous struggle for the abolition of chattel slavery in our land. No phase of that struggle was so crowded wifh thrilling incidents, heroic adventures, and self-sacrificing efforts as the one you have undertaken to portray, and with which you were so closely connected, to wit:_ "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD." While it will be contemplated with shame, sadness, and astonishment, by posterity, it will serve vividly to illustrate the perils which everywhere confronted the fugitives from the Southern "house of bondage," and to which those who dared to give them food and shelter were also subjected.
* * * * *
_FROM GEN. O.O. HOWARD_.
You could not prepare a work that would afford more instruction and interest to me than a detailed history of the operations of the so-called "UNDERGROUND RAILROAD." _I am delighted_ at the casual examination I have been permitted to give it. Thousands will rise up to call you blessed for your faithful record of our "legalized crime," and its graphic terrible consequences set forth by you in _such true pictures and plain words_.
* * * * *
_HON. CARL SCHURZ, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR_.
I have no doubt you can make the narrative a very interesting contribution to the history of an important period of our national development. It will be calculated to strengthen in the whole American people a just sense of the beneficent results of the great social revolution we have achieved, and to inspire the people of your own race with a high appreciation of the blessings of liberty they now enjoy.
* * * * *
_FROM HON. W.D. KELLEY, CONGRESSMAN FROM PA._
The stories you tell with admirable simplicity and directness of the suffering heroically endured by such numbers of poor fugitives, will instruct and inspire many who have regarded the American slave as a member of an inferior race.
_Office_ "THE PRESS," _Philadelphia, Pa.__My Dear Sir:_--I have read most of the proof sheets of your forthcoming book, entitled "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD," and have just examined the letter-press preparatory to its publication, and the accompanying engravings, and I cannot refrain from stating, that I believe it to be a consummate work of its kind. Its chief merit, of course, consists in its _extraordinary revelations_ of the injustice and cruelty of the dead system of slavery, but it is gratifying to notice that it will be printed and sent forth to the world in so complete and admirable a style, _I commend it most cheerfully as a book that every citizen should have in his library._ Very truly, yours,
JNO. W. FORNEY.
WM. STILL, Esq.
* * * * *
I join very cordially in the preceding statement and recommendation.
HON. MORTON McMICHAEL, _Ex-Mayor of Phila., Editor of N.A. & U.S. Gazette._
* * * * *
I most cordially unite with Col. Forney and other gentlemen in recommending to the public Mr. Still's work, entitled "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD." The thrilling narratives cannot be read, even at this day, without exciting the deepest emotion.
GEO. H. STUART.
* * * * *
I fully and heartily concur in the opinion of Col. Forney respecting Mr. Still's work, entitled "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD."
HON. CHAS. GIBBONS.
* * * * *
Mr. Still's work appears to me to be one of _great interest, and I most heartily unite in recommending it to the public attention._
HON. HENRY C. CAREY.
* * * * *
_FROM, J. MILLER MCKIM._
I have read your book with feelings of mingled pleasure and pride; pleasure at the valuable contribution which it furnishes to anti-slavery history and anti-slavery literature, and pride that you are the author of it.
But the chief value of the book will be found in its main narratives, which illustrate to the life the character of slavery, the spirit and temper of the men engaged for its overthrow, and the difficulties which had to be overcome by these men in the accomplishment of their purpose.
A book so unique in kind, so startling in interest, and so trustworthy in its statements, cannot fail to command a large reading now, and in generations yet to come. That you--my long tried friend and associate--are the author of this book, is to me a matter of great pride and delight.
* * * * *
_FROM HON. JNO. A. BINGHAM OF OHIO._
You will please accept my thanks for the opportunity given me to examine your record of the struggle for freedom by the slave and his friends. It will doubtless be a work of great interest to many of our citizens.
_FROM THE NORTH AMERICAN AND U.S. GAZETTE._
Here is an authority that cannot be questioned, competent and correct by many endorsements, that shows without argument, after the true pattern of Herodotus and the chroniclers, what slavery in America was in the decade immediately preceding its overthrow.
* * * * *
_FROM THE "PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER."_
"Never before has the working of the Underground Railroad been so thoroughly explained. Here we have in complete detail the various methods adopted for circumventing the enemies of freedom, and told, as it is, with great simplicity and natural feeling, the narrative is one which cannot but make a deep impression. Thrilling incidents, heroic adventures and noble deeds of self-sacrigce light up every page, and will enlist the heartiest sympathies of all generous souls. It was eminently just that such a record of one of the most remarkable phases of the struggle against slavery should be prepared, that the memory of the noble originators and supporters of the railroad might be kept green, and posterity enabled to form a true conception of the necessity that called it into existence, and of the difficulties under which its work was performed. The labor of compiling could not have fallen into more appropriate or better qualified hands."
* * * * *
_FROM THE "BALTIMORE AMERICAN."_
Mr. Still was one of the most courageous managers on the Underground Ralroad, and is therefore well qualified to be its historian. He speaks of his own services with modesty, and, in fact, there is no attempt at exaggeration in any one of the most wonderful series of narratives which he relates. Baltimore was one of the great depots from which the trembling fugitives set out on their trip to Canada, and Mr. Still deals freely with the names of person, yet living, who, no doubt, would be very glad if this most extraordinary book had never been published. It was their misfortune to have furnished a number of passengers for the "Underground Railroad," and now they cannot escape being named in connection with the slaves, who dared, everything for liberty.
* * * * *
_FROM THE SAN FRANCISCO BULLETIN._
We have often longed to know how the drab-coated philanthropists of Philadelphia managed to furnish systematic assistance to the slave fugitives, and the desire is now gratified. William Still, for many years connected with the anti-slavery office in Philadelphia, and the chairman of the Acting Vigilance Committee of the Philadelphia Branch of the Underground Railroad, has written a ponderous volume, entitled "THE UNDERGROUND RALROAD." ... He has performed his work well. The volume before us, though containing nearly 800 pages, is not elaborated beyond necessity, and fairly teems with interesting sketches.
_FROM BISHOP PAYNE OF THE A.M.E. CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA._
My official engagements and private duties have prevented me from reading your work on THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, throughout. But such portions as I have had time to read, convince me that as a stimulus to noble effort it has much value. It is also a grand _monument_ of the past struggles of the Angel Spirit of Liberty with the Demon of American Slavery. It serves also as a Beacon Light for our future progress in the upward movement. It deserves a wide circulation through the Republic.
* * * * *
"I cheerfully endorse the above."
S.M.D. WARD. (Bishop A.M.E. Church.)
* * * * *
_FROM LETTER OF HON. EBENEZER D. BASSETT, U.S. MINISTER TO HAITI._
The book must strike everyone who sees it as one of very commendable appearance; and to everyone who reads it, it must commend itself as one of remarkable interest. It is a work which cannot fail to reflect an unusual credit upon the care, industry and sterling ability of its author.
All hail to you, my dear fellow, for your success. When nearly four years ago you spoke often to me about your project of writing this book, I always told you I thought it would prove a success; but I tell you now, candidly, that although I never for a moment doubted your peculiar fitness to prepare such a work, yet I feared that when you came to see the time, industry, care and patience, which it would require aside from your pressing everyday business cares and perplexities, you might stop at the foot of the mountain and abandon the tedious ascent. But you have actually made the ascent and stand now on the top of the mountain. Hurrah for my old friend Still! Hurrah! Hurrah!! Hurrah!!!
* * * * *
_FROM. PROF. W. HOWARD DAY, IN "OUR NATIONAL PROGRESS."_
In his singularly and creditably brief preface, Mr. Still sincerely disclaims literary pretension; but creditable as is this to the author, we may say that the work is in style excellent reading, and that if it were not so, the narratives themselves are so thrilling, possess such a heart-reaching interest, that if these were literary crudities, they would be entirely placed in the background in the concentrated blaze of light which the author pours upon the bloody pathway of these victims of injustice, from 1851, when the terrors of the Fugitive Slave Law began, to the hour when Slavery and Rebellion were washed out in blood, together.
We have not space for a reprint of one of these interesting histories, but we are personally acquainted with the "facts" as related by Mr. Still, and the persons involved, and can attest the truth of the statements made. Some of these parties we have met in their flight, others in their temporary sojourn in the then so-called Free States; others we knew (Harriet Tubman and Moses among them) in their latest and safest refuge, (Canada,) under the protection of the Cross of St. George and St. Andrew. It was due to such that this book should be written. Their heroic deeds, in behalf of personal liberty of themselves and others, deserve commemorating. Their deeds of daring, winning victory at last, in the face of wily and unscrupulous men devoted to their capture, and sustained by the voice, the law and the cannon of the Government, ought to be written in unfading letters across the history of a people struggling upward to enfranchisement. It will teach the coming generations who were our fathers and our mothers; who there were in these years of agony who braved death to secure liberty and who upheld the noble banner of a dying race until their efforts, by God's blessing, made the race rise and live. All thanks to Mr. Still for thus placing this noble record of the free, and those struggling to be free, before the world.
* * * * *
_FROM, THE BOSTON JOURNAL, BOSTON, MASS._
The present volume is a narrative, or rather a collection of narratives, of the adventures of slaves on their way to freedom. The style is perfectly simple and unaffected, and it is well that it is so. The facts and incidents related are themselves so full of interest and dramatic intenseness as to need no coloring. The narratives throughout have the mark of truth upon them, and are based on authentic records. American history would not be complete without some such book as this, written by one within the circle of those devoted philanthropists who were so fearless and unremitting in their efforts for human freedom.
* * * * *
_FROM THE PROVIDENCE PRESS, PROVIDENCE, R.I._
This large volume is full of facts. To read its pages is to bring the past up with vividness. Many of those who fought with the worse than Ephesus' beasts encountered by Paul, to wit, the man-hunters of the South, we knew personally, and their narratives as given in this volume we can vouch for, having received their accounts at the time, from their own lips. Historically the book is valuable, because it is fact and not fiction, although fifty years from to-day it will read like fiction to the then living.
* * * * *
_FROM THE NEWBURYPORT HERALD, MASS._
It is not a romance, but it is a storehouse of materials which will hereafter be used in literature, and be studied, not only by historians, dramatists and novelists, but also by those who will seek to comprehend and realize the fact, that there has been, in this country, a condition of society and law which made the Underground railroad possible.
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD,
* * * * *
BY WILLIAM STILL.
* * * * *
AN AUTHENTIC RECORD OF THE WONDERFUL HARDSHIPS, HAIRBREADTH ESCAPES, AND DEATH STRUGGLES WHICH MARK THE TRACK FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM IN THE UNITED STATES.
* * * * *
This is one of the most remarkable volumes of the century. Its publication has only been made possible by a combination of circumstances which seldom attend the birth of a book. Before emancipation, and while the bane of slavery was on the country, the thrilling facts of this volume could not have been made public. Peace and the blessing of freedom permit their publication, free circulation and unmolested reading.
Of all the thousands who favored freedom for the slaves, who gloried in the odium attached to anti-slaveryism, who witnessed the frequent efforts of the bondsmen to escape, who aided them in their quest for liberty, few dared to take notes of what they witnessed, and fewer still dared to preserve them, lest they should be turned into witnesses against them.
But one man, and that the author of this book, is known to have succeeded in preserving anything like a full account of the workings of the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, as it was called before emancipation. These records grew on his hands during the years he acted as Chairman of the Philadelphia Branch of that celebrated corporation, until they reached the extent of the present volume. They are made up of letters received, of interviews held, of narratives taken down at the time, of real reminiscence and authentic biography. Nothing imaginative enters into the composition of the volume. It is simply succinct history, always startling, sometimes bloody. The annals of no time since the Inquisition are so full of daring ventures for life and liberty or heroic endurance under most trying circumstances.
As a history of the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, the work is most curious and valuable. It tells of an ingenuity and faithfulness on the part of the officials of the road which seems well-nigh marvellous. As its pages reveal the methods by which aid was given to the escaping slave, one is compelled to wonder almost as if he were facing a revelation. The secrets of Masonry are not more mysterious than were the ways of these officials who clothed, fed and comforted the fugitive, while they apparently never knew his name or whereabouts. Even those who never believed in the existence of an UNDERGROUND RAILWAY, or who, believing, cursed its existence, will read its history, at this time, with the relish of astonishment and the zest of discoverers.
But the book has a higher meaning and use. It is curious and hitherto unprinted history to the white race. To the black race, and especially that part of it once slave, it is more than a history of a time of peril. It is for them what Exodus was to the fugitives from Egypt, a history and an inspiration as well. They may learn from it of their heroes and how deeply the love of liberty was implanted in their bosoms. The Swiss never tire of the story of their Tell, nor the Welsh of that of their Glendower. Every nation has its exemplar, whose bravery and virtues are a perpetual lesson and source of admiration. The colored race may now read of its real heroes, its Joshuas, Spartacuses, Tells and Glendowers, among the list of those who silently broke their chains and dared everything in order to breathe the sweet air of liberty. They are not blazoned heroes, full of loud deeds and great names, but quiet examples of what fortitude can achieve where freedom is the goal.
It is time now that the colored race should know something of the steps which led from Egypt to Canaan, something of their own contributions to the grand march of the tribes across and beyond the Red Sea. There are no slaves beneath the starry flag. All may read who will, and what they will. For the colored man no history can be more instructive and inspiring than this, of his own making, and written by one of his own race. The generations are growing in light. Not to know of those who were stronger than shackles, who were pioneers in the grand advance toward freedom; not to know of what characters the race could produce when straightened by circumstances, nor of those small beginnings which ended in triumphant emancipation, will, in a short time, be a reproach.
This History of the hardships and struggles of those of their own race is more for them than for mankind at large. It furnishes the world proof that, though slaves, they were nevertheless men. It furnishes them proof that the heroic abounds in their race as in others, and that achievement follows persistent effort, as well with them as with others. The volume will be not only their admiration but constant encouragement. In its pages one is not invited to hard, dry reading. It is narrative in style, simple in language, and possesses the thrill and pathos of a novel. In all its parts it is an evidence of the saying that "Truth is stranger than fiction."
The author scarcely needs an introduction to the public. He is a scholarly, successful business man of Philadelphia, who has long been identified with churches, charities and every project for ameliorating the condition of his race. His word in all things is as good as his bond. An ardent member of the Anti-Slavery Society, and an active officer of the Underground Railroad Company, he made his book as a business man makes his ledger, viz.: by noting daily the transactions of the day. How he preserved them does not matter much now, but if a certain loft in the chapel of an old cemetery could speak, it might a tale unfold.
The volume is quite large and commanding in appearance. It consists of about 800 pages, clearly printed on beautiful white paper, making the largest book ever written by a colored person in this country.
An attractive feature of the book, one which has added largely to its cost, and one which greatly enhances its value to the reader, is its illustrations. These are over seventy in number, and they are made to illustrate the most striking portions of the work. They represent night escapes and day encounters, on land and river, receptions on the soil of freedom, characters of note among the fugitives, and many of those among the anti-slavery people whose names have become historic. It is seldom a volume is seen which so abounds in apt and striking illustration.
The field for the sale of this volume is immense. It will prove desirable as a curious contribution to the literature of the times, and will be bought in every home North and South, East and West, where reading is cherished. It is pre-eminently the book for the colored race. There is not a colored man or woman in the whole land who will not want to possess it. Even if he cannot read, he will want it for his children. It will be their history and their story for generations.
We have fixed the price at a very low figure, so as to completely answer all pleas of poverty or hard times.
The whole book of _800 SUPER-ROYAL OCTAVO PAGES_ is filled with the thrilling History of the Secret work of the U.G.R.R., giving an authentic account of the wonderful Escapes and Daring Deeds, the Endurance and Sacrifice of men and women in their efforts for freedom. It is BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED and substantially bound, and furnished at the following _VERY LOW PRICES:_
IN FINE ENGLISH CLOTH, PANNELLED,............... $3.00 IN BEAUTIFUL EMBOSSED MOROCCO, GILT CENTRE, ... 4.00
Every book corresponds with above description or the subscriber is not bound to take it.
PEOPLE'S PUBLISHING CO.,
26 SO. 7TH ST., PHILADELPHIA, PA., CINCINNATI, O.,
CHICAGO, ILL., OR, ST. LOUIS, MO.
_FROM THE "NATION," N.Y._
It is, nevertheless, a chapter in our history which connot be skipped or obliterated, inasmuch as it marks one stage of the disease of which the crisis was passed at Gettysburg. It is one, too, for which we ought not to be dependent on tradition; and, all things considered, no one was so well qualified as Mr. Still to reproduce that phase of it with which he was so intimately concerned, as chairman of the Acting Committee of the Vigilance Committee of Philadelphia.
Of all the Border States, Pennsylvania was the most accessible to fugitives from slavery; and as the organization just named was probably the most perfect and efficient of its kind, and served as a distributor to the branches in other States, its record doubtless covers the larger part of the field of operations of the Underground Railroad; or, in other words, of the systematic but secret efforts to promote the escape of slaves.
* * * * *
_FROM THE CHRISTIAN UNION, N.Y._
"The narratives themselves, told with the simplicity and directness of obvious truth, are full of terror, of pathos, the shame of human baseness and the glory of human virtue; and though the time is not yet sufficiently distant from the date of their occurrence to give to this record the universal acceptance it deserves, there are few, we think, even now, who can read it without amazement that such things could be in our very day, and be regarded with such general apathy. When the question, still so momentous and exciting, of the relations of the two races in this country, shall have passed from the vortex of political strife and social prejudice, and taken its place among the ethical axioms of a Christian civilization, then this faithful account of some of the darkest and some of the brightest incidents in our history--this cyclopaedia of all the virtues and all the vices of humanity--will be accepted as a most valuable contribution to the annals of one of the important eras of the world."
* * * * *
_FROM THE "LUTHERAN OBSERVER," PHILADELPHIA._
"It is a remarkable book in many respects. Like the 'Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin,' by Mrs. Stowe, it reveals many of the most thrilling personal dramas and tragedies in the entire history of slavery. That 'truth is stranger than fiction' has hundreds of striking illustrations in this volume, which is a narrative of facts, the records of which were kept by Mr. Still, and are the only records in existence of the famous organization known as the Underground Railroad. It was established for the purpose of aiding slaves to escape from their masters in the South, but its operations were so mysterious and secret that, although everybody knew and spoke vaguely of its existence during the time of slavery, yet none but the initiated knew the secrets of its management and operations. These are now revealed for the first time in this work, and are as strange and wonderful as the most absorbing pictures of romance."
* * * * *
_FROM, THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER, PHILA._
There has been no such work produced by any colored man in the country. "My Bondage and my Freedom," by Douglass, was a remarkable book, and was justly appreciated by the liberty-loving people of the North and of England, but it was the story of a single hero. Comparatively, the same may be said of the lives of Jermain Logan and others. But all these were but the exploits of individuals. The work of Mr. Still, however, takes a broader scope. It is the story of scores of heroes--heroes that equalled Douglass in nerve, and Logan in tact, and excelled either in thrilling adventure.
* * * * *
_FROM "ZION'S HERALD," BOSTON._
"It is a big book in manner, matter, and spirit; the biggest book America has yet written. It is our 'Book of Martyrs,' and William Still is our Fox the Chronicler. It is the 'thousand witnesses' of Theodore Weld, enlarged and intensified. It is more than Uncle Tom, Wilson's 'History of the Anti-slavery War,' or the hundred histories of the war itself....
"The book is well illustrated with portraits of the railroad managers, and with scenes taken from life, and is far the most entertaining and instructive story ever issued from the American press. Everybody should buy, read, and transmit to his children these annals of our heroic age."
* * * * *
_FROM THE "MORNING STAR," DOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE._
"The work is intensely interesting. Many of the narratives thrill the reader through and through. Some of them awaken an indignation, a horror, or a sense of humiliation and shame that makes the blood curdle or the cheek flush, or the breathing difficult. The best and the worst sides of human nature are successfully exhibited. Here heroism and patience stand out transfigured; there selfishness and brutality hold carnival till it seems as though justice had been exiled and God had forgotten his own. The number of cases reported is very large, and the method in which the author has done his work is commendable. There is no rhetorical ambition. The narratives are embodied in plain language. The facts are left to make their own impression, without an attempt to embellish them by the aid of imagination. And the work is timely."
* * * * *
_FROM THE "FRIENDS' REVIEW," PHILADELPHIA._
"We are glad to see this book. We anticipate for it a large circulation, and a permanent rank in a peculiar and painful department of history. The writer is one among very many who are entitled to the hearty support of philanthropists for their services rendered, often at considerable sacrifices and imminent peril, for the rescue and aid of those who were wickedly held in bondage.... The _Underground Railroad_ should have a place in every comprehensive library, private or public.
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