Nat and Lizzy Amby were two of the approximately forty-four individuals who ran away from enslavement in Dorchester County in October 1857. The Ambys settled in Auburn, NY, near Tubman's home, for a time. They moved to Baltimore after the Civil War, rejoining friends and family they had left behind when they fled North to freedom.
During a three-week period in October 1857, over forty slaves ran away from masters in Dorchester County. Though a few runaways had taken flight during September, it was not until the early part of October that a wave of escapes threatened the stability white slave owners imagined they had created after the high profile imprisonment of Reverend Samuel Green and other Underground Railroad operatives in the area. Caroline Stanley, her husband Daniel, and their six children fled Dorchester County in early October with Nat and Lizzie Amby and several other adults in a group of about fifteen runaways....
With masters and slave catchers already on the lookout, another group, nearly twice as large, fled from their enslavers, heightening anxiety in an already tense community. On the evening of Saturday, October 24, twenty-eight men, women and children snuck away from the homes and slave quarters of their enslavers, Samuel Pattison, Jane Cator, Richard Keene, Willis Brannock, Rueben E. Phillips, and Rev. Levi D. Travers. Pattison, in fact, started his day with the shocking discovery that nearly all his slaves, fifteen in number, had “absconded” the night before, leaving him with no labor to operate his farm or, indeed, to cook his morning breakfast.
How such a large number of runaways successfully eluded capture remains a mystery. For two substantial groups of slaves to successfully escape from the same county in less than two weeks was an extraordinary achievement in itself. But that these two large groups of self liberators also brought away twenty children, several of whom were infants, makes their escapes all the more remarkable. Aaron Cornish and his wife Daffney, for instance, brought away six of their eight surviving children, including a two-week-old infant....
It rained heavily over the three days these self-liberators traveled the route to northern Delaware and then to Pennsylvania. Several adult male slaves joined the group; Solomon and George Light, Marshall Dutton, and Silas Long increased the number of freedom seekers to an astonishing twenty-eight runaways.... They were heavily armed, carrying pistols, revolvers, knives and one paw, a three-pronged weapon for “close combat.” The weapons indicated they were not going to be captured without a fight...
Known Freedom Seekers Who Fled With Harriet Tubman 1850-1860
Based on extensive research in archives, libraries, historical societies, interviews with Harriet Tubman (some published, others not published), letters, diaries, account journals, many other primary documents, and interviews with Tubman relatives and descendants of freedom seekers, the following people are known to have fled with Tubman. She is quoted by contemporaries at least six times during 1858-1859 that she made approximately 9 trips and brought away 50-60 people. I have determined that she made approximately 13 trips, but Tubman may have called some trips as one trip because, on a few occasions, she returned to the Eastern Shore from either Wilmington or Philadelphia in quick succession, and then later coiunting them as one trip. A second list will be posted soon identifying the individuals who are known to have fled using Tubman’s instructions and directions
Tubman’s very first rescue mission involved the successful escape of her niece (not her sister, though they were very close in age), Kessiah Jolley Bowley, the daughter of Tubman’s sister Linah. Kessiah was about twenty-six years old when she was advertized for sale by Eliza Ann Brodess, and placed on the auction block at the Court House in Cambridge, Maryland in December 1850. Her free husband, John Bowley, made arrangements with Tubman to rescue Kessiah from being sold to the Deep South. He successfully bid on her and their two young children, James Alfred and baby Araminta, but when the auctioneer called for payment, John had already fled with Kessiah and the children. He secretly put them on a boat and sailed them up the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore where Tubman was waiting on the waterfront amongst friends and relatives already living and working there. Tubman successfully brought them on to Philadelphia and freedom. Eventually the Bowleys settled in Chatham, Ontario, Canada.
Name Date
Kessiah Jolley Bowley December 1850 James Alfred Bowley Araminta Bowley
Moses Ross (Tubman’s brother) spring 1851 2 unidentified men
Unidentified group late fall (possibly 4-5 people)
(In late 1851, Tubman supposedly brought 11 people to Canada, and most likely stopped at Frederick Douglass’s house in Rochester, NY. This trip may have included the above three groups of people, or were a separate group.)
Unidentified 9 fall 1852
Winnebar Johnson late spring/early summer 1854
Robert, Ben and Henry Ross Christmas 1854 (aka, John, James, and William Henry Stewart) Jane Kane (aka, Catherine Kane nee Stewart) Peter Jackson (aka Staunch [Tench] Tilghman) John Chase (aka Daniel Lloyd) Also possibly George Ross and William Thompson Possibly one other unidentified man
Harriet Ann Parker and William Henry Ross Jr. early 1855 and probably John Henry Ross Jr. – wife and children of Henry Ross, aka William Henry Stewart. Harriet Ann Parker was a free woman, daughter of Isaac and Julia Parker of Dorchester County. Harriet Ann and Henry Ross's children were born free.
Henry Hooper December 1855 (and possibly Joseph Cornish)
4 unidentified men May 1856
Francis Molock, Cyrus Mitchell, Sept. 1856 Joshua Handy, Charles Dutton, Ephraim Hudson
Tilly October 1856
Joe Bailey, Bill Bailey, November 1856 Peter Pennington, Eliza Manokey
Ben and Rit Ross (Tubman’s parents) May-June 1857 They were free but under suspicion for aiding slaves to escape when Tubman brought them away.
Stephen and Maria Ennals and Nov.-Dec. 1860 their 3 children, Harriet, Amanda, and 3 month old infant; and one man named John
During this time period, Tubman also provided detailed instructions to another 60 or so freedom seekers who found their way to freedom, including Nat and Lizzy Amby and the 44 described above, on their own. This brings the total number of individuals that Tubman rescued personally, as well as helped indirectly, to approximately 120-140.
Samuel Green Jr., August 1854.
The famous "Dover Eight" in March 1857. Thomas Elliott, Denwood [Denard] Hughes, Henry Predeaux [Predo], James and Lavina Woolford [Woolfley], Bill and Emily Kiah, and an unidentified eighth man. Thomas Elliott and Denwood Hughes later joined several other Dorchester County freedom seekers in Canada, Joe and Bill Bailey, and Peter Pennington (all of whom fled with Tubman in the late fall of 1856), in support of John Brown. They were supposed to join him on his raid in Harper's Ferry, but for unknown reasons they were not with Brown on the day of the fatal assault. Thomas Elliott later married Tubman's niece, Ann mArie Stewart in Auburn, NY.
Fall of 1857, Tubmna gave instructions follwoing her UGRR route north to two groups, over 44 enslaved people from Dorchester County. They were:
Early October 1857. Carolyn and Daniel Stanley and six of their seven children - Dan Jr., John, Miller, and three unidentified - Nat and Lizzie Amby, Hannah Peters , and several other unidentified people. They may have joined this other group who fled at the same time, including William Griffen, Henry Moore, James Camper, Noah Ennals, and Levin Parker.
Late October 1857. Aaron and Daffney Cornish and six of their eight children - Solomon, George Anthony, Joseph, Edward James, Perry Lake, and a two week old infant - Kit and Leah Anthony and their three children - Adam, Mary, and Murray - Joseph and free wife Alice and son Henry, Joe and Susan Viney, and their children, Joe Jr., Tom, Henry, Lloyd, Frank, Albert, and J.W., Joseph Hill's sister, Sarah Jane, Solomon and GEorge Light, Marshall Dutton, and Silas Long, for a total of 28 runaways (excluding free Alice and son Henry.)
The lane leading to the Poplar Neck farm in Caroline County, MD, where Tubman's parents lived and where she met her brothers for their successful 1854 Christmas Day escape.
Read more about these incredible escapes in "Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero," by Kate Clifford Larson. Ballantine Books, 2004
