ABSTRACT
Buffalo symbolized one step from freedom for many fugitive slaves; a short ferryboat ride across the Niagara River took them to Canada. ‘Buffalo, New York, was an important step enroute to Canada for fugitive slaves. There was an active underground railroad supported by both Blacks and Whites, and a strong Anti-Slavery Society established in 1839 included some of the most prominent citizens of the day’ (Graf, 1939, p. 1). Even Josiah Henson, the man after whom Harriet Beecher Stowe patterned her famous Uncle Tom character, passed through this city on route to Canada. Captain Burnham, a white Buffalonian, gave him the dollar he and his family needed to board the Waterloo Ferry to freedom (Henson, 1849). Approximately seventy African-American families lived among the 10,000 White people in Buffalo during the early 1800s. Whether freeborn or fugitive slaves, they had established themselves in the city: they owned property, maintained businesses, and built homes and churches. City directories listed them as barbers, ministers, doctors, teachers, and lawyers (Buffalo City Directories, 1828-1855). African Americans and Whites appeared to live in harmony. African-American men, but not women or Native Americans, were allowed to vote if they owned property valued at a minimum of $250; this was not a requirement for White males (Brown and Watson, 1982, p. 52). Perhaps the mood or attitude towards Blacks can best be described by an article in a local paper:
Some little excitement was created in town yesterday afternoon by an attempt to secure and take away a young colored man named Christopher Webb, who was claimed as a fugitive slave by a person named Robert Perry, as the agent for the owner, and another person… both of who are from Corington, Kentucky…. Perry and his associate recognized him and
told him that he must go back to his master. Webb protested that he was free and should not go with them. One of the parties then seized him, at the same time drawing a six shooter and declaring that he would shoot the first person who interfered and dragged him by force down the stairs, when there was some interference to rescue him. He however was taken by the parties into a law office, where the crowd gathered in such numbers that Webb was permitted to leave. Some intimations were then made that Perry and his associate were to be arrested on a civil prosecution for assault and battery and false imprisonment…. The last that was heard of them they were proceeding at a rapid rate out of town with the Deputy Sheriff in pursuit, backed by several colored persons on horseback. (Quoted in Grendel, 1965)
In the years before emancipation, it appeared that Buffalo served as good a place as any for African Americans to live. Therefore, when the common school system opened, African-American parents petitioned City Council for their children to attend.
