The father of the Underground Railroad who funded Harriet Tubman’s rescue missions – Face2Face Africa

One of William Stills major accomplishments was teachinghimself to read and write in a period when laws prohibited enslaved Africansand black people in general from doing so.

Despite having little formal education, he was able to read everything available to him and studied grammar. This will become useful in his later fight against slavery and racism.

While risking his own freedom to assist fugitive slaves, Still documented the lives and difficulties of the hundreds of runaway slaves he came into contact with.

This produced his popular 1872 book The Underground Railroad, which remains the only first-person account of activities on the Underground Railroad that was written and published by an African American.

TheUnderground Railroad was a large movement inNorth Americaconsistingof several individuals who worked together to aid slaves in their escape fromtheir captors.

The freedom network began in the 1830s; there were homes and businesses which became known as stations along the route toward the north. These homes provided temporary shelter for fugitive slaves before they continued the rest of their journey.

People like Harriet Tubman who helped these enslaved Africans move from one station to the other were called conductors. Still was, however, known as a station master.

The Underground Railroad extended to Canada in1834 after the latter had outlawed slavery. By the end of 1850, the network hadhelped 10,000 slaves escape to freedom.

Most accounts agree that the stories of themovement would have been lost had it not been the works of Still, who recordedthe networks activities.

Born free on October 7, 1821, in Burlington County, New Jersey, Still was the youngest of 18 children. Both of his parents were born into slavery. His father bought his freedom and his mother escaped slavery, though she had to escape twice after she was caught the first time.

When she finally made it, she had to leave behind two of her children, who were later sold to slave owners in the Deep South.

In the 1840s, Still moved to Philadelphia where he first worked as a janitor for the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PSAS) before rising to the position of clerk. He later married.

Starting a coal delivery business, Still became a successful man and an important member of the black community in Philadelphia. In 1852, he became chair of PSASs Vigilance Committee, assisting fugitive slaves who passed through the city on the Underground Railroad.

His Underground Railroad station (home) became a popular stop for fugitive slaves who were making their way towards Canada.

Tubman, one of the popular conductors, occasionally stopped by his home during her rescue missions. Still provided shelter and food to many of the runaway slaves, and even funded many of Tubmans rescue expeditions.

In effect, Still rescued around 800 slavesthrough his work with the Underground Railroad, earning him the title, Fatherof the Underground Railroad.

Penning down records of the hundreds offugitive slaves he came into contact with, including the sacrifices they madeto escape slavery, Still kept their information hidden until slavery wasabolished in 1865.

Seven years after the abolition of slavery, he published his collected interviews with the runaway slaves in his book The Underground Rail Road. One of the interviews was of a fugitive slave named Peter who turned out to be his own brother.

Being directed to the Anti-Slavery Office for instructions as to the best plan to adopt to find out the whereabouts of his parents, Still wrote. Fortunately, he fell into the hands of his own brother, the writer, whom he had never heard of before, much less seen or known.

Still hired agents to sell his book, which would go through three editions and would be exhibited in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition to remind visitors of the legacy of slavery in the United States.

We very much need works on various topics from the pens of colored men to represent the race intellectually, Still once said of his book.

Today, his book, which is known worldwide, is important not only because of the records of Stills incredible feats and the people he helped but also for showing that Blacks had the intellectual ability and were fearless individuals who struggled for their own freedom.

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The father of the Underground Railroad who funded Harriet Tubman's rescue missions - Face2Face Africa