knowledgeequalsblackpower:Margaret “Mag” Palm, Conductor on the Underground Railroad (
knowledgeequalsblackpower: Margaret “Mag” Palm, Conductor on the Underground Railroad (In the photo, Palm is demonstrating how slave catchers who attempted to kidnap her tied her hands.) Mag Palm lived on the outskirts of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in a shack. To earn a living, she scrubbed floors and beat rugs for wealthy white families. Despite her poverty, she helped fugitives slaves find freedom on the Underground Railroad. In the black community she was better know as “Maggie Bluecoat” for the sky-blue uniform coat of an officer of the War of 1812 that she wore when she served as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Mag was so notorious for helping slaves escape that on several occasions slave-owners from Maryland attempted to kidnap her and sell her into slavery to put an end to her practices. David Schick, whose father was Palm’s employer, recounted one of these episodes: She lived up Long Lane, back of the old fair grounds. On this occasion she was attacked by a group of men who made the attempt to kidnap her and take her south where they expected to sell her and derive quite a profit. She was a powerful woman, and they would have, from the sale, derived quite a profit. These men succeeded in tying Mag’s hands; She was fighting them as best as she could with her hands tied. She would attempt to slow them and succeeded in one instance in catching [an attackers] thumb in her mouth and bit the thumb off. John Karseen, who was crippled and ran a novelty shop on Baltimore Street, happened along at just the right time and by using his crutch was able to assist Mag in her fight with these kidnappers and drove them off and freed her from her bonds. Palm carried a gun to protect herself and her passengers. When an abductor appeared one day, SHE WENT AFTER HIM saying “if she could have found him she would have shot him.” (via The Effect Of The Confederate Invasion of Pennsylvania on Gettysburg’s African-American Community & The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg’s Forgotten History: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War’s Defining Battle) -- source link
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