{"id":547,"date":"2022-09-18T21:28:53","date_gmt":"2022-09-18T21:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/?p=547"},"modified":"2022-10-03T13:57:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T13:57:00","slug":"thomas-dorsey-supports-the-underground-railroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/thomas-dorsey-supports-the-underground-railroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Dorsey Supports The Underground Railroad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This excerpt from \u201cThe Underground Railroad\u201d by William Still documents the reaction of a successful black caterer in Philadelphia in the 1850s to being asked to track down an escaped slave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A leading pastor of an Episcopal Church was a friend of the mistress slave owner. He stopped Thomas Dorsey in the street and demanded that the businessman help find the fugitive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dorsey himself had escaped from the South. The pastor had approached the wrong man and was given a refusal in no uncertain terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have a separate excerpt of the account of the <a href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/cordelia-loney-escapes-with-the-underground-railroad\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"549\">escaped slave, Cordelia Loney<\/a>. Here, we give the excerpt documenting the meeting between these two men.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"536\" src=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/underground-railroad-william-still-1024x536.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-140\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/underground-railroad-william-still-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/underground-railroad-william-still-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/underground-railroad-william-still-768x402.jpg 768w, https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/underground-railroad-william-still.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_65 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title \" >Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 eztoc-toggle-hide-by-default' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/thomas-dorsey-supports-the-underground-railroad\/#Excerpt_From_The_Book_%E2%80%93_Thomas_Dorsey_Approached_On_The_Street\" title=\"Excerpt From The Book \u2013 Thomas Dorsey Approached On The Street\">Excerpt From The Book \u2013 Thomas Dorsey Approached On The Street<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/thomas-dorsey-supports-the-underground-railroad\/#Thomas_Dorsey_Responds\" title=\"Thomas Dorsey Responds\">Thomas Dorsey Responds<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/thomas-dorsey-supports-the-underground-railroad\/#About_The_Book\" title=\"About The Book\">About The Book<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Excerpt_From_The_Book_%E2%80%93_Thomas_Dorsey_Approached_On_The_Street\"><\/span>Excerpt From The Book \u2013 Thomas Dorsey Approached On The Street<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>[<em>The headings and italicized text in the excerpts below were added by the website editor. The rest is verbatim from the book apart from some changes to the punctuation.<\/em>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A certain Doctor of Divinity, the pastor of an Episcopal church in this city and a friend of the mistress [<em>owner of the escaped slave<\/em>], hearing of her distress, by request or voluntarily, undertook to find out Cordelia&#8217;s place of seclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hailing on the street a certain colored man with a familiar face, who he thought knew nearly all the colored people about town, he:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>related to him the predicament of his lady friend from the South,<\/li><li>remarked how kindly she had always treated her servants,<\/li><li>signified that Cordelia would rue the change, and be left to suffer among the &#8220;miserable blacks down town,&#8221;<\/li><li>that she would not be able to take care of herself;<\/li><li>quoted Scripture justifying Slavery<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>[<em>The pastor<\/em>] finally suggested that he (the colored man) would be doing a duty and a kindness to the fugitive by using his influence to &#8220;find her and prevail upon her to return.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It so happened that the colored man thus addressed, was Thomas Dorsey, the well-known fashionable caterer of Philadelphia, who had had the experience of quite a number of years as a slave at the South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Thomas_Dorsey_Responds\"><\/span>Thomas Dorsey Responds<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>[<em>He<\/em>] had himself once been pursued as a fugitive, and having, by his industry in the condition of Freedom, acquired a handsome estate, he felt entirely qualified to reply to the reverend gentleman, which he did, though in not very respectful phrases, telling him that<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Cordelia had as good a right to her liberty as he had, or her mistress either;<\/li><li>that God had never intended one man to be the slave of another;<\/li><li>that it was all false about the slaves being better off than the free colored people;<\/li><li>that he would find as many &#8220;poor, miserably degraded,&#8221; of his own color &#8220;down-town,&#8221; as among the &#8220;degraded blacks&#8221;;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>[He] concluded by telling him that he would &#8220;rather give her a hundred dollars to help her off, than to do aught to make known her whereabouts, if he knew ever so much about her.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"About_The_Book\"><\/span>About The Book<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Underground Railroad\u201d was published in 1872. The book gives the testimonies of hundreds of slaves who escaped to freedom using the network of agents and safe houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The author, William Still, was a black abolitionist and businessman who was a key member of the Philadelphia stop in the freedom network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The book is in the public domain. It can be found in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/item\/11008368\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Library of Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This excerpt from \u201cThe Underground Railroad\u201d by William Still documents the reaction of a successful black caterer in Philadelphia in the 1850s to being asked to track down an escaped slave. A leading pastor of an Episcopal Church was a friend of the mistress slave owner. He stopped Thomas Dorsey in the street and demanded &#8230; <a title=\"Thomas Dorsey Supports The Underground Railroad\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/thomas-dorsey-supports-the-underground-railroad\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Thomas Dorsey Supports The Underground Railroad\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":989,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions\/989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}