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Editorial: Slavery’s foe
Op-Ed · October 12, 2017
We would encourage the City of West Branch to quickly, yet thoughtfully, pursue a Historic Preservation Commission proposal to put increased attention and resources toward preserving our city’s contributions toward the Underground Railroad.
The plan includes adding Town Hall, also known as the Municipal Building, to the National Register of Historic Places. That Works Progress Administration-era project, completed in 1938, is a relatively small building considering its historical importance for a mere 79 years of existence.
Yet the Underground Railroad is of national interest and historic importance. The Freedom Trail, established here in 1856 as part of path to Michigan completed in 1859 by John Brown, is just one of a dozen or so known arteries, with dozens more branches feeding into them, that helped free slaves in numbers from at least 30,000 to as many as 100,000.
There are two overarching types of slavery: Indentured servitude, or bonded labor, is where a debtor works for someone to pay off what is owed, a somewhat acceptable custom that dates back to Biblical times; and chattel slavery, or forced labor, also dating back to Biblical times yet no longer socially acceptable and no longer legal anywhere in the world. It is the latter over which America split and was the largest factor to start the Civil War.
West Branch’s part in the Underground Railroad began five years before the outbreak of the Civil War, which ran from 1861 to 1865. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which was further strengthened in 1850, required officials from free states to help slaveholders recapture runaway slaves. So residents of West Branch and many other stops along the routes broke federal laws through civil disobedience by secretly transporting, caring for and hiding slaves.
Brown went further, though, with violent and armed insurrection, and even sent many of his men to train at William Maxson’s home in Springdale for some of these organized assaults.
Many times in American history, it is very difficult to justify violent opposition to our American government. However, in a country where “all men are created equal,” many principled Americans saw the Fugitive Slave Clause of the U.S. Constitution as a blatant hypocrisy that turned a blind eye to atrocities against blacks.
The development and growth of the Underground Railroad was a sign that many Americans saw chattel slavery not only as wrong, but evil and unacceptable. West Branch and Springdale residents put themselves in danger by assuming the role as “conductors” along the underground railroad helping fugitive slaves and by helping John Brown. Iowa was a free state, so legal punishments were much less severe. However, with slave state Missouri along the southern border, no doubt many had great fear of vigilantes, mobs and bounty hunters. And recaptured slaves could face a whip, burning or hanging.
Participation in the Underground Railroad required men and women of courage and principle and resourcefulness, using whatever they had to help slaves — whom they saw of equal worth as human beings — find freedom.
Preserving and telling the stories of West Branch and Springdale and those residents who helped is of vital importance to ensuring we do not repeat such atrocities.
We would encourage the city to make the long overdue move toward solidifying its role in the Underground Railroad.
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Editor's note: This article was updated Oct. 19 to correct the spelling of William Maxson.
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