The Underground Railroad
Arrival from Hartford CO., 1857
JOHN MYERS.
John fled from under the yoke of Dr. Joshua R. Nelson. Until within two years of “Jack’s” flight, the doctor “had been a very fine man,” with whom Jack found no fault. But suddenly his mode of treatment changed; he became very severe. Nothing that Jack could do, met the approval of the doctor. Jack was constantly looked upon with suspicion.
The very day that Jack fled, four men approached him (the doctor one of them), with line in hand; that sign was well understood, and Jack resolved that they should not get within tying distance of him. “I dodged them,” said Jack. Never afterwards was Jack seen in that part of the country, at least as long as a fetter remained.
The day that he “dodged” he also took the Underground Rail Road, and although ignorant of letters, he battled his way out of Maryland, and succeeded in reaching Pennsylvania and the Committee. He was obliged to leave four children behind—John, Abraham, Jane and Ellen.
Jack’s wife had been freed and had come to Philadelphia two years in advance of him. His master evidently supposed that Jack would be mean enough to wish to see his wife, even in a free State, and that no slave, with such an unnatural desire, could be tolerated or trusted, that the sooner such “articles” were turned into cash the better. This in substance, was the way Jack accounted for the sudden change which had come over his master. In defense of his course, Jack referred to the treatment which he had received while in servitude under his old master, in something like the following words: “I served under my young master’s father, thirty-five years, and from him received kind treatment. I was his head man on the place, and had everything to look after.”