(1776 - 1856)
This excerpt is from History of the Underground Railroad in Chester and the Neighboring Counties of Pennsylvania by R.C. Smedley, M.D. (Lancaster, PA, 1883).
Enoch Lewis was an active and energetic friend of the colored race. When quite a young man and a teacher at the Friend's Boarding School at Westtown, he was frequently applied to, on behalf of colored persons claimed as fugitives from labor, and in such cases he exerted himself to the utmost to prevent free persons from being carried off as slaves. For upwards of a quarter of a century free negroes were subject to the danger of being sent into slavery on certificates of Justices of the Peace fabricated by kidnappers for the purpose. When a negro was arrested as a slave, all that could be done was to attend the hearing before the justice, ascertain the character of the evidence exhibited by the claimant, and present such proofs of a contrary tendency as could be had. Enoch Lewis was very well acquainted with the law relating to the rendition of fugitive slaves, and his services on such occasions were valuable in keeping the justices, who usually favored their claimants, to the strict line of their duty. It not unfrequently happened that persons supposed to be free were unexpectedly found to be slaves, and that all efforts to .rescue them from the hands of their captors were unavailing. One instance of this kind is recollected. While Enoch Lewis was a teacher at Westtown, he was aroused from his bed before daylight one morning by a negro woman in great alarm, who came to inform him that her husband had been arrested in the night by slave-catchers, and carried off to West Chester.
Her husband was an industrious and well-behaved colored man, who had lived in the neighborhood some eight or ten years, and was supposed to be free. He was taken before the judge of the district at West Chester, and before Enoch Lewis arrived the hearing had begun, and the man had acknowledged that he was the slave of the claimant. Enoch Lewis then proposed to purchase the man, and after some negotiation the master agreed to take $400 for him in cash. Enoch drew up a paper, to which he subscribed his own name as one of the purchasers and in a short time $100 were thus raised. The other $300 Enoch himself paid, taking the negroe's own bond for the money, and manumission papers were therefore executed in due form. As Enoch Lewis's salary as a teacher was then hut $500, his loss of the money vested upon the integrity of the poor fugitive would have been somewhat serious. But his confidence was not misplaced. By small installments every dollar of the money was paid, and the quandom slave established the character of a good citizen. After paying his bond given for his freedom, he purchased a house and lot of some ten or twelve acres of land and lived comfortably and respectably to a good old age.
The residence of Enoch Lewis, at New Garden, was long a station on the Underground Railroad, during the time of Isaac Jackson, its former owner, and it continued to he so, many years after. Although Enoch did not approve of encouragement being given to slaves to leave their masters and he thought no general good would be accomplished by it, if a fugitive sought a temporary asylum beneath his roof or a helping hand on the way, when fleeing from slavery, his claim to hospitality and charitable aid in the name of humanity was not to he denied. When a slave-catcher appeared in the neighborhood, Enoch Lewis was usually one of the first that was informed of it, and a home and carriage to convey the fugitive who was supposed to he in danger of arrest to a safe distance were promptly furnished. Enoch's eldest son, Joseph J. Lewis, of West Chester, informs me that when a boy he was once sent to Nixon's factory on Pickering Creek, with a load of wool in a one-horse covered cart and a colored woman and her child packed in behind the wool, on a report ' that the former master of the woman had obtained a warrant for her arrest and was in search of her. The route taken to Nixon's factory was hy no means the most direct, but was deemed the most safe. It led hy Kimberton where the woman and child were left in the charge of Einmor Kimber, who gave them, the same night, a free passage to the next station northward.
A fugitive once stopped at Enoch Lewis's and remained several days. He was a preacher and had fled from the far South, and, after a series of romantic adventures, effected his complete escape. The narrative of his experiences was so interesting that Enoch Lewis assembled his pupils in his school-room to listen to it. One incident is still remembered. A short time after the fugitive left his master, he took refuge with a colored friend who found him a well-contrived hidingplace. Though well secreted he became forcibly impressed one night, though without any apparent reason, that he was not safe where he was, and that he must immediately seek some new covert. Obeying the monition, he left his place of concealment and, entering a small stream of water which flowed near by, he followed it for a short distance, so that the scent of his foot-steps could not be traced by dogs, till he came to the overhanging branches of a tree of thick foliage. This he ascended, and found himself well hidden within an hundred yards of his former hiding-place. "Jist," said the narrator, "as I'se got fixed, lyin' strait out along a big lim', when here dey come, massa and a dozen more on hoss-back, hollowin' and screetchin', de hosses at full jump, and de dogs yelpin', right up to de little cave whar dey spect to find de poor nigger. But no poor nigger dar. Den de dogs run about from cave to de creek, and from creek back to de cave, smellen' de groun'. De men stamp and thrash about, ride up and down de creek pass my tree. De moon perty bright, but de same good speret what tell me to git away from de cave, wouldn't let 'em see me dar lyin' on dat lim' like a coon."
This colored preacher brought with him to Enoch Lewis's a little nephew, about five years old, whom Enoch reared and educated. Being inclined to adventure, this boy was given his liberty when about eighteen, became steward on a passenger ship plying between New York and Liverpool, and subsequently on a large steamboat on the Hudson, and when last heard from was thus employed and prospering.
The outrages formerly inflicted on free colored people by the slave system, are illustrated by an instance which occurred over sixty years ago. A free negro, residing in the western part of Londongrove, or in one of the adjacent townships, had occasion to go to Baltimore on business. Having no pass from any slave-owner, he was liable to arrest on suspicion of being a runaway slave, under a law of Maryland, and advertised, and if, after a certain number of days, no claimants appeared, the suspected runaway was sold for his jail fees at public auction. The man, in this case, being found without a pass, and knowing no white man in Baltimore to vouch for him, was arrested and thrown in prison, and no person appearing to claim him, he was advertised to be sold on a certain day. Information of the facts having been communicated to Enoch Lewis and his friends in the neighborhood, Israel Jackson, who knew the man, hastened to Baltimore, procured a writ of habeas corpus, proved his freedom, and, after a pretty sharp controversy as to the legal right of the authorities to detain him, obtained his release and brought him away with him.
Evan Lewis, the youngest brother of Enoch, resided in Wilmington, Delaware, and was a zealous and active abolitionist. His house was for many years a much frequented station on the Underground Railroad. The fugitives who came his way were generally forwarded in the direction of Philadelphia, but some, when circumstances required that they should pursue a different route, took the road to New Garden and were committed to the care of Enoch Lewis for such friendly aid as was needed.
By an Act of Congress of February 12, 1793, Judges and Justices of the Peace of the several States were authorized to issue warrants for the removal of negroes and mulattoes claimed as slaves. Under this Act many and terrible abuses were practiced. On fictitious claims, free colored persons were arrested without notice and hurried before justices favoring this species of kidnapping, and sharing with the perpetrators the profits of it. When thus arrested, the alleged fugitives were summarily dealt with. On hasty examinations, conducted with little regard to rules of evidence or considerations of justice, warrants of removal were granted. The victims of these practices, when once fairly within the clutches of these manstealers, were not likely ever to return. They were usually sold to some trader, who carried them far South, whence there was little chance of escape. To put a stop to this odious traffic, it was necessary to obtain a law of our State Legislature, depriving justices of the peace of jurisdiction in cases of claims to fugitive slaves. As justices of the peace were State officers, it was competent to the State Legislature to define their jurisdiction. Enoch Lewis was one of those who made earnest efforts to procure the passage of an Act prohibiting justices from issuing warrants of removal. He called public attention to the subject in various newspaper articles and visited Harrisburg in conjunction with certain members of committees of the Meeting for Sufferings and other Society Organizations of Friends, to hold conferences with members of the Legislature. At length in 1820, by an Act passed the twenty-seventh of March of that year, the object of these efforts was attained.[1]
A good deal of excitement and annoyance in the Southern townships of Chester county were formerly caused by the incursions of slave-hunters from Maryland. These men were generally of loose morals and lawless conduct, profane in language, coarse and brutal in appearance and swaggering in their demeanor. They inspired a feeling of detestation wherever they appeared, none favored their nefarious enterprises except the very lowest and meanest of the population. Among such they were accustomed, not uufrequently, to find spies and informers. A posse of these miscreants once started a negro whom they took to be a slave or wished to make one, from his covert in the neighborhood of Pleasant Garden Forge and chased him to the vicinity of the Forge. The fugitive took refuge in the dwelling of Samuel Irwin, the proprietor of the Forge, and was directed by some of the family to ascend to the second story, which on the opposite side was on a level with the ground, and to make his egress on that side. As the pursuers approached, Mr. Irwin took his stand at the door, which was divided in the middle, one-half being open and the other closed, and standing behind the lower part which was closed, stopped the rush of the party and parleyed with the leader who demanded entrance to search for the fugitive. The men were hot with the chase and fierce and furious, and the leader, w r ho represented himself as the owner of the fugitive, insisted on his right to enter and capture his "nigger," whom he had seen pass into the house. Mr. Irwin met the demand with great coolness and perfect civility, stated that he did not at all believe that the "nigger" was in his house, demanded to see the warrant authorizing the arrest, and by a series of questions in a quiet and gentlemanly tone contrived to detain the claimant and his crew for several minutes before allowing them to enter. When they entered he offered them every facility for a thorough search, conducted them leisurely through every room in his house, opened every closet, and showed them every nook which might serve for a hiding-place. In the meantime, the poor fugitive was busy in putting as much space between himself and his pursuers as possible, and he made so good a use of his opportunity as to effect his escape. Mr. Irwin used to tell of another slave-catcher who, by a singular series of coincidences, was baffled in the pursuit of his pleasant occupation. Passing on horseback by the hut of a negro family on one of the roads near Pleasant Garden Forge, he leaned forward to get a view of the interior of the cabin and was seen to scan with an inquisitive air the family group within. The mother of the family was of large size and determined character. Observing the demeanor of the stranger, and rightly judging his purpose, she suddenly snatched a large butcher-knife and rushed at him furiously. He immediately put spurs to his horse, and getting beyond her reach, pushed on his way*. He had not gone far before he saw a couple of negroes coming out of a bushy piece of woodland trimming ox wattles which they had just cut, while their teams were standing in the road. The slave-catcher, still nervous from his adventure with the woman, suspected that the wattles were intended for him, and not daring to face his supposed antagonists, he turned his horse and rode back a few hundred yards to a place where the road forked. Taking the other prong of the fork, he followed it for a short distance and then happened to see two men, one white and the other colored, approaching him in such a way as to intercept 'his progress, with guns in their hands. Alarmed at this additional manifestation of hostility, the poor slave-catcher hurried back to the Forge, and calling upon Mr. Irwin, claimed his protection against the "niggers" of the neighborhood who, he believed had formed a conspiracy to murder him. Mr. Irwin, perceiving from the man's own statement that the cause of his apprehensions was his own consciousness of his detestable purposes, assured him that if he would take the road leading south and pursue that to the State line he would escape all molestation; but that if he ventured to go in a different direction, he, Mr. Irwin, would not insure his life for an hour. This excellent advice was followed thankfully, and the face of this redoubtable slave-catcher was not seen afterwards in those parts. Verily, "the wicked flee when no man pursueth."
Enoch Lewis was born in Radnor, Delaware county, First mo. (January) 29th, 1776. He was mainly selftaught. His opportunities for receiving an education when a boy were quite limited. Yet having an insatiable fondness for learning, he found the time and means to acquire knowledge by unwearied diligence, and at the age of fifteen began his successful career as a teacher. He was the author of several works on mathematics, one on Grammar, several on religious and moral subjects; edited at different times the African Observer and the Friends' Review, and contributed many essays to leading journals upon various subjects.
On ninth of Fifth mo. (May), 1799, he married Alice Jackson, daughter of Isaac and Hannah Jackson, of New Garden, Chester county, a woman of fine education and of literary taste. She died Twelfth mo. (December), 1813. In Fifth mo. (May), 1815, he married a daughter of Jonn Jackson, of London Grove, a first cousin of his first wife, and woman of excellent mind and more than ordinary culture.
He died Seventh mo. (July), 1856. He was a member of the Society of Friends, as were both his wives, and was scrupulous in his attendance at both the Firstday and mid-week meetings.
An interesting biography of him has recently been published by his son, the Hon. Joseph J. Lewis, long the oldest member of the West Chester bar, and who was employed as one of the counsel in the defense of Castner Hanway; an account of whose trial is given in Chapter Eight of this work.
| [1] | The Act of Congress authorizing "Aldermen or Justices of the Peace to issue warrants of removal of any negro or mulatto, claimed to be a fugitive from labor,” was passed on the twelfth day of February, 1793. ↩ |