Escaped slaves find support and refuge on way to freedom

Previous to the widely publicized efforts of the communal anti-slavery societies, several covert operations founded on the same principles came into existence during the early decades of the nineteenth century. It was at that time that the Underground Railway was established in Dutchess County.

In 1796, the Orthodox Quakers founded the Nine Partners Boarding School in South Millbrook. Jacob Willetts, one of the first graduates, became the principal at age 19 and opened up his home as a Railway station. Among the school’s many other associations with the Underground Railway was the alumna Lucretia Coffin, a vocal anti-slavery supporter. After Coffin’s marriage to James Mott, she and her husband taught at the school and influenced the student Daniel Anthony, who was later to become the father of Susan B. Anthony.

In the Millbrook Meetinghouse, which was five hundred feet from the Nine Partners School, freed slaves came to the Quakers for protection in the 1830s. A colony of huts was built near the church to house those who had escaped from slavery.

Stephen Haight lived around the corner from the Nine Partners School and was an active conductor of the Railway. His daughter reported that in her father’s home slaves were supplied with food, money, and a place to hide. At night fugitives were taken to Valentine Hallock’s house, which was to the south of Poughkeepsie along the Hudson. After a one day stopover, the runaways were rowed across the river by night to the next station on their way to Canada.

Quaker Hill was another Dutchess community that actively participated in the Underground Railway. The resident David Irish always opened his house to slaves coming from Jacob Willetts’ station in South Millbrook. ...

In 1857 Poughkeepsie held an Anti-Slavery Convention at which Susan B. Anthony spoke. During her speech there was a disturbance from anti-abolitionists. The ‘‘Poughkeepsie Telegraph’’ criticized the anti-slavery speakers for being radical agitators who only could succeed in stimulating violence with no possible gains.

An editorial appeared in an 1857 Poughkeepsie Eagle that contained an adamant statement against slavery in rebuke of a Norfolk Herald account of the sale of four free blacks in payment of taxes. The author made an analogy to European feudalism and facetiously called this the American ‘‘Democracy.’’

Susan J. Crane from ‘‘Ante-Bellum Dutchess County’s Struggle Against Slavery’’ Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook 1980.