The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-03-09
A JOURNEY IN A COFFIN.
How job Yancey Reached FreedOm-Shipped
from Columbia to Providence a Corpse.


from Columbia to Providence as a Corpse.
Boston Special
"Do l remember any incidents of the under
ground railroad that haven't got into print2'
said an old Abolitionist and slave rescuer the
other night, in response to question. "We
there is one story that / don't remember to have
seen in the books or in the papers. In 1859.
just in the height of the agitation, s. our
agent at Columbia, S. c., had occasion to ticket
midole-aged negro, Job Yancey by name
through to Providence by the underground.
Job had sheltered runaway in his cabin, and
had been betrayed by another negro. He
learned the situation, and came to Columbia in
the middle of the night There was no hope of
conceslng him. Our agent had thought of a
new means of shipment that he had never
tried This was his opportunity to try it, for
Job was clear grit, strong, with the well-knit
strength of middle age, and patient as his name
sake
"S-- got out large coffin that he had kept
for the emergency, and into this coffin he put
poor job and with him a quantity of crackers,
cheese, dried meat and a rubber bag full of
water few gimblet holes admitted air. On
the first train in the morning Job Yancey went
OIL, shipped as corpse to chosen address In
Providence. T-ainmen were generally respect
full of the dead in those days. and Job travelled
comfortably for time, barring the hours that
he occasionally lay on some depot platform in the
boiling Southern sun. Travel was slow and
sometimes the treatment was a little rough.
Job, after day or So began to get exceedingly
lame with confinement and pressure, his grim
berth grew irksome, but it was when the loud
shouts and laughter of his own kind died away
around him, and when that and the sckening
chill came over him when they dumped him one
night on the stone floor of cold baggage room
somewhere told him that he was in the North, that
he began to suffer. The mere consciousness that
he was in the North might have buoyed him up,
however, if it had not been for one dreadful cir
cumstance.
"There sort of faint CLEAN around him
that told that it was day, and he must have been
in New York, for he says that he knew that he
had been carried across some water by the SEN
sation of rising and falling that he had felt. He
had felt himself ratified along in wagon, too,
and the wagon had brought up in place where
he had heard the clatter and the roar of trains
again. His coffin dragged violently out of
the wagon, and when his bearers put him down
they stood the coffin against WALTON its head.
Job began to feel the blood rushing to his head.
He felt that he was lost and must die, but he
dared not shout for help. That would mean dis
covery, a delivery to his owners, and worse than
death Better die there even a horrible death
from torture, than be carried back to his mas
ter's plantation. He chung to his determination,
but at last felt his weakened senses give way.
His consciousness. after minutes of agony, which
seemed hours, was lost.
when ne recovered Job had actually arrived
at Providence, and his new-found friends--bet-
ter friends than he had ever known--were using
their best endeavors to restore him. In few
Gays he was able to step out into the world, in
home In chosen village, free man."