The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1896-02-04
THE TRUE STORY OF ELIZA.
which Formed the Basis of One of the In


for the story of the escape of Eliza,
the slave mother, with her child, across
the Ohio river on the ice. which is fa-
miliar to readers of Mrs. Stoves
s'Uncle Toms CabA,'' were told by
Rev. S. G.. w. Rankin in Hartford re-
Gently. The incidents came within the
personal knowledge of Mr.. Rankin,
and he said that he gave them to Mrs.
Stowe and that she used a younger
woman, who escaped at nearly the
same time, to complete the picture and
make it more attractive and dra-
matte.
As Mr.. Rankin tells the story, his ia
ther's family, living on the bluffs on
the river, were well known as in the
business of helping runaway slaves,
and slaves knew them as friends. 1t
was one Christmas week that Eliza. a
stalwart negro woman, came to the
Rankin house in the night, having
brought her husband across the river
in a boat. He was covered with ice
from the river, the night having been
intensely cold, and the man, who was
not as bright as Mrs. Stoves George
Harris by any means, had fallen into
the water in getting out of the boat.
Eliza was very religious and very de-
termined, and had planned to send her
husband ahead to Canada, intending to
join him with his children afterward.
The husband was sent along and
Eliza crossed the river to Kentucky
that same night, returning to her
mother. She fixed date, two months
ahead, when she would again come to
the Rankin house.
n a no
crossed the river one night in Febru-
ary, when the river was in treacher-
Gus condition, carrying her young
child in a shawl strapped to her back.
The ice was in broken foes, and she
carried board with rope attached to
it by which she passed from one cake
to another. She got across and was
sent to Canada to join her husband.
She still had five children in slavery
and said to the Rankins that she was
going back to Kentucky after them
the following June.
On the June day in question she
appeared in Mr.. Ranl1in's garden,
and she was disguised as a man and
sent across the river, where she made
her way to her former masters planta-
ton and hid beneath the currant
OtiSAlCo III LIS 1IClC SlAC w NlIS-
covered by her Oldest daughter, girl
of II, and at nightfall was hidden be-
meath the floor of her old cabin in the
negro quarters. Sunday, after dinner,
her master and his wife went several
miles away to visit friend, and Eliza,
following the example of the Israel
ties when they despoiled the Egyp-
tians, took blankets and household
10 0f
pounds weight, divided them into
bundles for the five children, and
started on an 11-mile walk to point
on the river which she was to reach at
two o'clock Monday morning. She
had been told to bring nothing but the
children, but she had so overloaded
them with the packages that the small
er ones gave out, and she was obliged
to carry one child little way, a bundle
a little way. and then go back after
another child and another bundle, un-
til she was so delayed that the river
was not reached until six o'clock in the
morning, and the boat that was to
carry her over was gone. It was very
foggy, however, and by walking about
mile and a quarter in the shallow
water of the Kentucky side of the river,
to throw off the scent of the blood
hounds, she reached an anti-slavery
mans house, where she remained all
day.
''That morning." said Mr.. Rankin,
when we expected to have Eliza and
her children safe in Ohio, after the fog
lifted, we saw 81 men on horseback,
with dogs and guns, across the river,
hunting this defenseless woman with
five children. after reward of 81 300.
Communication was opened with
Eliza during the day and she was told
what to do. At nightfall Mr.. Rankin,
disguised as a woman, with party of
young fellows, made a feint on the
Kentucky shore, few miles farther
up the river, and gave the negro hunt
ers lively chase, they suppos-
ing they had track of Eliza The
hunters were evaded, and at the same
time trusted boatman had ferried the
woman and children across to the
Rankin house, where she remained in
hiding for two weeks, being finally
taken to the Quaker settlement in a
load of flour and bran. She escaped
to Canada and lived for years there
with her husband and six children