Appendix
What Has Been Said About It
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At the closing meeting of the PENNSYLVANIA ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, held in Philadelphia, May 5, 1870, the following was unanimously passed:
Whereas, The position of WILLIAM STILL in the Vigilance Committee connected with the “UNDERGROUND RAILROAD,” as its Corresponding Secretary, and Chairman of its Active Sub-Committee, gave him peculiar facilities for collecting interesting facts pertaining to this branch of the anti-slavery service; therefore,
Resolved, That the PENNSYLVANIA ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY requests him to compile and publish his personal reminiscences and experiences relating to the “UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.”
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HON. JOHN W. FORNEY, in a letter to the Washington Sunday Chronicle, said:
“Slavery and its mysterious inner life has never yet been described. When it is, Reality will surpass Fiction. Uncle Tom’s Cabin will be rebuilt and newly garnitured. A book, detailing the operations of the ‘UNDERGROUND RAILROAD,’ is soon to be published in Philadelphia, by WM. STILL, Esq., an intelligent colored gentleman, which, composed entirely of facts, will supply material for indefinite dramas and romances. It will disclose a record of unparalleled courage and suffering for the right.” * * * * *
And again, in a letter to the same paper, Mr. Forney says:
* * * * “A coincidence even more romantic is soon to be revealed in the pages of the remarkable book of Wm. Still, of Philadelphia, entitled ‘THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD,’ referred to in my last. Mr. Still kept a careful memorandum of the sufferings and trials of his race during the existence of the ‘Fugitive Slave Law,’ in the belief that they would be instructive to his posterity, rather than from any hope of the overthrow of the revolting system of human servitude * * * he resolved to spread before the world this unprecedented experience. When his book appears, it will accomplish more than one object. Interesting to the literary world, it will undoubtedly facilitate the reunion of other colored families long divided, long sought for, and perhaps to this day strangers to each other. * * * * The volume containing this and other equally romantic yet truthful stories will soon be out, and, my word for it, no book of the times will be more eagerly read or more profitably remembered.”
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The San Francisco Elevator says:
* * * * “Mr. Still is one of the pioneers of ‘THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD’ in Philadelphia, where he still resides. He has aided more slaves to escape than any other man, Bishop Lougan, of Syracuse, perhaps excepted. * * * * We hope his book will have a wide circulation, as it will be a valuable addition to the history of the anti-slavery struggle such as no other man can write.”
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Having been, during many years, associated with WILLIAM STILL, in laboring for the abolition of American slavery, we heartily bear our testimony to his abundant opportunities for acquiring information relative to the subject of this book; and to his vig