CENTRE COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) – During the 19’th century, Central Pennsylvania was known as being a safe haven for Blacks trying to escape slavery.
Bellefonte specifically played a critical role in offering aid to Freedom Seekers by not only being active in the underground railroad, but by going the distance to ensure that once out of bondage, Blacks stayed out of bondage.
Founder of Local Historia Matt Maris says that’s exactly what Andrew Gregg Curtin did for runaway slave Henry Thomas.
Maris takes us back to 1856, where Thomas is working at the Pennsylvania Hotel, the now Brockerhoff House.
“That says a lot about the town, because he was openly working in a town like Bellefonte that is supportive of Freedom Seekers,” explained Maris.
According to Thomas, Maris had escaped slavery from either Maryland or Virginia. It wasn’t until one day, when two southern agents came in the hotel and asked Thomas to help them with local directions.
“He is doing his job in the Pennsylvania house and agrees to help them, and they immediately bound him up and put him in their carriage and are off south towards Huntingdon,” said Maris.
That’s when Andrew Gregg Curtin, who would later become governor of Pennsylvania during the Civil War comes into the picture. He was just arriving into town, when residents alerted him that Henry had been taken.
“The whole town was upset they said those kidnappers, those blood hounds have kidnapped Henry,” said Maris.
Maris says Curtin didn’t waste any time in rounding up a posse of men to retrieve Thomas.
“That means guns and horses, with quote ‘like-minded sentiments,’ and I imagine them peeling out from The Diamond on horses, after Henry Thomas,” said Maris.
Sadly, the mission to rescue Thomas was unsuccessful.
“He is remanded or taken back to slavery in Maryland or Virginia,” said Maris.
At the time this was “allowed,” under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Also nicknamed as the Blood Hound Law, it gave southern agents the legal right to go into northern territories and claim their “property.”
As for whatever happened to Thomas, Maris says that remains a question.
“We don’t know what happened to him. We just assume he spent the rest of his days in slavery,” said Maris.
Despite Curtin failing to rescue Thomas, he didn’t let that stop him from trying to save others.
“He ends up becoming the Great Civil War Governor. He raises lots of troops to defend the Union Army,” said Maris.
Not to mention helping President Abraham Lincoln achieve support for the Emancipation Proclamation. Because of his unswerving efforts to fight for an end to slavery, statues of Curtin now stand in his honor.
“And that’s one of the stories people need to know about him is about Henry Thomas, risking his own life for a Freedom Seeker,” said Maris.
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