Fear & Comfort: Enslaved People Escape

Harriet Beecher Stowe Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin

Nancy was 20 and Andrew 30 when they married. It was a busy time. Children came along and the family went about their daily lives. 

​The surviving diaries of most pioneer women of the time were simply records of facts. The women talked about daily chores, the weather and occasional visits from neighbors or family. There was often a sense that storms would come. But, feelings and emotions were rarely recorded. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe was a woman of her time. Not only was she a member of a family of activists involved in anti-slavery work in areas in the eastern part of the country, but she also raised her large family of children and carried out household duties. Still, she found time to write a syndicated column for a newspaper which became the book "Uncle Tom’s Cabin." 
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​Nancy Kendall, as a young mother and wife, was also responsible for raising children and maintaining a household. But, she made time to welcome the wagons carrying fleeing slaves and provide them with food and shelter. It had to be an extremely trying time for both of these young women. Yet they were committed.

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In her journal, Nancy mentions that along with attending to the needs of those who stopped, she felt the need to “entertain” the people who came to them. She says, "We wouldent expect them. Wake us up. I would have to Entertain them till they would get the team ready. Never had many at a time. Had family of 7 once, parents and 5 children. Other times 3 and 2 and one... Had quite little talk with them some times."* 

Nancy's journal describes many of those who came to them as terribly frightened. It was a terrifying experience to live in a state of fear and an unknown future. She describes one group who lay nearly motionless, not making a sound all night to avoid capture. 

The South had 4 million enslaved persons in the years before the Civil War. Of that number, experts believe approximately 100,000 used the Underground Railroad system on the perilous flight to freedom. 

*Punctuation added for readability. Spellings and wording transcribed as written in Nancy Kendall's journal.