Riding the Railroad   By Melissa Tawn   The Underground Railroad was a pre-Civil-War organization dedicated to helping runaway slaves reach Canada and freedom. Sometimes it used VERY unconventional means.

CHAPTER 1. HIGH FARM

The year is 1850, the place is a farm in Missouri, about 20 miles from St. Louis. There is a big bold sign on the road in front of the farmhouse, proudly stating the name in big red letters.

People kept on joshing David Gorlitsky, the farmer, about the second “h” in the name being in the wrong case, and he kept on saying that he would fix it one of these days, but he never did. The neighbors took this for pure laziness, but there was really another more compelling reason. The sign was a sign, and a well-known one at that, among those who were in the know. There were a total of eight farms, situated at strategic points in the prairies, all of which had names which began and ended in “H”, something that could be seen and recognized even by a person who could not read and write. These were more than farms — they were stations, stations on one of the main lines of the Underground Railroad for slaves escaping from their masters in the states along the Mississippi River and making their way, across the prairies and the Dakota country, into Canada.

The Gorlitsky farm was one of the major stations in what became known as the “H line”. Runaway slaves would arrive at the farm, usually hidden in a hay wagon or some other covered vehicle. There Hannah and Edna Gorlitsky, the stationmaster’s wife and daughter, would look after their wounds, give them food and rest, and a change of clothes. Indeed, the cellar of the Gorlitsky farm looked like a clothing store, with outfits of all description, including uniforms of the (nonexistent) Royal Jamaican Militia and even clerical robes.

David’s son worked in a print shop in St. Louis and, after hours, he would run off false documents of various sorts, which could be filled in to create a false identity that would, hopefully, stand up under cursory examination. Often, individual runaways would band together in a group and would be given papers attesting to the fact that they were settlers headed for Minnesota Territory under the aegis of the (nonexistent) Baron Fleury de Monsarrat, who was bankrolling a settlement of freedmen to grow special varieties of grain and rice on the northern prairies, for exclusive export to France. The genuineness of these documents was attested to by a document from a M. Henri de la Courtault (nonexistent) First Secretary of the French Embassy in Washington City, complete with fancy seals and ribbons. Other escaped slaves would be given genuine forged certificates of freedom, signed and notarized by nonexistent judges and honorable landowners in Cincinnati, New York, or Fort Wayne.

The guides who would take them to the next station, called “conductors”, would meet at the Gorlitsky farm to coordinate information about risks along the way, and plan alternative routes. The location of Congregationalist and Methodist churches, which served as emergency places of refuge, was also disseminated and updated.

CHAPTER 2. THE BRIGHT PASSENGER

The escaped slaves travelling along the lines of the Underground Railroad were called “passengers”. The vast majority of them were young adult males, strong from long hours of work in the fields, who were capable both of escaping from their masters in the South and of standing up to the rigors of the long trek. When women accompanied them, they were usually as tough and sometimes as muscular as the menfolk. It was therefore with surprise that Hannah, one day, beheld a new arrival, called Will. Unlike the others, he was short and wiry. He was also very “bright”, in the sense of being light-skinned: he obviously had a considerable amount of white blood in him. Unlike most of the other passengers, he was relatively educated and could read and write not only in English but also in Spanish. Not only was he literate, but he was clearly widely-read as well. The other escaped slaves in his group, all from the same plantation, seem to have taken him along with them more as a talisman than as an active participant in the escape plan.

Will arrived at HigH Farm in very poor physical shape. He had been a “house slave” and was clearly not used to walking long distances or going with very little food and water. The group which brought him (often literally carrying him on their backs) did not want to leave him behind but it was clear that he could go no farther, while they could not stay long in one place. Missouri was full of bounty hunters tracking down escaped slaves and it was known that this group was too big to go unnoticed for long. David Gorlitsky heard a lot of disturbing news in St. Louis, and told them that they had to move on as soon as possible, and must leave Will behind. Another conductor would take him to Canada when he was able to travel, and they could wait for him there, if they wished. Reluctantly, the group of escapees left around midnight, leaving Will in a bed, with Edna Gorlitsky applying herbal compresses to lower his fever.

Will was still bedridden, though recovering, when the bad news about his group arrived: they had been ambushed by slave catchers near the Cedar River in Iowa. Three had been captured and two more had been seriously injured, among these the group’s conductor. The rest of the group scattered and were now trying to make their way northward individually and without help. Their chances of crossing the trackless and often waterless badlands and prairies, and of getting through Indian country safely, were unfortunately quite slim. Everyone grieved at the tragedy, but also realized that they were in immediate danger. From past experience, David Gorlitsky knew that the recaptured slaves were likely to be tortured in order to get them to reveal the location of the stations they had passed through. The HigH Farm station had to be “cleansed” and all signs that it was anything other than a peaceful farm had to be temporarily eliminated. It was imperative that Will be moved out as soon as possible. But he was still so very weak.

CHAPTER 3. A LADY AND HER MAID

The Gorlitsky family and some of their supporters from St. Louis met that night to work out some sort of stratagem. Several ideas were proposed, and discarded as being beyond Will’s endurance. Finally, Edna suggested something very daring. “Will is about my size,” she said, “let him wear one of my dresses and present himself as a woman.” Beginning with that notion, they worked out a complex story. Will would be disguised as Lady Wilma Hamilton, the wife of a British-born Jamaican planter (this would help “explain” his coffee-colored skin) travelling up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers on her way from New Orleans to Canada to visit her husband’s relatives in Ontario. Edna would accompany “Lady Hamilton” as her maid and companion until they reached Louisville, Kentucky, where another conductor would take over to lead “her” northward. They would be travelling on the St. Louis Bride, a river boat the captain of which was a sympathizer who frequently hid runaway slaves on his vessel. Since “Lady Hamilton” would be feeling unwell, she would stay in her cabin most of the time, while Edna would coach her in how to pass herself off as a female.

Edna feared that Will would not agree to the plan, but, surprisingly, he showed very little reluctance and allowed himself to be dressed in one of Edna’s best frocks, which fit him surprisingly well, as did her shoes. Edna did his hair as best she could, and covered it with a big bonnet. They then packed two trunks, one for “Lady Wilma” and a smaller one for her “maid”, and set off by buggy to St. Louis. There they were given documents prepared for them during the night, including letters of introduction from the American consul in Jamaica, the New Orleans business correspondent of “Lord Hamilton”, and from a purported friend and business associate of the aged senator Henry Clay of Kentucky. They also carried a (forged) letter of credit on Barings Bank of London, in the sum of 5,000 pounds, and a (real) letter of credit on Pontchartrain Bank of New Orleans in the sum of $500, to be used in case of emergency only. Captain Hopper of the St. Louis Bride had arranged for them to use an empty first-class cabin gratis, and they settled in there without arousing suspicion. They were ready.

The next morning, they were on their way. Edna brought breakfast to the cabin, since “her ladyship” was not feeling well and could not make her way to the dining room, and after the empty plates had been returned to the kitchen, she began teaching Wilma how to act like a lady. Only there wasn’t much to teach … Wilma seemed to know it all already. When Edna showed her surprise, Wilma told her to sit down, and began to explain.

“As you know, I was a house slave on the plantation of Judge Thomas DeWitt, as was my mother. I have no idea who my father was but the rumors persist that it was Judge DeWitt himself. Judge DeWitt had three daughters, all slightly older than me, and his wife had died as a result of her last childbirth. My mother looked after all of us together and, since Judge DeWitt was absent from the plantation for long stretches of time, she was the effective mistress of the house. I grew up feeling as “one of the family”, and not as a slave, and was treated as such by the girls and by the judge. That, by the way, is the real reason the others in the group of escapees brought me along with them and why they were so reluctant to leave me behind; I was a form of protection for them, as long as they had me with them, they believed -- probably correctly -- that the judge would give strict orders not to shoot at the group.

“We grew up very close, and the girls delighted in dressing me up in their clothes and calling me their ‘sister’. At first, I cannot say I enjoyed it, but I was a slave, after all, and had to go along with whatever they wanted. Even my mother could not protect me. After a while, however, I must admit that it was a lot of fun. The judge thought it was fun too, and when he was at home he would insist that his ‘four little girls’ be present. My mother’s protests were feeble at best, since she too was worried about what he could do to her if he but wished. And so I learned how to dress, and act, and comport myself like a belle of the Deep South. On the other hand, I was also educated along with my ‘sisters’ by tutors, who did not know my real identity.

“As we grew older, the girls tired of the game, and I spent more and more time as a male. Nonetheless, they would at times dress me up as a girl when men would come courting, and often giggle with glee as some pimply-faced young blade would try to curry favor with me, or even (on more than one occasion) try to kiss me when he thought we were alone. I cannot tell a lie — I enjoyed flirting with them too, and was quite capable of returning their kisses. After the boys left, the ‘girls’ would sit up all night in our shifts and compare our experiences.”

Edna was highly amused at the story, and hugged Wilma. “In that case,” she said, “things are going to be much easier than I had feared, and much more fun as well.” For the rest of the morning, she tested Wilma’s feminine behavior, making her act out various situations which they were likely to encounter. Wilma passed with flying colors, and even was able to modulate her voice to a very acceptable feminine register. Edna felt so much better that she suggested that Lady Hamilton was ready to make an appearance in the dining room with the other passengers.

Edna dressed Wilma with particular care, lacing her corset very tightly in order to force the appearance of cleavage (enhanced with tissue paper). Wilma smiled and told her how she and her “sisters” always believed that corsets were invented by the female house slaves in order to torture their mistresses. “Some day,” she said, “women are going to be liberated enough to do without corsets.” But she endured the ordeal bravely, as Edna squeezed her waist until her body fat produced a semblance of a bosom. It was all worth it, of course, when she was able to fit into the dress which Edna had selected for her. Since her hair was not long enough to be properly styled, she wore a bonnet which matched the dress. Edna of course, being just her maid, dressed very plainly and acted as obsequiously as she could as Her Ladyship entered the dining room. But she was pleased to see that many of the men had taken notice of their entrance. This was definitely going to be interesting.

Edna looked around the dining room carefully and then whispered to Wilma. “Do you see that group of four men sitting in the corner? The one with the white hat and string tie is Randolph Clarke, a notorious bounty hunter and slave catcher. I know him well and, unfortunately, he also knows me and believes that HigH Farm is part of the Railroad, though he has never caught anyone there. I suspect his companions are of the same ilk. It may be just a coincidence that they are on the boat with us, but we cannot be sure. Try to avoid them as much as you can.” Edna remained nervous the rest of the meal but the men, though they had obviously noticed “Lady Hamilton’s” entrance, did not make a move to approach them or show any sign of interest. After an uneventful and rather tasty meal, the ladies retired to their cabin.

That evening, they decided that it be best that Wilma remain in the cabin, indisposed, and that Edna bring dinner to her. As she was leaving the kitchen with a basket of food, she was unexpectedly stopped by Randolph Clarke, who had obviously been lurking in the corridor which led to her cabin. “I do declare, Miss Gorlitsky, it is a pleasure seeing you on board. Are you and your dusky friend taking a holiday?” “My ‘dusky friend’, as you call her,” replied Edna icily, “is Lady Wilma Hamilton from Jamaica. You can confirm that with the captain, if you don’t believe me. Since her travelling companion decided to stay in St. Louis, she hired me to accompany her on her trip as far as Louisville, where I have some important business to attend to. I imagine that you and your friends will not be travelling that far.” “Actually,” replied Randolph, “we will be, for we too have important business in Kentucky. I would not be surprised if our business interest and yours may even coincide.” “I doubt that”, replied Edna, “for my business is very personal. I am going to meet my fiancé and his family.” “Congratulations,” replied Randolph, “the young men in St. Louis must be very upset that such a beautiful lady has spurned them all in favor of someone from so far away.” “As you well know,” replied Edna, “I am of the Jewish faith and there are, unfortunately, very few young men of our persuasion living in St. Louis. That is why my parents arranged a match for me with someone from Louisville. He is a brilliant lawyer, and is looking forward to moving to Missouri and starting a practice.” “I wish him the best of luck,” replied Randolph. “In the mean while, I hope that you and Lady Hamilton will do us the honor of joining us for dinner.” “I am afraid that Lady Hamilton is not feeling too well, and will be dining in her cabin this evening,” replied Edna. “And now, if you will excuse me, this food is getting cold.”

When Edna closed and locked the door to the cabin, she realized how much she was sweating. It was clear that Randolph Clarke suspected Wilma, and that he and his friends would have the two ladies under constant surveillance for the rest of the trip.

The St. Louis Bride stopped frequently to pick up and leave off passengers at small jetties along the river. Several times, Edna noticed that Randolph Clarke stood near the gangplank as though he was awaiting somebody to join him. The next morning, when she went to pick up breakfast for her mistress, she noted that the group around him now numbered six people. By that afternoon, when she went to get more food, it had numbered seven. Something was clearly afoot. Edna told Wilma about her conversation with Randolph, and about the unspecified “business” which was clearly bringing a large group of bounty hunters to Louisville.

Louisville, Kentucky, was a major hub in the Underground Railroad, with three major lines leading from it across the Ohio river to Indiana and from there to Michigan, from where the runaway slaves were transported to Canada. (The foremost of those lines went from Louisville to Madison, Indiana, to Fountain City to Fort Wayne to Dekalb, and from there into Michigan.) Most of the 20,000 or so escaped slaves who make it successfully into Canada travelled along those lines and some of them, such as Thornton Blackburn, later played major roles in the development of Toronto as an important city. Though a “southern” city in character in which slavery was legal, Louisville had many opponents of slavery (ten years after the events of this story, Kentucky would refuse to secede from the union and Louisville became an important military center for the Union armies) who helped finance and run the Railroad. If bounty hunters were converging on Louisville — and both Edna and Wilma doubted that the group on their boat was the only one doing so — it might represent a major threat to the entire escape enterprise.

CHAPTER 4. THE PLAN

What to do? Edna thought that when they reached Paducah, she could arrange to have a fast messenger sent to Louisville to warn the people at the station there, but Wilma pointed out that unless they had more concrete information, there was very little to warn about. Somehow they had to get more information out of Randolph Clarke. “He won’t talk to me,” said Edna. “He doesn’t trust me.”

“Well,” replied Wilma, “maybe he will talk to me.” Edna objected that it would be too dangerous for Wilma to talk to Randolph. He is an intelligent man, and if he guessed Wilma’s real identity, then she was very unlikely to survive — after all, accidents involving passengers falling overboard into the paddlewheel happened frequently. “I am just going to have to risk it,” replied Wilma. “The lives of many people may be at stake here.”

The next day, Wilma joined Edna in the dining room and smiled discretely at Randolph Clarke, when he happened to look in their direction. A few moments later, Edna went over to him and invited him, in Her Ladyship’s name, to join their table. He excused himself to his companions, and followed her back to her table, where he greeted Wilma, who extended her hand in a very ladylike manner. Mr. Clarke looked at it carefully and then put it to his lips and gently kissed it, as would be expected of a gentleman. (Wilma and Edna, of course, had rehearsed this gesture many times — and Edna had spent hours buffing Wilma’s nails to a fine polish and applying various creams to her hands, to make them soft and ladylike.) Without speaking, she motioned for him to sit. “I hope that your Ladyship is enjoying the trip,” he opened. “Very much so,” replied Wilma, “though I have been somewhat unwell. I am not used to your food, I am afraid.”

“Yes,” replied Randolph Clarke, “I know that things are different in Jamaica. I have a good friend who lives there, about five miles south of Luana.” “Your friend must have gills then,” smiled Wilma, “for that would put him right in the middle of Black River Bay.” (Again, Edna smiled to herself; her father had insisted that they take along a map of Jamaica for Will to study, and that precaution -- which she had thought unnecessary -- had just paid for itself.) “I am sorry,” Randolph Clarke corrected himself, “I had meant to say ‘east’”. “Oh yes, replied Wilma, he must be near Lacovia then. Our estate is on the other side of the Island, near Hope Bay, so I am afraid I do not know the people from there.” It was a game of “geography poker”. Wilma was bluffing her way through, but obviously so was Randolph Clarke, and he was the one to blink first, by folding and changing the topic.

“Will your Ladyship be staying long in Lousiville? If so, I would be honored to act as a guide to some of the more cosmopolitan sights of the city.” “I am afraid not,” replied Wilma, “I am anxious to continue my journey to Toronto as soon as things can be arranged. Besides, I understand that you and your friends have business in Louisville, and I would not like to detain you.”

“Yes,” replied Randolph Clarke, “but there is always time to entertain a beautiful lady. After several days on a river boat, it is good to see the sights of the city.”

“That is true,” added Wilma, “and I do thank you for your offer. Can your business wait for a day or so, though?”

“Actually,” replied Randolph Clarke, “it will be over with in short order. I expect that all will be done within 12 hours of our arrival in the city. I have many friends already there, who are just waiting for me to arrive before we set our plans in motion.”

“It sounds very mysterious,” smiled Wilma, as she exchanged glances with Edna. Here was the clue they were waiting for. “Not at all,” laughed Randolph Clarke, “we are just a group of law-abiding citizens doing our duty to insure that the law is indeed honored and obeyed. There are just a few technical details that need to be taken care of.” “You are a lawyer, then?” asked Wilma. “No, he said,” let us say that I am with the arm of the law, and not its head.”

The banter continued in this manner for another hour, with Wilma extracting several more bits of information, including where he and his friends will be staying and the name of some of the local people he was scheduled to meet. Finally, she pleaded that her head was aching again, and asked Edna to take her back to her cabin.

They had enough information. Edna had a talk with Capitan Hopper and they decided that the ship would have “boiler trouble” in Paducah, which would entail a delay of several hours. As soon as they arrived there, Edna slipped ashore and contacted Rev. Martin Reed of the First African Baptist Church of Paducah, who dispatched a rider to Louisville to warn of an impending raid. By the time Randolph Clarke and his men disembarked, all of the Railroad’s stations in the Louisville area had been thoroughly “cleansed” and all of the runaway slaves were safely in Indiana or Ohio. The raid, so carefully and expensively planned, was a total failure.

Will was taken out of town by one of the conductors. Since there was no time to arrange for a new identity, it was decided that he would continue being “Lady Hamilton” until she reached Canada. That took longer than expected, and it was not until four months later that she finally stepped on Canadian soil and was free. By that time, she had become so used to her female role, that she decided to remain “Wilma Hamilton” (without the title, of course) and settled in Deptford, Ontario, where she opened a boarding house and inn, which became quite successful, and was the first link in what was to eventually become the Hamilton House chain of luxury hotels -- Canada's second largest hotel chain.

When the Civil War broke out, Randolph Clarke joined the Confederate army, rising to the rank of Captain. He died at the battle of Shiloh.

Edna met her fiancé, Asher Stern, and fell in love with him. They were married that fall, and the couple returned to Missouri, where he set up a law office in St. Louis. Many years later, after the Civil War had torn the region and the nation to shreds, he extended his law practice to other areas of the South. One day, he and his wife (who sometimes travelled with him) were approached outside the courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi by an old man. He greeted Asher and complimented him on his handling of the complex case then in progress, but then turned to Edna. “My name is Judge Thomas DeWitt of the Mississippi State Supreme Court, now retired,” he said. “I used to own a large plantation north of here, but it was burned and destroyed by Union troops. My three daughters, who lived there, were all killed. My only other child was a bastard son by one of my slaves, named Will. He escaped from the plantation in the 1850’s, and I have spent the years since the war trying to track down his movements, so I could apologize to him and arrange to have him declared my legal heir. I know that he traveled through your parents’ farm, Mrs. Stern, but after that his tracks disappear. Please, if you know anything about his whereabouts, do a favor to an old man and tell me.

Edna looked at the old man’s eyes, brimming with tears, and told him.