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An inspiring story of the Divinity of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights movement.
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The Gist Of Freedom Is Still Faith
The Gist of Freedom is Still faith, began as a research paper assignment on a Historically Black town, Lawnside, New Jersey. However, shortly after I beganmy research I discovered a legendary family from Lawnside, the Still family andtheir son William Still. The New York Times dubbed Mr. Still the father of theUnderground Railroad and reported he was worth nearly a million dollars in 1902. More importantly, Mr.Still documented all the enslaved people who travelled under his care in his book the Underground Railroad.
The research paper made another transition. It became a genealogy research project when after weeks of unsuccessfully searching for my great grand mother's family line, In the 800 odd page book, I finally decided to actually write the paper. Low and behold, in the preface, I read an extraordinary story, an emotional reunion between William's mother and his lost enslaved brother, Peter Gist. Peter's slave name, Gist is also my maiden name.
Forty years earlier, after a failed escape attempt with all four of her children, Peter's mother made the heart wrenching decision, to strike out for freedom again this time without Peter 6 and his brother Levin Jr. 8.
Determined to reconnect with his mother, Peter successfully travelled out of slavery using the Underground Railroad. In an effort to locate his family he had an interview with abolitionist, William Still- an interview which uncovered they themselves were brothers and led to him be reunited with his mother.
Needless to say, it became my mission to find out if in fact, if I was related to Peter Gist-Still. My ten year journey, in search of the answer is in The Gist of Freedom is Still Faith.
Excerpt
Hush Harbor
As indentures, slaves volunteered to work a minimum of seven Years, after which point they would receive their freedom. Most of the original thirteen colonies, like Massachusetts prohibited slavery.
In Its first Constitution, the Body of Liberties, explicitly illegalized it. As the New World grew, corporations supported by the Crown began to use forced labor or chattel slavery to establish colonies while the religious colonies maintained the use of indentures. In fact, the men of faith mandated slaveholders Christianize their servants by teaching them how to read the catechism.
Fearing the evangelizing of slaves would lead to their liberation because Christian law taught it was sinful to enslave a Christian, the rebellious slaveholders refused to abide by the laws and banned the Bible and all books from all of their servants and slaves
In the eighteenth century, slavers finally bowed to the political pressure imposed by religious groups like the Propagation of the Society of the Gospel. They allowed the slaves to learn the catechism through rote, without the use of books.
However, it was too late. While the slavers blamed the slaves unbreakable spirit of seeking freedom to a “Slave run-away” cat disease they called drapetomania, the slaves gave the glory to the Bible and to its liberating powers. As a result, they began holding church in secret, in places called Hush Harbors.
Whenever slaveholders left their books and Bibles unguarded, they would take them and “steal away” into the hush harbor where they learned how to read, plan escapes and discern parables.
“Hush Harbors,” were primarily located in places like the Dismal Swamp or ravines, ditches and thickets. Because of the fear of being caught and brutally punished they never held clandestine church Services in the same place. Encrypted directions lead believers to the sites. The first people to arrive at the meeting used a broken tree bough to point towards the hush harbor. The slaves then hung quilts to create a tabernacle. In an effort to suppress the sounds, the slaves dampened the quilts and filled a kettle with water.
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