William Churchman's Daughters as Early Underground Railroad Activists

slavery to freedom

Study Areas Enslavement Anti-Slavery Free Persons of Color Underground Railroad The Violent Decade US Colored Troops Civil War Year of Jubilee (1863)	Underground Railroad Activity of William Churchman's Daughters A 1796 Newspaper Notice Offers Intriguing Clues
SIXTY DOLLARS REWARD. STOLEN from the house of William Churchman, in East Nottingham, Chester County, Pennsylvania, on the first day of November last, a likely NEGRO GIRL, named ESTHER, now in her fifteenth year of age -- very black, with a round face, and large white eyes -- apt to laugh when spoken to, and look down: said girl is supposed to be stolen by William Churchman's Daughters. -- Whosoever will take up the said Negro Girl, and deliver her to Sovren Dawson, in Caroline County, Maryland, or Charles Jones, of the same County, near Dentown, shall have the above reward paid by NOAH DAWSON. May 16th, 1796. The Independent Gazetteer (Philadelphia), 21 May 1796. Introduction The notice above, from a Philadelphia newspaper in the last decade of the 18th century, suggests that Quaker families were already aiding southern freedom-seekers in their flight from bondage well before a network of escape routes and activists, later referred to as the "Underground Railroad," took shape. The notice from the Dawson family of Caroline County, Maryland is brief and offers few details beyond the charge that the Churchman daughters of East Nottingham Township in Chester County, Pennsylvania "stole" the girl Esther. The details behind the events that prompted the notice remain undiscovered, but a careful analysis of the historical context, combined with what can be discovered about the family and places, reveals intriguing evidence of early anti-slavery activism in this region of southeastern Pennsylvania. Published Escape Notices Become Standardized When enslaved people escaped from bondage in 18th century North America, their enslavers typically paid to have an escape notice published in local or regional newspapers. Published escape notices became so common that newspaper editors quickly developed a similar format: a headline offering a reward, then an attention-grabbing exclamation such as "Ran Away" in capitalized bold letters, followed by the date of the escape, a description of the enslaved person, their apparel or any other notable details, and sometimes any additional helpful notes as to where they might be headed, or even where they might be hiding. After only a few decades, enslavers also began adding an "N.B." post script note warning of penalties for aiding escapees. Like other slaveholding families in the states below the Mason-Dixon line who discovered the escape of an enslaved person, the Dawsons of Caroline County, Maryland, paid to publish the notice above, seeking to recover the fifteen-year-old girl Esther, who they presumed to be somewhere in Pennsylvania. According to the notice, Esther had gone missing on November 1, 1795 from the Chester County, Pennsylvania household of a respected Quaker farmer, William Churchman. Pennsylvania was a popular and logical destination for southern freedom-seekers. The state had, in 1780, begun the process of abolishing slavery through a process of "gradual abolition." Anti-slavery sentiment was increasing in the state and was strong in Philadelphia and its neighboring counties. A growing free-Black population made it easier for freedom-seekers to fit in, find work and avoid discovery. The Dawsons, therefore, chose a Philadelphia newspaper, The Independent Gazetteer, to publish their notice of Esther's disappearance. The advertisement above, signed by Noah Dawson, brother of slaveholder Sovren Dawson, appears at first glance to follow the standardized format, but upon close reading differs from nearly all other escape notices in several very important respects. "Stolen," instead of "Ran Away" Noah Dawson began his notice with the sharp exclamation "Stolen." In a legal sense, all enslaved persons who escaped from bondage were "stealing" themselves, as well as the clothing they wore and took with them. But from the earliest published notices in mid-Atlantic newspapers, the verb "steal" almost never appeared in reference to escaped enslaved persons. It was used for livestock if the owner suspected thievery. "Strayed or Stolen" sometimes appeared in ads for missing horses and cattle, but not for people. Noah Dawson was announcing that a crime had occurred with the disappearance of Esther. There were thieves who cajoled, seduced or forced enslaved people from farms and plantations with the intent to sell them as their own property to unaware buyers. There were also kidnappers at work who preyed upon Black children, enslaved and free, carrying them far from home to sell, usually in the deep south. But Noah Dawson, though he certainly believed that Esther was stolen from his family, undoubtedly did not believe the intent was to re-sell her. This overt charge of stealing was intentional, a stronger version of the threats usually found at the end of escape notices, warning anyone from aiding a runaway. Abolitionism and Anti-Slavery Sentiment Grows Anti-slavery sentiment, particularly in the Quaker communities of southeastern Pennsylvania, had been around since the 1688 Germantown Petition against slavery. It grew, slowly at first, until by the middle of the century Quaker meetings were actively discouraging members from holding slaves. Quaker meetings in Chester County became centers of abolitionist agitation. Freedom seekers who found their way across the Mason-Dixon line into Chester County often found aid on Quaker farms in the form of work, bed and board. This type of aid rendered to escapees was a form of passive resistance to slavery. No questions were asked and no assumption was made about their status. Freedom seekers could be viewed simply as sojourners seeking temporary work. Southerners who suspected their enslaved people were hiding out on farms in Pennsylvania border counties were within their rights to come looking for them. The 1793 Federal Fugitive Slave Law allowed them to cross into the state in search of freedom seekers, but the law had no teeth and few Chester County farmers would cooperate with them. As a result, they were usually frustrated in their attempts to track down an absconded slave. In the case of Sovren Dawson's Esther, though, something more appears to have occurred. Abolitionism and Anti-Slavery Sentiment Become Activism Here, the events that brought Esther to William Churchman's Chester County farm, some seventy or more miles from the Dawson family plantation near Denton, Maryland, are missing. Noah Dawson's account simply states that the young enslaved girl, about fourteen years old at the time, was stolen from the Churchman house on November 1, 1795. Had Esther escaped from the Dawson family farm near Denton and made her way north, eventually ending up at the Churchman farm? A search of regional newspapers fails to find any escape notices published by the Dawsons in late 1795. Had the Dawson family been traveling in southeastern Pennsylvania along with a few of their slaves? Some genealogical researchers suggest the Maryland Dawsons had roots or family links in Pennsylvania. Regardless of how Esther came to be in the William Churchman household, several of his daughters, per Noah Dawson's statement, removed her from the farm and either hid her or arranged for her to move on to another location. Despite Noah Dawson's charge of theft, it is extremely unlikely that the daughters' intent was anything other than a humanitarian concern for Esther's welfare and freedom. Their grandfather, John Churchman, had helped establish the original Brick Meeting House in East Nottingham Township. Their father, William, was a longstanding trustee for the Meeting House. William Churchman was an established and trusted member of the community. His name is found in numerous county wills and probate records, serving as a witness to last wills and testaments, as an estate executor, and as a trustee for the minor children of a neighbor, Roger Kirk, in 1762. Clearly, this was an upstanding local family with deep community involvement. With regard to the institution of slavery, the Churchman family of Chester County held strong anti-slavery and abolitionist beliefs. In 1758, when the Quaker Philadelphia Yearly Meeting banned Friends from purchasing or selling enslaved people, denounced slavery, and urged all Friends to manumit any slaves they held in bondage, William's brother John Churchman joined with Friends Daniel Stanton, John Woolman, John Sykes and John Scarborough in visiting Friends who held slaves in order to convince them to give up the practice. William Churchman's nephew George Churchman, son of his brother John, was an avid abolitionist who sent an abolitionist tract to President John Adams, prompting the president to respond personally to Churchman with his views on slavery. William Churchman's Daughters Take Action With such strong family influences -- an activist uncle and cousin and community-minded parents -- it is certain that some of William's daughters took charge of the young teenaged girl Esther in early November 1795 and spirited her from their father's farm to some location where Noah Dawson and his family would not find her. Dawson does not identify which daughters he was accusing of taking Esther. All of the daughters of William and Abigail Churchman were adults in 1795, and it is not known which of his daughters, if any, were actually living at home with their parents. Hannah, the oldest daughter, would have been fifty in 1795. Miriam would have been forty-four years old, Dinah was forty-two, Abigail was forty, and Deborah, the youngest, was thirty-six when Esther was taken. As older adult women, some of whom were married with children of their own, the daughters were clearly capable of the planning and logistics needed to hide a freedom-seeker. Another question is why Noah Dawson published the theft escepe notice more than six months after Esther's disappearance. It does not appear that he had much success in recovering Esther. The notice was published continuously in The Independent Gazzette through early August 1796, during which publication run the wording never changed to add updated information on Esther's whereabouts. This span of time, combined with the six-month gap from her disappearance and his first published notice of her escape, suggests that the Dawson family never recovered the teenaged Esther, and that the efforts of William Churchman's daughters to secure the enslaved girl's freedom were successful.
Notes The stated relationships of the Dawson family are derived from published official records of Caroline County, Maryland. The final will and testament of John Dawson, written 15 April 1796 and probated 14 May 1798, mentions his son Noah and his son Severn (Sovren). Land records document a February 1798 agreement between John Dawson and his son Sovren Dawson. The residence of Noah Dawson at the time of publication of Esther's escape notice is unclear. Accoring to published marriage certificates, he married Margaret Andrew in Caroline County, Maryland on March 3, 1790. A later "Certificate of Removal" to bring an enslaved person into the state of Maryland is dated May 7, 1804, with Noah Dawson's statement: "I came to this state 10 Nov 1803 with my family to reside, with one negro boy named Stephen, abt. 23, the property of my wife Peggy Dawson, daughter of Richard Andrew, obtained as part of his estate." So in 1795 and 1796, it suggests that Noah and his wife were residents of another state, possibly Delaware or Pennsylvania. Details on the relationships of the Chester County Churchman family are derived from several published genealogical sources, all of which agree on details, and on published histories of Quaker activism in southeastern Pennsylvania. As to the question of whether William Churchman's farm was a regular established Underground Railroad site, no evidence exists beyond the clues in the advertisement above. Most published studies of Underground Railroad activity in East Nottingham Township cite more well-known stationmasters and activists, with the notation that many others not named were also involved. Sources The Independent Gazetteer (Philadelphia), 21 May, 03 August 1796. Memo of an agreement made 07 Feb 1798 between John Dawson & his son Sovren Dawson, Caroline County, Maryland, Land Record Book A, page 253, 08 March 1798, "Abstracts from the Land Records of Caroline County, Maryland, 1774-1866." Certificate of Removal, Noah Dawson, Caroline County, Maryland Land Record Book I 1804-1809, page 14, 07 May 1804, "Abstracts from the Land Records of Caroline County, Maryland, 1774-1866." Marriage license, Noah Dawson and Margaret Andrew, 03 March 1790, "Marriage Licenses of Caroline County, Maryland, 1774-1815 (continued)," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 28, No. 3 (1904), p 331. Will of John Dawson, written 15 April 1796, probated 14 May 1798, "Wills from Caroline, Kent, and Talbot Counties of Maryland, 1688-1886." "William John Churchman, Sr. (1721-1798) East Nottingham, Chester County, PA," https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Churchman-83, accessed 01 June 2025. "William John Churchman, Sr.," https://www.geni.com, also https://freepages.rootsweb.com/, accessed 01 June 2025. Abstracts of Wills of Chester County, Pennsylvania, Vol. II, 1758-1777, Prepared by Jacob Martin, Marshallton, Pa. Indexed by Gilbert Cope. 1900, transcribed to "Wills: Abstracts and Administrations 1713-1825: Chester Co, PA (Proved 1762-3, USGenWeb Archives)" Letter, John Adams to George Churchman and Jacob Lindley, 24 January 1801, Documents Relating to 1801, American History, 1493-1945, collection, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, New York.
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