Underground Railroad & the Network to Freedom

Throughout history, Frederica has meant different things to different generations of enslaved people. Enslaved and freed people’s interaction with Frederica shaped the course of their movements, their freedom, and their lives. The Underground Railroad comprised of many different routes and destinations over the course of colonial and American history. At Frederica, the river functioned as a passage to freedom for escaped African and African American enslaved individuals to Spanish territory to the south from the 1600’s to 1819. During the Civil War, St. Simons Island became a destination for enslaved people fleeing slavery during the upheaval of the Civil War. As a result of the documentation of these stories, Fort Frederica National Monument was included in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom in the Spring of 2023.

Johann Martin Bolzius Account

Johann Martin Bolzius wrote an account called Reliable Answer to Some Submitted Questions Concerning the Land Carolina in an attempt to publish information about the colonies of Georgia and South Carolina. In this work, he responded to a series of questions posed to him. The 13^th Question reads as follows: “Whether there are many instances of Negroes murdering their masters, and whether in this case they have the opportunity to flee inland and to escape punishment with the help of the Indians, and whether for such cases the government has established good relations.” He answered this question in detail and wrote that “As long as our colony is not filled with Negroes, the deserters in Carolina, if they want to cross Georgia towards Augustine, cannot easily remain hidden. Generally, however, they escape by water, past Frederica to St. Augustine, where they receive their freedom, be it war or peace.”

From this account, we know that enslaved people often passed Frederica on their way to Spanish-held Florida and freedom. They attempted their escapes during both peace and war, not necessarily waiting for the disruptions that the conditions of war would have brought. They likely knew that Frederica was the last southern settlement of the British Empire in North America. Even though they may not have utilized Frederica to gain their freedom, the town was likely a symbolic landmark, marking the possible end of their enslavement and their moving ever closer to free territory and freedom itself.

Maria

Though some successfully made their escape to freedom, many more were still held in bondage in British colonies. At times, seemingly insignificant changes could present opportunities to flee from slavery. Around fifteen years after Bolzius published Reliable Answers, an enslaved girl named Maria was brought to Frederica. She used this movement as an opportunity to seek out her freedom.

In the spring of 1766, Raymond Demere passed away, leaving a sizeable estate. Two individuals, John Graham and Donald Makay were designated as executors of his estate, and they set about settling Demere’s debts and preparing his possessions for auction, including the people he enslaved. On June 4^th, 1766, the following ad appeared in the Georgia Gazette (spelling updated):

To Be Sold At Public Sale, At the usual place in Savannah, on Thursday the 26^th day of June next, Part of the PERSONAL ESTATE OF RAYMOND DEMERE, Esq. Deceased, consisting of Negroes, Plate, Household Furniture, Cattle, Horses. &c. &c.- The conditions to be made known at the time of sale by JOHN GRAHAM, DONALD MAKAY, Executors.

Since Demere also owned a plantation on St. Simons Island, the executors planned a second auction to take place at Frederica. The day prior to the Savannah auction, another ad appeared in the paper that the remaining assets, including enslaved people, would be auctioned at Frederica on July 25^th, 1766. This indicates that enslaved people were brought to Frederica for the sole purpose of being sold.

This move had significant consequences for both Donald Makay and Maria. Though we don’t know if Makay inherited Maria as an executor, purchased her at auction, was bringing her to Frederica to auction her off himself, or if she was enslaved on Demere’s plantation on St. Simons, she found herself in Frederica at the end of June. In the August 6th, 1766 edition, (though the ad is dated August 5^th) the first of several, consecutive runaway slave ads appeared in the Georgia Gazette. It stated (spelling updated):

RUN AWAY or DECOYED from the subscriber’s house in Frederica, about six weeks ago, a TALL SLIM LIKELY YOUNG NEGROE GIRL, named Maria, about 15 years of age, belonging to the estate of Raymond Demere, Esq. deceased. Whoever will apprehend and deliver the said girl to the warden of the work-house, to John Graham, Esq. or to be at Frederica, shall receive a reward of 20s. sterling, with all reasonable charges. DONALD MAKAY. 5^th August, 1766.

Six weeks prior to this ad, would put the time of Maria’s runaway near the time of the advertised auction in Frederica. It is possible that she was brought to Frederica after the first auction in Savannah.

The move to Frederica presented her with an opportunity. Though we don’t have very many records from Frederica in 1766, we do know that the town was in decline after the 42nd regiment was disbanded, and nearly destroyed by a fire in 1758. The infernal landscape that Maria walked into was possibly one of burned-out buildings and a town in disarray, though the ad indicates that there could be more elements of a functioning town at Frederica.

The runaway ads continue to run without change, every week, for over three months. On November 26^th, 1766, Makay increased the price of the reward for Maria from 20s Sterling to Ten Guineas. Because of the increase in the reward price, there is a strong likelihood that this increased the number of people looking for her. It also shows how valuable Makay considered her to be and how desperately he wanted to recapture her.

These ads continue until February 18^th, 1767, after which they cease to appear in the paper. It had been six months since the first ad appeared and nearly eight months since Maria ran away. It is unknown whether she was able to make her freedom permanent or if she was eventually recaptured. Her removal to Frederica presented her with the possibility to strike for her freedom and, one hopes, to make it permanent.

Contraband Colony

Frederica was not only used as a means of escape away from slavery. During the Civil War, Frederica was used as an outpost to guard against potential threats to the freedom of recently freed men, women, and children. Frederica was one of the first lines of defense for those hoping to make their freedom permanent in the midst of war. By the time of the Civil War, St. Simons Island was the location of at least twelve large scale plantations primarily producing sea island cotton. On many of these plantations, well over one hundred people were enslaved to produce sea island cotton and the black population far exceeded the white population. At the old Frederica town site, no crops were grown due to the remains of buildings and other dwellings on the property, some of which were still inhabited by a small number of individuals.

In the spring of 1862, a contraband colony of runaway enslaved people developed on St. Simons Island. This community was located at the southern end of the island on Retreat Plantation. On April 6th, Flag Officer S.F. Du Pont forwarded the report of Commander S.W. Godon, made on March 30th, to Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy, about the “establishment of a colony of contrabands on St. Simon’s Island.” Godon noted that “Contrabands continue to come to us.” On March 26th, while traveling to Brunswick, “on my way up the river twenty seven more contrabands came to me.” This is a significant number and suggests that the creation of the colony is a direct result of the actions of formerly enslaved people to gain their freedom. Godon noted that the forty people now in the colony “live on T. Butler King’s place,” which was located at the southern end of the island.

On March 31, 1862, Godon left the “little colony of contrabands” under control of Lieutenant G.B. Balch. Before leaving, however, he took the significant step to arm some of the men in the colony. “I send eight flintlock muskets, which you can distribute to the contrabands for self-protection from night attacks…” This surely would have come as a shock to many southerners had they heard that their former slaves were now being armed in self-defense. On St. Simons Island, freed people in the colony possessed the power to defend themselves against attacks from raids by southern forces, another significant step to ensuring the permanence of their freedom. As will be seen, this will be a crucial factor in keeping the colony safe.

The number of formerly enslaved people who fled to St. Simon’s continued to grow. On April 10, 1862, a more exact counting of the people in the colony was determined upon Commander E. Lanier’s arrival. 26 men, 6 women, 9 children, “since which there has been an addition of 14 men” for a total of 55 people. On April 18, 1862, just over a week later, those numbers had nearly doubled. Lanier reports that there were now “60 men, 16 women, and 13 children; total 89.” They had planted 80 acres by that point and had received 50 cattle from Jekyll Island at this point. Lanier noted that “As yet the colony has been no expense to the government.” Though subsisting off foraging while their crops grew, hardly a new concept amidst warfare, the freed people were laying down the footing to become a self-sustaining community.

Susie King Taylor was a part of this process to create a school and educated many of the children in the colony. She wrote, “I had about forty children to teach, beside a number of adults who came to me nights, all of them so eager to learn to read, to read above anything else.” Taylor was one of, if not the first, African American teacher for freed people in the state of Georgia. Goldsborough also witnessed the desire for education within the colony. “The grown up Negroes are anxious to go to school and learn. Many of them have asked permission and I have given my consent after they have finished their task in the field.” In the same letter, he writes in glowing terms, “You have no idea the success attending my school and how rapidly its increasing and the progress they are making. I am very fortunate in having selected among my crew an amicable patient but right kind of a person for a school master, who takes as much interest in it as I do myself. And, he tells me, it’s astonishing, they take in and retain what he learns them.” He requested that his wife send him several books to aid the freed people in learning to read. Education was considered paramount to many who escaped slavery. People of all ages sought education while also trying to maintain a livelihood.

By the end of May, 1862, Godon put the number of people there at “upward of 300.” Susie King Taylor placed the total number at over 600. Goldsborough notes that when he turns control of the colony over to Godon, that it contained “with five times the number of contrabands than when he left it.”

Confederate forces still threatened the island from the mainland. For most of the colony’s existence, there was no formal occupying force of Union soldiers. However, Union naval vessels were often anchored nearby in an effort to blockade the southern coastline. This left the marsh side open to attack, as Confederate forces leaving the mainland could still traverse the island’s back channels and land on the island. Therefore, it was necessary for freedmen in the colony to set up defensive outposts along the marshes edges to deter any landing from happening or to at least alert the colony of a hostile force. Godon reported “For the last two weeks, and since the rebels have landed, I have made it a rule to send out bodies of twenty or thirty men to visit Frederica, Hazard’s place, and to look over the island, of course with proper officers and under strict military rules.” These outposts guarded the main landing points that Confederate forces could have used to raid the island.

The people in the colony, who were largely from the coastline, were very familiar with the coastal shipping trade by which all manner of supplies would have been brought to the coastal plantations. They knew the importance of a safe and practical landing spot on the shoreline. Therefore, they guarded these landing sites on the plantations on the western side of the island.

The freedmen’s outposts on the Frederica River were crucial to the physical safety of the people in the colony, and a necessary step to defending their freedom. Being that they had to keep an eye on the waterways, it is almost certain that they would have stood on the King’s Magazine to get an elevated viewpoint of the surrounding marshes. Just to the south of them was their community, their families, their loved ones. The outpost at Frederica was where freedmen were vigilant, keeping watch over the Frederica River and those travelling on it. The outpost at Frederica overlooked that murky line, physical and ideological, that separated slavery and freedom. The freedmen used Frederica to keep vigil over that freedom, ever watchful of any threat that might come across it.

That attack came in the summer of 1862, as Confederate forces landed just to the north of Frederica. Though we don’t have any conclusive evidence of where the skirmish was fought between this invading force and the freed people, it seems clear that they did not make it to the settlement at the southern end of the island. Those manning these outposts, including Frederica, were able to alert the colony and deter this southern force from attacking and re-enslaving those who had created the free colony at the southern end of the island.