Jessie E. Pocock Letters to Wilbur Siebert, Sept. 21, 1948 and Oct. 20, 1948

Jessie E. Pocock Letters to Wilbur Siebert, Sept. 21, 1948 and Oct. 20, 1948

Siebert, Wilbur Henry, 1866-1961; Underground railroad; Abolitionist; Fugitive slaves--Ohio--History

This letter written by Jessie E Pocock, a resident of Lodi, Ohio during the mid-1900s and granddaughter of a prominent abolitionist and Underground Railroad helper in Wayne County, wrote this letter to Wilbur Siebert, an Underground Railroad historian based in Columbus, Ohio, that included the story of a fugitive slave family that was attempting to find safety with Pocock’s grandfather. Pocock describes in detail how the abolitionist of Wooster, and the surrounding areas, were able to keep the family of eight safe from detection for over a day until they could get them into a wagon to get them to Wooster where there were larger and safer houses on the path of the Underground Railroad to get the fugitive family to freedom.

The necessity of people such as Jessie Pocock’s grandfather were undeniable during the Underground Railroad. They not only realized the dangers that fugitive slaves were in as they attempted to escape, but they were also willing to put their livelihood on the line to make sure that this family made it some place safe and did not have to worry about being captured on route to a safer and free place for fugitive slaves.

Use Ohio Social Studies Standard for Grade Eight 11 (Disputes over the nature of federalism, complicated by economic developments in the United States, resulted in sectional issues, including slavery, which led to the American Civil War) and 16 (Cultural biases, stereotypes and prejudices had social, political and economic consequences for minority groups and the population as a whole) for integration into the classroom.

Jessie E. Pocock

Ohio Memory Project, Wilbur H. Siebert Collection http://www.ohiomemory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/siebert/id/4811/rec/1 MSS116AV BOX58 F01 009

Unknown

1948-09-21

1948-10-20

In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Wilbur H. Siebert Collection

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eng

Text

Jessie_E_Pocock_001

Wayne County, Ohio; Medina County, Ohio;

Underground Railroad