Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1919-05-24
STORY Of JIM GREY
CASE IS REC0UNTED
TO D. H. s. STUDENTS
n. L. HOSSACk, SON OF ONE OF
DEFENDANTS IN CELEBRATED
ESCAPE OF NEGRO, GIVES IN
TERESTING MEMORIAL DAY AD-
DRESS.

The story Of the historic Jim Grey
case and Ottawas part in the great
underground railway system connect
/ ing the south with the Canadian bor-
der for the purpose Of transporting es-
capped slaves from bondage to freedom
was Interestingly tola Friday ar er-
noon by II. l.. Ilossack in a Memorial
I day address at the Ottawa High
/ School
Mr. Hossack in recounung the grip
/ ping story Of prewar days said
u am going to tell you about slavery
and incidents which occurred before
( the civil war Before the American
revolution, when still colonies Of
Great Britain, men living in the south
saw that money could be made rails
ing cotton and sugar cane. but it was
( hard to get men to work in the fields
I in that hot climate. Wicked, deprayed
men sent ships to Africa and stole
/ black men, women and children and
+
! work on the southern plantations,
/ That was the beginning of slavery in
( this country. Slaves received no
wages for their toll They simply
were compelled to work They got
their food and clothes, such rs they
which men prize SO highly that they
will die to maintain it. Some were
most cruelty treated, and when their
masters needed money the families
were torn asunder and the father sold
to another master. perhaps to 70
farther south to WORK in the unhealthy
I rice swamps or cane brakes few
years and 10 die with no loving hands
to soothe his dying hours or close his
eyes in death, or it might be the
daughter torn from her mothers arms
to meet even a worse fate than that
Of the father,
THE south. being in control Of the
government even after the north be
came the stronger. enacted the infa
nous fugitive slave law which made
a slave catcher of every man in the
north. Most laws are good, but some
are bad. That law forbade the civ
ing Of even drink of cold water OF
a crust Of bread to poor man who
simply wanted and was trying to oh
tain what we all Want-Our freedom
called aboitionists, who would not
obey this law, but aided the poor
slave on his way to Canada and free
dom They lived in different parts
of the north, and when a runaway
slave crossed the Ohio River he fount
these friends, who hid him duTins
the day and at night sent him to an
other abolitionist farther north lie
in turn would hide him during the day
and at night speed him on TO free
, dom. A planter who was on the tract
, Of his runaway slave suddenly los
all trace of him and said he mus
have escaped on an underground rail
/ road An abolitiOnist had hidden tn
| slave. so when a slave was trying t.
, escape ne was said to travel on thu
! house on the south bluff was a sta
ton on the underground railroad and
while we did not do as much buslnes
, as the railroads Of today, yet as man
t tas thirteen fugitivCs from bOndag
r were quartercd there at one time.
D was quite a common occurrence TO
4 from one to five poor slaves to fin
l. shelter there, Notwithstanding tn
. heavy penalty imposed for such yloIi
e rion of the fugitive slave law, AS
e boy was conductor on the unde'
D ground l. was my business to driv
g the team carrying slaves by night t
! | Harding. Newark or Lisbon, which
d ever route seemed safest from M
v lestation. | used to get pretty sleep
u on the home trip.
t. In the fall of 1859, less than NV
g years before the civil war, jim Gre
d slave who escaped from Richar
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