The Secret Underground Railroad (A child's Story)

The Secret Underground Railroad

It was bitterly cold this winter. I know so because my Pa used to say he ain’t seen the likes of this kind of cold since the winter of 1840. Well now, that was eight long years ago. Pa loved me a lot and he showed it with his humor and concern. “Katherine” he’d say every night, “You make sure you bundle up before going out and checking on your Aunt Pearl”. It was my job to check up on my Aunt Pearl every night before dinner. Aunt Pearl was my Pa’s only sister and a widow. She lost her husband in the second year of her marriage to an illness and did not have any children of her own. She had a good heart and was kind to everyone and I loved her dearly.

So each night, I’d bundle up and take dinner over to Aunt Pearl and she would tell me the best stories. She had quite an imagination and would make me laugh at her imaginary dwarf who liked to steal the cookies from the kitchens of the genteel ladies of the town. That mean, old dwarf never did get caught but by golly he sure did cause quite a mischief. She had named him Herman. Aunt Pearl would brush my hair for me while she spun her story. It was the best time of my day.

Well, on this particular evening, the snow was falling heavily and the wind gusts could knock a tiny speck of a girl like me over, but I didn’t let it stop me from my nightly visit with Aunt Pearl. I bundled myself up in my woolens and wrapped a thick scarf around my head before packing up her dinner. I grabbed the extra blankets Ma told me to give to Aunt Pearl and ran out the door. Aunt Pearl’s house was on the other side of our barn. Pa and some of the good folk from the town had built it for her after she was widowed. I could see the oil lamp burning brightly through her kitchen window and felt the familiar happy feeling I always got when going to her house.

As I knocked on her door and opened it wide, I knew something was different. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but Aunt Pearl didn’t greet me with her usual tender smile.

“Why thank you for bringing dinner over Katie, but I’m feeling poorly tonight and would prefer to rest here alone. You understand, don’t you love?” She placed her hand on my shoulder and turned me back to the front door.

“But Aunt Pearl, Herman is just about to make his grand getaway from Lady Ann’s cellar and you promised you’d tell me tonight how he does it”.

“Yes, dear, I know, but really, I’m not up to our little story tonight. We’ll finish it tomorrow night”.

She reached for the door as I tried to hide my disappointment. I was about to step over the threshold when I heard a cough from somewhere behind me. Aunt Pearl looked at me with fear and I looked back at her with questioning eyes.

“Aunt Pearl, who’s here?”

Aunt Pearl answered too quickly. “Why no one is here Katie dear. It must have been the wind”.

Another cough sounded and I looked behind me into the small house. I saw nothing. I looked back and knew she was hiding something from me.

“Now Aunt Pearl, I know I heard someone cough” I said.

She looked fretful; then she made a quick decision. She closed the door and lowered the bar into the lock then turned and looked at me with more seriousness than I have ever seen on her sweet face.

“Katie dear, I’m going to trust you with something that is more important than any pinky swear or secret ever spoken. You cannot tell a soul, you hear? Someone’s life will depend on how well you can keep this secret. Do you understand?”

She looked so serious that I couldn’t let her down. She was trusting me and I knew, no matter what, that I would never tell Aunt Pearl’s secret to anyone.

“I swear. I swear I won’t tell a soul, Aunt Pearl” I said.

She looked me in the eyes for a moment, still deciding whether or not to reveal her secret to me, but then her eyes softened and she led me by the hand to the back of the kitchen near the hearth. It was warm by the hearth and there were two rocking chairs sitting opposite each other. To the left of the hearth was a wall with a pantry set flush up against it. To the right, was a narrow hallway that led back to the two bedrooms and a trap door in the floor that led down to a root cellar. Aunt Pearl didn’t use the root cellar since Ma supplied all her meals. Usually there was a rug thrown over the trap door. Tonight, the rug was not there.

Aunt Pearl reached down to grab the handle of the trap door and pulled it up. When it was standing open she stood silently and waited for me to come and look. I walked slowly towards the opening, a little scared at what I would find. It could be a dwarf, just like in her stories. As I got closer, I could see a light glowing from down inside and when I stood at the edge near the steps, I peered in and gasped.

Looking back up at me were two pairs of dark eyes. The first were the eyes of a young black woman and the second were the curious, innocent eyes of her baby son. The mother looked fearful and just then, the baby boy coughed.

“Come on up for a moment Daisy. Come up and meet my niece Katie”. Daisy hesitated and looked more afraid, but Aunt Pearl assured her it was safe. As Daisy climbed the steps, Aunt Pearl took the baby from her and held him close.

Daisy curtsied before me and lowered her eyes. “Nice ta meet you, little missus” she said in a low, whispering voice.

“Hello” I said. “What’s your baby’s name?” I was captivated by his smile.

“He be Elijah”. She still wouldn’t look me in the eye, but slaves rarely did. Pa didn’t own any slaves. He said no man should own another man. It just wasn’t right. He told me that all men were basically the same down at the root of it all and that looking different didn’t change that. His views weren’t popular with the local ranch owners so Pa kept them to himself.

I asked if I could hold the baby and they both agreed it would be okay as long as I sat down in the rocking chair and kept him firmly on my lap. I did so. He was the sweetest baby and he had one new tooth poking through his bottom gum.

Aunt Pearl and Daisy took seats around the fire and when everyone was settled; Aunt Pearl told me a new story. It was one I would never forget and it changed my life forever after that night.

It seems that Aunt Pearl had become part of an underground movement that helped the slaves in the South escape to the North to freedom. There were few and far between “stations” or safe houses for the slaves to hide in, take rest and eat before moving on the many miles, by foot or horse-drawn cart to the next “station”. Aunt Pearl had become one of those safe houses.

She told me that while there was grand talk of women’s rights up in the North, down here in the South, slavery was still the key issue during this election year. The Whig Party’s nominee, General Zachary Taylor, had become the next president of the Union. A slave owner himself, General Taylor did not reference slavery or its issues during his campaign. These issues were becoming more prominent as the southern states demanded enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 for its many runaways and the northern states stood hard and fast against slavery.

Daisy herself had been torn from her own family at an early age as they were all sold at auction to different owners. Her husband had already escaped north last winter. She had received word that he had found work and a place for them to live so he sent for her through the network of abolitionists assisting in the Underground Railroad. She wanted more than anything to be reunited with him and for her child to have the opportunity to grow up a free black man.

My world changed in this one brief moment in time, this one life changing night, I knew I wanted to help slaves find their way to freedom. This night, I became part of the Underground Railroad.

For more information on the Undergrownd Railroad, visit these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/