Underground Railroad Stories From Harpers Ferry

Ferry to Freedom
Joseph Blanhum

Joseph Blanhum, a free Black man working as a boatman in Harpers Ferry, loses his own freedom to help others escape slavery.

Virginia Free Press in September 19, 1844.

"Free Black Convicted for Aiding Runaway Slaves.  On Monday last, a free Negro, Jo Blanhum, living near Harpers Ferry, was tried by a court of five Justices, on a charge of aiding and abetting the escape of several Negroes  belonging to a Mr. Diggers of  Fauquier.  Blanhum was sentenced to pay a fine of 100 dollars and to be confined in the penitentiary for the term of three years." 

Records show that after several years in the penitentiary, Blanhum resumed his ferryman duties in Harpers Ferry once more.  Whether he continued his support of people escaping slavery is not recorded.

Nuance Notes

The lives of free African Americans and enslaved people were mostly unrecorded in newspapers and court documents. Park researchers first found Joseph Blanhum (also recorded as Blannon and Blanham) when he applied for a deed of trust January 28, 1841. Blanhum appears again in 1843 when he posts a notice in local papers asking for help because “he has lost his freedom papers in the high waters of the recent flood, if found please return them to him"

 

"They would have to take me dead or crippled”

In setting out for freedom, Wesley was the leader of this party. After
two nights of fatiguing travel at a distance of about sixty miles from
home, the young aspirants for liberty were betrayed, and in an attempt
made to capture them a most bloody conflict ensued. Both fugitives and
pursuers were the recipients of severe wounds from gun shots, and other
weapons used in the contest. Read the rest of the story.