The remarkable story of how William Still helped hundreds of men, women and children escape from slavery
In the 19th century, the Underground Railroad was a vital collective effort to aid fugitive slaves in their flight to freedom. In early 1856, William Still, by that point perhaps the organisation’s most important figure, penned an extensive letter to a friend and ally in Canada named Mary Ann Shadd, in which he reflected on his work. “In a few words, let me say that the Underground Railroad cause is increasing,” he wrote, in a letter that would be subsequently published in Shadd’s Provincial Freeman. “The slaves, from the youngest to the oldest, have of late years got a thirst for liberty, and they are bound to have it, come what may.” Much of the work of the Underground Railroad was, out of necessity, secret, but by the late 1850s, Still was confident – not just in the justice of the struggle against slavery, but in its inevitable triumph. He was not afraid to tell the world about it.
EARLY LIFE
Still was the youngest of 18 children, born in 1821 to parents who had both been enslaved in the state of Maryland. His father, Levin, was able to save enough money over the years to purchase his freedom. Still’s mother, Sidney, however, was unable to secure her freedom legally and so she ran away – twice. After the first escape she was captured and dragged back into bondage, along with her four children. The second time she ran away she made the heartbreaking decision to leave behind her two eldest
children, boys named Levin and Peter. She changed her name to Charity, and she and Levin settled in a remote, rural area of the free state of New Jersey. William Still was born many years after this escape from bondage, but he grew up with a clear understanding of the damage that slavery had done to his family.
He grew up working on his father’s farm, but as a young man Still was drawn to the nearby city of Philadelphia, and in his early twenties, he moved to the city looking for work. While such work was difficult to come by at first, Still did find a thriving and supportive community of free Black people in the city. After a few years of irregular work, in 1847 he was finally hired as a clerk at the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. Before long Still would also become the leader of the city’s Vigilance Committee, an organisation committed to protecting fugitives from slavery and helping them in their flight to freedom – the organisational heart of the eastern portion of the Underground Railroad. Still ran the Vigilance Committee out of his office at the A
