1858:  William Simms' Journey From Virginia to New York

Interviewed in South Danby, Tompkins County, New York in 1884, Simms said that they traveled only at night, "avoiding the roads and tramping through the briars, gullies and almost impassible ways.  On Tuesday, April 6, 1858, the entire group crossed into Pennsylvania and passed through Chambersburg. The next day one of the group became separated on the way to Carlisle when he stopped to fix his shoe.  Six men arrived on the outskirts of Carlisle that afternoon.  Here they split up, still fearing capture.  Two went straight into the center of town to find an acquaintance they believed lived there, two took a route around the town to the west and two, including Simms, went around the town by the southeast.  The two men who went into Carlisle did not meet up with the other four on the other side of the town, so the remaining four went on to Harrisburg without them.

They seem to have arrived in Harrisburg either in the middle of the night or very early in the morning of Thursday, April 8th.  Having avoided contact with local residents on the entire journey all the way from Virginia, the group had not yet had any contact with the Underground Railroad network.  To the four survivors, the only attempt to contact locals for aid, in Carlisle, had ended with the loss of two companions.  Harrisburg's Underground Railroad workers were therefore unaware of the presence of Simms and his companions in their town.

Unfortunately, Simms and his three companions were spotted in Harrisburg by local residents unsympathetic to their plight.  Simm's interviewer writes "Here they met some men on the street early in the morning who cried 'Them's runaway niggers, sure as Hell!'  The fugitives took to their heels and got away."  They left Harrisburg, apparently, without ever making contact with Underground Railroad sympathizers, as their food ran out this same day.  They continued moving north, following the Susquehanna River, "nearly starving," making their way to Pottsville and then Wilkes-Barre before eventually crossing the state line into New York.

For the complete story of Simms' journey, notes on his life, and some information on the interviewer, see Tompkins County, New York GenWeb site, "William Simms - Fugitive Slave 1858."