Ashtabula County has gained for itself a just renown by reason of its position upon the anti-slavery question.  At an early day the citizens were agitated upon the fugitive slave law, and their attitude upon the rendition of slaves gained for them some degree of notoriety.  No county in the State took higher grounds upon these subjects than did this.  It is probable that the early religious influences will, in part, furnish a reason for this fact.  The old Puritans were celebrated for their love of liberty.  No people ever accomplished more in the way of resistance to oppression than did they. England to-day owes very much for its constitutional freedom to this once despised people.  Hume, in his “History of England,” says, “The Catholic religion had ranged itself upon the side of monarchy, the Protestant on the side of liberty.”
     “The precious spark of liberty had been kindled, and was preserved by the Puritans alone; and it was to this sect, whose principles appear so frivolous and habits so ridiculous, that the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution.  Nothing but a pious zeal which disregards all motives of human prudence could have made them entertain hopes of preserving any longer these privileges.”  In speaking of King James I. he says, “The more he knew the Puritanical clergy the less favor he bore to them.”  “He had remarked in their Scottish brethren a violent turn towards republicanism and a zealous attachment to civil liberty, — principles nearly allied to that religious enthusiasm with which they were actuated.”  This radical character their descendants have inherited.  After their settlement in New England the colonies prayed “for the continuance of civil and religious liberties.”  During the times of Cromwell the sympathies of the Puritans were with the struggle against oppression.  After the restoration of Charles II., Connecticut was especially successful in securing chartered liberties.  There never was any betrayal of the cause on the part of that commonwealth.  The descendants of the Connecticut colony brought the same love of liberty to their new homes in the wilderness of Ohio. Bancroft says of the Independents in England, “They gradually became the advocates of religious liberty and the power of the people.  This tendency cropped out at last when oppression in a new form came to be apprehended in all its evils.  The Puritans of New England and of the west were the first to abhor the atrocities of American slavery.  They were ready to put themselves as a bulwark of defense for the rights of the oppressed, as before they were willing to make sacrifices for their own rights of conscience.  Human liberty was as dear to them as religious liberty.” 
     We have already spoken of two vessels—the “Griffin” and the “Mayflower” —as representing different civilizations.  Protestantism and liberty landed from the “Mayflower” upon the New England coast; popery and monarchy were represented by the French explorers.  In the same year of the landing of the “Mayflower” a Dutch vessel entered Jamestown harbor.  That vessel contained a cargo of slaves.  Thus three different systems were introduced by three different nationalities.  America inherited the institutions of Europe, and partook of its different forms of civilization.  All along through the ages it became a question which should prevail upon this continent,—Puritan liberty, papal despotism, African slavery.  It is singular that the tides which began to beat all along the sea-shore should meet here upon the borders of this lake.  Fortunately, the contest between the French and the English was decided before the settlement of this county.  The influences which came in through the mouth of the St. Lawrence never reached the south shore of Lake Erie.  They expended themselves upon the northern coasts.  Not so with those which found lodgment at the south.  They spread themselves over the whole southern territory, and at last sent up their tide to meet the Puritan influences which had landed upon the New England shores.  This was the place where these two great forms of civilization met.  Here Puritanism and slavery contended. “There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.”  It was inevitable; the two systems could not exist together.  When fugitives came panting from the house of bondage to this asylum, those who had in the person of their fathers escaped from the oppression of the Old World were in readiness to receive them.  The citizens of Ashtabula County were worthy sons of the New England fathers.  When the fugitive slaves came to their doors they found shelter and protection.  They seemed to remember that their fathers had also been fugitives from oppression, and that America had become their asylum.  Their offspring could take no backward steps.  The same language which had been used by the colony of Massachusetts after

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* Mainly contributed by Rev. S. D. Peet.

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the return of Charles II. was the language of their hearts.  “The civil liberties of New England are part of the inheritance of their fathers; and shall we give that inheritance away?  Is it objected that we shall be exposed to great suffering ? Better suffer than sin.  It is better to trust the God of our fathers than to put confidence in princes.  If we suffer because we dare not comply with the wills of men against the will of God, we suffer in a good cause, and shall be accounted martyrs in the next generation and at the great day.”  They felt that the fugitive slave law was the violation of the rights of humanity.  Long before it was accepted in the halls of congress the citizens of this county adopted the doctrine of the higher law.  They felt that it was better to obey God than man.  They were early called upon to put into practice the very principles which they had unconsciously adopted.  For some reason this county became the resort of fugitive slaves.  As early as 1834 they began to escape from their oppressors and to seek a refuge in this vicinity. The proximity of the Ohio river to the lake made this route the nearest.  It was lamentable that nowhere within the bounds of the United States the poor black man was safe from his oppressors.  England had declared an emancipation.  The spirit of Wilberforce stood upon the banks of Lake Erie inviting the refugees to escape to its shores, but liberty was beyond the waters.  Only by the aid of the friends of humanity could the oppressed escape the clutches of their masters.  Fortunately, there were true, brave hearts who were willing to meet the vengeance of the law and the wrath of the oppressors if they might save some of these trembling captives who came to their doors.  Narratives have been told of the scenes of those days which carry us hack to the dark times of the struggle of American freedom.  We almost breathe again the stifled air, feel the oppressor’s lash, hear the opprobrious epithets and the bitter words which in those days so stirred our sensibilities and caused our bitter feelings to arise within us.  It is well for us to remember from what a nightmare dream we have awakened.  Thank God, we are free!
     The various cases of fugitive slaves which made their resort in this region awakened the attention in their behalf.  There were many friends in different parts of the county who made it a point to harbor them.  There was a regular line, or “underground railroad,” extending from Wheeling, on the Ohio river, to the harbor at Ashtabula.  There were regular depots at which fugitives stopped and were carried on their way by the friends of the slaves.  Whenever it was known any of them had arrived, it was expected as a matter of course that the citizens would feed them.  No one knew who fed them, but they were cared for and sent on their way.  A certain vessel, too, was relied upon to take them.  If slaves reached Ashtabula County, they always escaped.
     The Anti-Slavery society of Ashtabula County was formed June, 1832: Amos Fisk, president; O. K. Hawley, vice-president;  A. E. Austin, recording secretary.  There were also local anti-slavery societies established in various parts of the county.  One was formed in Ashtabula in January, 1837.  These different societies continued through the whole period of the anti-slavery contest.  The Colonization society was the more conservative, but was itself strongly opposed to the system.  The subject must have engrossed public attention, for in the year 1837 the Fourth of July was celebrated by meetings of the two anti-slavery societies, one in Kingsville, and the other in Ashtabula.
     Ashtabula County had a noble record during the whole anti-slavery conflict.  She chose one of her own sons, a man who had endured the hardships of pioneer life, who had been trained up under the influences and become imbued with the spirit which prevailed here; one who, if not born in the county, was from the stock which constituted her true citizens, and who had received his entire education and promotion here, and put him forward to fill one of the highest and most responsible positions in the gift of the nation.
     The choice of Joshua R. Giddings as a representative to congress at this trying time reflected great honor upon the judgment and sentiment of the people.  But the sustaining of the man through all the trying emergencies of his eventful career was one of the grandest things in the history of the nation.  Never will it be forgotten that old Ashtabula was so true to the right when the right was unpopular and the wrong was in the ascendency.  No storm of faction, no rage of his enemies, no imprecations which were hurled at his defenseless head disturbed the confidence which they had placed in the man of their choice.  While the tide of unpopularity rolled over him threatening to engulf him, while the storm of passion and prejudice was aroused from every side, they stood true, and like a rock presented themselves a bulwark to liberty.
     There is no doubt but that the strength of Mr. Giddings was in his constituency.  He knew on whom he relied.  His heart beat in sympathy with their hearts, and he expressed sentiments which he knew to be dear to them as their own life.  We do not wonder that the man was bold and daring in the fierce conflict, for he knew the hearts of the people whom he was representing.
     There were three parties in Ashtabula County during the latter part of the anti-slavery struggle.  They were the old Democratic, the Whig, and the Free-Soil party. These divided the sentiment of the people somewhat, but it may be said that the Free-Soil party at last gave tone to the sentiments of the people. There may have been some extreme measures proposed and the expressions were oftentimes decidedly radical, but it was this very determined spirit which gained the victory.  There was a conviction lying back of these expressions which could not fail to have force.  If the advocates of anti-slavery lost all patience, it was because they realized the evils of the system as few others did.  The very fact that fugitive slaves made this their asylum awakened minds to the subject and stirred the sensibilities of the people.  In order to show the intense feeling that prevailed in some localities, we take the following extracts from the Ashtabula Sentinel, published in Ashtabula, December 21, 1850.  This was in the height of the anti-slavery excitement under the administration of President Fillmore.  A public meeting of the citizens of Hartsgrove was held for the purpose of taking action relative to the fugitive slave law.  Out of fifteen resolutions passed we quote the four following.  We doubt whether any public meeting of the present time could frame such resolutions, for their language is the result of the intensity of the thought and feeling which prevailed only then.  They are as follows:
     “Resolved, That we hold the fugitive slave law in utter contempt, as being no law, and pledge ourselves to despise the conduct of the makers of it for their utter destitution of principle, as well as for their reckless violation of the constitution of these States, which they were sworn to support;
     “Resolved, That sooner than submit to such odious laws we will see the Union dissolved; sooner than see slavery perpetual we would see war; and sooner than be slaves we will fight
     “Resolved, That Herod made a law in regard to male children; King Darius made a law in regard to Daniel; Duke George made a law in reference to Luther John Bull made a law in reference to the American colonies; and, meanest of all, congress made a law in reference to fugitive slaves; a law to strip us of our humanity, to divest us of all claim to Christianity and self-respect, and herd us with blood-hounds and men-stealers, upon penalty of reducing our children to
starvation and nakedness.  Cursed be said law!
     “Resolved, That we will not aid in catching the fugitive, but will feed and protect him with all the means within our power; and that we pledge our sympathy and property for the relief of any person in our midst who may suffer any penalties for an honorable opposition or a failure to comply with the requirements of this law.”
     An editorial in the same paper says, “The underground railroad through this section of the State is doing a fair business nowadays.  Two fine-looking 'chattels,’ fresh from 'Old Virginia,’ passed up the fourth range of this township, last week, en route for Canada.  We learn that they met with no difficulty in finding food, shelter, and necessary assistance in their course. . . . The voice of our people is, 'Constitution or no constitution, law or no law, no fugitive slave can be taken from the soil of Ashtabula County back to slavery.’  If any one doubts that this is the real sentiment, they can easily test it.”
     There is an account also in the same paper of the escape of a mulatto, a slave.  Being straight-haired and light-complexioned, he represented himself successfully as a white man.
     There is no doubt but that the sympathy for the fugitives and the abhorrence of the evils of slavery made these sentiments palatable.
     There was a great deal of prejudice against Ashtabula County during those days, but it was a prejudice which was founded in wrong and sprang from the passions which would sustain that wrong.  If there were those who were extreme in their views, yet the diversities of party held the balance well poised.  The radical element had some force, but there was conservatism mingled with it.
When Abby Kelley and Foster and Parker Pillsbury came into the county, they were listened to with respect, but their sentiments did not obtain.  There were those who sympathized with them, but, unlike other counties, there was no actual disruption and division made by them.  In many places churches were divided, friends were torn asunder, and society was disturbed.  When they said the constitution was a covenant with death and a league with hell; when they denounced the church and the clergy for their position;  when they sowed broadcast the seeds of discord and infidelity, the religious sentiment of the people here revolted.  There is no doubt the people were anchored by their faith, so that the storm of passion did not drive them to sea or leave them wrecked amid the breakers.  They were anchored to a rock.  If there were those who made a wreck of faith in their devotion to freedom, the majority of the people were held firm.  It was this very conviction, so deep, so abiding, and so true, that prevailed.  It was fastened to the eternal principle of right, and anchored to God himself.  Commonly and steadily this conviction made its way.  It entered deeper into the hearts of the people; it had force with the nation; it ruled the councils; it controlled the parties; and at last was triumphant.

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      When the madness of the oppressors became so unbounded that they would submit to no constitutional vote and yield no authority, but resolved to make slavery a corner-stone for a new confederacy, the people realized what spirit had ruled them.
     In this connection we publish the following, written by a member of the Blackstring band, a resident now of Andover. It is an interesting

CHAPTER OF HISTORY

     Among the many instances showing the devotion of the citizens of Ashtabula County to the cause of the slave, I venture to narrate some of the events preceding and following the memorable attack on Harper’s Ferry by John Brown and his handful of followers, as illustrative of the fact that no part of the United States was more devoted to human liberty.  And I do so for another reason,—to perpetuate a scrap of unwritten history.
     It will be remembered that a secret convention was called by Brown at Chatham, Canada West, May 8, 1858, at which convention a provisional constitution and ordinances for the people of the United States were adopted.  During the following winter Brown crossed the border from Kansas into Missouri, liberated seven slaves, and deliberately accompanied them through Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan to Canada.  Between March 20 and 30 Brown was in Cleveland, where he advertised and sold the horses he took with the slaves in Missouri, giving everybody notice that the title to the horses might be defective.  Early in April, Brown Kagi, who was Brown’s secretary of war, Captain Stevens, and others arrived in West Andover.  Brown’s Sharp’s rifles and other warlike material were shipped to this place, and stored at King & Brother’s cabinet-manufactory, on the Creek road, in Cherry Valley.  Thence from about the 1st of April, 1859, West Andover became, so to speak, for a time the headquarters for the immortal undertaking of revolutionizing this government by means so out of proportion to the magnitude of the enterprise that most men not acquainted with John Brown believed him to be insane; but to those who knew him,— who knew the depth and fervor of his religious sentiments; his unwavering trust in the Infinite; his strong conviction that he had been selected by God as an instrument in His hands to hasten the overthrow of American slavery,— to such he seemed inspired rather than insane.  In a conversation I had with him the day he started for Harper’s Ferry, I tried to convince him that his enterprise was hopeess, and that he would only rashly throw away his life.  Among other things, he said, “I believe I have been raised up to work for the liberation of the slave, and while the cause will be best advanced by my life I shall be preserved; but when that cause will be best served by my death I shall then be removed.”
     The result proved that his sublime faith and trust in God enabled him to see what others could not see.  He had so lived that, though dead, “his soul went marching on.”
     I do not purpose writing a history of the attack on Harper’s Ferry, but something seemed necessary as an introduction to the action of our citizens in relation to the immediate results of that historic enterprise.  The forces with which Brown made his attack consisted of seventeen white and five colored men.  In addition to these a few were stationed outside of the town, and two I believe were left at the Kenneda farm.  A few of these escaped, Owen Brown being one of the number.  Merriam, a young man from Boston, one of the fugitives, made his way to West Andover, and was received and cared for by the writer.  A few more were in the vicinity; and Owen Brown, after resting for a short time in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, came to West Andover, and went to his brother’s, John Brown, Jr., who had moved from his residence on the Creek road, in Cherry Valley, to Dorset, with whom he remained for some time. 
     The narration of these events after eighteen years have elapsed seems tame and spiritless.  The young can have no conception of the terrible excitement that was produced all over the country.  But a large portion of the readers of this will well remember, and remembering will know that no words of mine could depict the reality.
     The United States senate ordered John Brown, Jr., to appear before a committee of their body and give evidence.  He refused to obey, and their sergeant at arms was instructed to take him to Washington.  Grave apprehensions were
felt by the citizens that an armed force was to be sent not only to arrest John Brown, Jr., but to take Merriam, Owen Brown, and other fugitives who were in the vicinity.  If taken it was believed their speedy trial, conviction, and execution would follow as a matter of course.  Under these circumstances a number of the citizens of West Andover met for consultation, and resolved that they would attempt to defend these men with their lives if need be.  Signals, signs, passwords, and a badge were agreed upon, by means of which members of the association could know each other.  A place of rendezvous was agreed upon and arms procured, and all solemnly pledged themselves to be in readiness at the slightest warning.  Persons from surrounding townships came forward to join this association, and as knowledge of its existence extended new associations or lodges were organized; and as this went on, to insure uniformity of work and harmony of action, an affiliated secret society was formed.  A State lodge was organized, and finally a United States lodge. 
     This order increased with great rapidity.  Its object was the overthrow of slavery, and designed to act politically and in a revolutionary manner, if necessary, for the attainment of that object.
     In the initiatory ceremonies of our lodge at West Andover a pistol was used that was presented by the Marquis de Lafayette to Washington.  This pistol was brought by one of Brown’s men, who escaped from Harper's Ferry.  It will be remembered that Brown sent a squad of men who arrested Colonel Washington, and took his arms, the night of the assault on Harper’s Ferry.  This pistol was afterwards sent to the owner.
     It is difficult to say what the result would have been if the War of the Rebellion had not put an end to slavery, and with it all necessity for the longer continuance of the order of the Independent Sons of Liberty.
     Members of this order were called “ Blackstrings,” from the badge which they wore, which was a black string or ribbon tied into the button-hole of the shirt-collar.
     The records of the war are known, but from the time that the agitation began, and in fact thirty and even fifty years before the outbreak of civil war, the county was loyal; but it was a loyalty to humanity, to principles, and to God, rather than to any party or partisan leader.  The constitution was upheld so long as it was properly interpreted, and its spirit was carried out.  But when the spirit of slavery undertook to make it an instrument of oppression and a rod for the oppressed, the sentiment of the people revolted against it.  It was never held by the majority of the people of this county that the constitution should be overthrown, the Union dissolved, or even the slaves by force set free.  All through the Mexican war, the discussions in reference to the annexation of Texas, the admission of Oregon, the forming of new States, the sympathies of this people were with the north.  During the Kansas struggles also, and the discussions of the squatter-sovereignty doctrine and the Dred Scott decision, and in all the cases that came up in the anti-slavery conflict, the county was consistent with itself.  Joshua R. Giddings and John Quincy Adams stood side by side, and so, we may say, old Massachusetts and old Ashtabula were together in this conflict.  There were no extreme measures advocated, or at least indorsed.  There was no fanaticism cherished, but the people were true to their convictions.  It was known in congress that the county and the district would sustain their representative, no matter what storm of faction should be raised against him or obloquy thrust upon him.  Even Ben Wade, the old warhorse of anti-slavery, was sure of defense at home.  And through the conflict, while Joshua R. Giddings was battling for freedom in the house, he stood up manfully for its defense in the senate.  Few counties ever had such a record.  Two heroes from the same county—yes, from the same place— in the two halls of congress, both contending for the same cause, and both conscious that they were sustained by the people at home!  It was more like the days of Grecian daring, when Ajax and Achilles were contending before the walls of Troy.  No blandishments of Priam, no corruption of gold, no fear of suffering, no dread of conflict, shook the heroes in the strife.  They were sustained by an army of voters, who, with weapons more deadly than steel, and with shields more enduring than brass, were ready to stand up and meet danger and death.  It was the banner of duty that led them in the conflict.  It was the shield of integrity, it was the armor of right, that defended them. No bulwark could resist them.  The citadel of slavery was bound to be destroyed, and her walls do lie prostrate, never again, we trust, to be rebuilt.

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