From Midnight to Dawn by Jacqueline L. Tobin

Author:Jacqueline L. Tobin [Tobin, Jacqueline L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-48515-1
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2007-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Reluctantly, Parker left his family behind, realizing that to escape with a large group would be next to impossible. He, Pinckney, and Johnson arrived at the home of Frederick Douglass in Rochester two days later. It would have been logical to seek help from the leading abolitionist of the day, but it is interesting to note that Parker and Douglass had al- ready known each other when both were enslaved. Douglass wrote about his involvement in their escape: “The work of getting these men safely into Canada was a delicate one. They were not only fugitives from slavery but charged with murder, and officers were in pursuit of them. … The hours they spent at my house were therefore hours of anxiety as well as activity.”

Douglass and his friends succeeded in putting the three aboard a steamer bound for Canada later that day. Historian Thomas Slaughter has written that “Parker presented his friend [Douglass] with the pistol that had fallen from the hand of a dying Edward Gorsuch as a ‘memento of the battle for liberty at Christiana.’ ”

Upon arrival in Canada, Parker and Johnson heard that Governor Johnston of Pennsylvania was going to attempt to extradite them to the United States. Instead of hiding, the two went to Toronto and asked to see Lord Elgin, the governor-general, who had already received Johnston’s request for extradition. Elgin proceeded to question Parker “as to whether he was a fugitive from slavery or from justice.” Parker explained his situation to Elgin, stating that he would “not be taken back alive” to the United States. Elgin assured Parker that he would not, in his opinion, be required to return. Elgin had no intention of supporting Parker’s extradition back into slavery, as Canada had abolished slavery decades earlier. When other business interrupted their conversation, Elgin asked Parker to return later that afternoon. When he did, the message waiting for him from Lord Elgin was “You are as free a man as I am.”

When the three arrived in St. Catharines, they were aided by Hiram Wilson, who gave Parker a letter of introduction to carry to Henry Bibb of the Voice of the Fugitive in Windsor, who was to help them the rest of the way to Buxton:

Dear Brother Bibb,

It gives me pleasure to introduce to you the bearer, Bro. Wm. Parker, who was the hero of the Christiana battle for freedom and protection against the hellish slave hunters. He is bound for the Elgin Settlement with his family, and in company with quite a number of others, who are destined to the same place. As they are short of means, please have the kindness to favor them when they arrive in Windsor, with such advice and encouragement as may be in your power to render. I have favored them what I could; they deserve our sympathy and ought to have assistance. Yours truly, Hiram Wilson.

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