The Runaway Slave
by Janet Thobaben

This story is based upon a true incident that happened in 1826 to the Peter Sunderland family in Washington Township.

The early morning sun streaked between the tall large trees in the woods.  The rustle of dry leaves announced that the fall season had arrived.  A figure moved quickly but quietly between the great trees.  His black skin shone whenever he passed into a patch of sunlight.  The man was dressed in a tattered pair of pants so torn that they barely covered his legs.  He wore no shirt or shoes.  As he slipped from the woods into a corn field he stooped over and picked up something.  He looked around and then moved into the protection of the tall corn stalks.  The something he had picked up was an old burlap bag that had once held seeds for planting.  Quickly he turned the cloth bag this way and that while he tore at weakened places in the stitching.  Then carefully he worked the bag over his head and thrust his arms through the holes he had made in the cloth.  A smile crossed his face as he enjoyed the warmth the burlap gave his body on the cool fall morning.

Across the corn field came the sound of laughing, squealing children's voices.  The black man darted back into the woods.

Ben Sunderland was chasing his younger sister and brother, Nan and Aaron.  His brother William was tagging along behind imitating Ben's growling sounds.  Ben was enjoying his aggressive role as a wild wolf as only a twelve year old boy can.  The children were giggling and pretending to be fearful of Ben's and William's animal antics.  Suddenly Nan drew in her breath.

"What was that, Ben?" she said.  "Did you see it? I think I saw a man."

"I saw something too, Nan," Aaron added.

Ben stopped growling and peered into the woods by the corn field.

"I didn't see anything, Nan.  But it could have been a deer.  They've been foraging in the corn field before."

William moved next to Ben.

"Let's get on to school.  We're suppose to start the fire this morning.  Father said I was to help you carry wood," he said.

The children moved rapidly on through the corn field.  Nan cast one or two glances over her shoulder as she followed the others.  She knew she had seen a man.

**********

It was some days later that the children passed the same corn field again on their way home from school.  The children were walking quietly.  Ben was tossing a stone from hand to hand in a juggling fashion.  William was following along with a pouting face as he thought of the scolding the teacher had given him at the end of school for pushing passed the girls so hard going out the door.  Nan and Aaron were twisting grass stems into a chain pattern as they strolled along.  Suddenly Ben stopped and smelled the air.  The children looked at him and then they too sniffed.  Ben put his finger to his lips to quiet them before they could speak.

"I smell meat cooking," he whispered.  "Follow me."

He moved into the woods and crouched down.  The others followed in like fashion. There sitting by a camp fire cooking a duck on a spit was a black man.  The children slowly backed out of the woods, their eyes wide as they exchanged glances.   As soon as they were out of sight of the black man they ran home as fast as they could.

Peter Sunderland was repairing a wagon wheel in the farm yard as his two farm helpers, Isaac and Noah, helped hold the wheel steady.  They heard the children coming as they called out to their father.  Nan spoke first.

"Father, we have seen a strange black man in the woods by the south corn field."

"And he was cooking a duck," chimed in Aaron.

Ben moved in front of his siblings.  As the oldest he felt he should give the details.  After all it was his good nose that had led to this strange discovery.

"Father, he truly is a black man.  He was dressed in terrible clothes and all torn too.  Nan thought she saw a man last week when we passed the south woods."

"Yes, I know it is the same man," added Nan.

Peter looked at his excited children and then turned to his farm helpers and said, "Noah, you and Isaac go with the children and fetch that man up here to the house.  He is probably a runaway slave and will be quite frightened.  Try to assure him that we mean him no harm.  A good smile on all your faces will."

The group left in a hurry with Aaron leading the way.  William stayed with his father and asked, "Pa, what will we do to the black man?"

"We'll give him food and shelter, William, and treat him in a Christian way.  The man has probably suffered a lot."

Noah and Isaac surprised the black man as he was eating the duck.  He stumbled to his feet and tried to run but Noah grabbed his arm and Isaac smiled broadly and said, "Hello there fellow.  We's your friends.  We won't do you no harm.  Come on now, just come along with us."

The black man followed Isaac turning and looking at Noah and the children who were all smiling.  He hesitated at the edge of the woods but Isaac, in a friendly fashion, encouraged him to follow.  The black man followed, his head down and his shoulders stooped.  He seemed so dejected.  Nan felt a pang of pity for the poor man.  What must he think of all of them.  If he was a runaway slave he surely would think he was captured.

As they entered the farm yard the black man stopped.  He turned and looked at the children.  Nan saw the fear in his eyes and instinctively touched his hand.  "We are your friends.  We really are," she said.

The children's mother, Nancy Sunderland, was standing on the porch of their lovely new two-story stone house.  She held a tray of food.  Peter had told his wife about the man in the woods and she knew a runaway slave would be hungry.  Grandpa William Sunderland steadied himself on his old cane.  He wanted to be in on the excitement.

Peter extended his hand toward the black man and said, "We are your friends.  We want to help you. By what name are you called?"

The black man looked around several times.  He seemed to find it difficult to understand what was happening.

"I am called John," he said.  "Don't hurt me.  I mean no harm."

Nancy stepped forward and said, "Come sit over here.  This food is for you, John."

John followed the woman.  Maybe it was hearing his name spoken so friendly or maybe it was the open friendliness of the group but he felt he could trust these people.  "Thank ye, Mam," he said.

Nan sat beside John and watched him gobble up the food.  He surely was hungry, thought Nan.

John stood and said, "Thank you, ah, thank you.  I've not tasted bread for over a month.  You're kind folks.  I must be moving on.  I'm much obliged."

Peter suggested that perhaps John should stay for a while until his strength was back again.  He certainly looked like he could use some sleep and good food.  John hesitated.  He hadn't trusted anybody in so long he just couldn't say yes even though he wanted to accept the invitation.  It would be good to talk to another human being again and just be around people and hear them laugh and talk.

"I could use some help, John, and you could sleep out in the barn loft and feel free to go when you think it's best," said Peter.  "Ben, you and the other children get some blankets and make up a pallet for John."

John's eyes softened as he watched the children busily folding the blankets and arguing over the best spot in the loft for a sleeping place.  He remembered his own children and a tear ran down his cheek.

"Why are you sad, John," asked Nan.  "We are going to make you a warm bed."

"You remind me of my own children and I ain't laid eyes on 'em for most of a year." replied John.

Ben stopped stuffing the mattress tick with straw and asked, "How many children do you have, John, and why haven't you seen them for a year?"

"Well, as you all know by now I was a slave down in Kentuck.  I had me a nice wife and three girl children.  I didn't mind hard field work as a slave as long as I had my family.  Then my master up and died and my wife and children was sold off.  Just like that they was all took away.  I didn't even know where they was took.  They wouldn't tell me.  I begged to be sold with them but slaves got no say in what happens," sighed John.  "I stood it as long as I could.  Then I had to get away and I know'd if I kept going north I'd get to free land.  Slaves all the time talk at night around the cook fires about being free up north."

Aaron peered up at John and asked, "How did you know which way to go.  I don't even know the road to Alexandersville or Miamisburg alone."

John smiled down at the little boy and said, "All folks that work the soil and live next to old mother nature know her road signs.  Why, I just followed the drinking cup stars.  They point right straight to the north.  Besides night times the best and safest time to travel."

Nancy called her children to the house to start the supper chores.  The children bubbled over with the excitement of finding John and about his lost family and running away.

**********

Most people in the village of Centerville and the township had heard about Black John by meeting time at the Baptist Church on Sunday. Everyone admired Peter Sunderland's Christian attitude toward the runaway slave. Lots of people discussed the slavery problem and some argued about it.  There was an intense antislavery feeling in Ohio in the early 1820s.  And the presence of a large number of Quakers, who had always been against slavery, influenced the community's feelings about the evils of slavery.  Northerners didn't get much chance to involve themselves in the slave problem but Peter Sunderland and his family when faced with a decision about slavery chose the humane way.

Black John stayed on and became an honest and trustworthy farm hand.  He endeared himself to the family members in many ways.  The delicate corn husk dolls he made for Nan made them the envy of all the little children at school.  He taught Ben how to make humorous and unusual hayrick ornaments out of the hay.  Peter Sunderland's hay stacks were famous the township over.  John and Ben folded each sheaf of hay carefully until the rick of hay was solid and no wind could blow it down.  On top of each hayrick John and Ben made figures of roosters or fish or birds from the grass.  William also learned to make figures from the hay grass.  It was fun.

John moved into the old log cabin at the west end of the stone house that winter because of the cold.  He carved many scoopers, spoons and forks for Nancy and even carved a wonderful face of an old man with a beard on Grandpa Sunderland's cane.  Nan took it upon herself to teach John the alphabet.  She carefully wrote it all out on paper for him.

When the Sunderland's oldest daughter Sarah Sunderland Wilson had a baby, John carved a bird on the head of the wooden cradle.  He was clever with his hands.

Another of Peter's older daughters, Rebecca, came home from visiting and working for relatives in Kentucky.  She had gone to help a sick aunt who had five children needing care.  While in Kentucky Becky had met Benjamin Crissenberry, a young man who took a liking to her.  He made a trip to Centerville in late spring to court Becky.  While visiting with the Sunderlands he noticed Black John and asked about him.  Becky told him how Black John had arrived at their farm and how well he got along with them all.

Benjamin stroked his chin and remarked, "I do believe your black man is a fugitive slave from a big farm near my home.  He seems to fit the description."

Becky quickly replied, "Benjamin, I don't care if he is the same, my Pa says he don't deserve slavery.  He's a good man."

"But your Pa is breaking the law, Becky.  You have to return a runaway.  Why he's somebody's property.  He's worth money to his master.  There's probably a reward too," said Benjamin shrilly.

Becky stood up quickly putting her hands on her hips as she spoke, "Benjamin, well, you best watch what you say around here.  You ain't in Kentucky now and my Pa don't care what the law says about runaway slaves.  He follows the higher law of the good book.":

"He's still breaking the legal law," said Benjamin smugly.

With that Becky brought up an old skeleton from the family closet.  "My Pa is not a man to trifle with when he thinks he knows a right thing.  Why he once was arrested for assault and battery because of what a man said to him.  You better watch your mouth around here," retorted Becky.

A few days later Benjamin returned to Kentucky.  His courtship of Becky had cooled a little.

With her daughter Becky home again Nancy had plenty of help with household chores.  The younger children would be helping with the hoeing now that school was over.  The children had had a nice picnic at school on their last day.  Peter was one of the parents who helped care for the school house.  Black John and Peter worked at repairing the school house floor and mending the fence around the school since Peter's father in-law, Benjamin Robbins, had told him the fence bordering Joseph Ewing's land was broken.  Benjamin Robbins was one of the elected "Fence Viewers" and it was his job to see that fences were kept repaired.  Fences were very important to farmers.

It was late in the summer when word reached Nancy Sunderland by way of her father, Benjamin Robbins, that a small group of Kentucky men were coming to their farm to get Black John who they thought was their runaway slave.  Evidently Benjamin Crissenberry had told about Black John.  It wasn't too many days later that Peter got word that three men were coming up the Deerfield Road from Centerville where they had spent the night in a tavern.  He quickly sent William to stand lookout at the head of the lane at the Deerfield Road.

Old Grandfather Sunderland hobbled out to his porch rocker. He held his cane tight.  His hand clasped around the carved figure at the top of the cane made by Black John.  He was 97 years old but by gum he'd show those Kentuck slavers that Ohio was free soil.  He swung his cane down and hit the porch so hard that Peter spoke to his father.  "Pa, let me take care of this.  I know how you feel.  We won't let them take John."

Down on the Deerfield Road two men and Benjamin Crissenberry were talking.  "This be the lane to the Sunderlands.  I expect we'd best leave our horses here.  Jed can stay with them.  We'll be a lot more successful in our mission if our arrival is a surprise," said Benjamin.

"There's a boy climbing that cherry tree, Benjamin.  We'd best circle round and pass him quiet like, " said the older man.

Poor William had already gotten tired of looking for the strangers.  Besides he was getting hungry.  "Maybe I'd better eat a few of those ripe cherries before the birds get them," he thought.  With that he climbed up the cherry tree and started stuffing his mouth with the lively red cherries.

Benjamin and the older man easily slipped by William in the tree and proceeded up the lane.  It was Grandpa Sunderland that first saw them.  "They're coming up the lane, Peter," he shouted in his rasping old voice.  He tried to stand but he only succeeded in giving the chair two great rocks that almost tossed the old man backwards.

Peter wondered why William hadn't warned them so they could hide John.  In an instant he grabbed the large corn cutter.  Its sharp edge glistened in the sun as he moved down the lane toward the two men.  Quickly he grabbed the older man by the collar twisting it and raising the corn cutter in a menacing fashion over the man's head.  Benjamin was taken back by the aggressiveness of Peter.  He remembered what Becky had said about her father being arrested for assault and battery.  Peter shouted in a big voice, "Run, John, run, I'll hold them off.  Nancy get some food for John!"

Nancy, Nan, Aaron and Ben had all been standing and watching the unfolding drama.  Quickly all four of them moved into action scurrying to get supplies for John.  John needed no more advise.  He quickly climbed to the loft in the barn where he had made his home.  Gathering up his few belongings he wrapped them in a scarf.  He carefully folded the paper on which Nan had made an alphabet for him and tucked it into his pocket.  When he jumped down the last two steps of the loft ladder, Nancy and the children were already there with supplies in a sack that he would need to survive on a journey north.

Nan grabbed John's hand and he patted her on the head.  "Missy Nan, you, Aaron, Ben and William have blessed me by letting me do for you like I'd do for my own children," said John.

"Run, John, like Pa says," shouted Ben.  John remembered his danger and without another word he sped out of the barn into the pasture and in a moment had entered the woods where the children had first seen him.

Peter made the men stay for over an hour.  During that time he let Benjamin know that he considered him a treacherous fellow and that he would never be welcomed at his home again.

Black John was never seen or heard of again.  The Sunderlands hoped that he would find a home and freedom somewhere else.

Nan and the boys often talked about Black John.  "Well, he may be gone," said Nan, "but we have lots of things to remember him by - my dolls, Grandpa's cane."

"He showed me lots too," added Ben, "I's going to show my children how to build a grain sheaves maze like he showed us, and how to make hayrick figures."

Peter Sunderland was a hero in his community for the compassion he showed toward the runaway slave but more important he gave a legacy to his children that they always remembered and appreciated.

Centerville Historical Society, 1980