University of Virginia Press
2012 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
First published 2012
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Goings, Henry, b. ca. 1810.
Rambles of a runaway from southern slavery / Henry Goings ; edited by Calvin Schermerhorn, Michael Plunkett, and Edward Gaynor.
p. cm. (Carter G. Woodson Institute series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8139-3238-5 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8139-3240-8 (e-book)
1. Goings, Henry, b. ca. 1810. 2. SlavesUnited StatesBiography. 3. FreedmenUnited StatesBiography. 4. African AmericansCanadaBiography. 5. Slave narrativesUnited States. 6. SlavesUnited StatesSocial conditions19th century. 7. African AmericansSocial conditions19th century. I. Schermerhorn, Calvin, 1975 II. Plunkett, Michael, 1942 III. Gaynor, Edward, 1959 IV. Title.
E450.G65 2012
306.362092dc23
[B] 2011036683
Contents
My birth and birth place in Virginia.My name, Elijah Turner.Changes from one master to another,In North Carolina,Tennessee,Alabama,Georgia,Mississippi,New Orleans,Emigrating from plantation to plantation,My marriage,Death of my last master
My Change of Name and Escape from Slavery,Through Tennessee,Kentucky,Illinois,Indiana,Ohio to Michigan,Employed at various places, and at Perryburg, (Ohio)
Landed in Canada,Nearly victimized into slavery again,Returns after his wife,Trial at Perrysburg,Escape to Canada,Marriage of second wife
Observations on Slavery,The present War,The Church,The Irish Orator, Shiells
Remarks on some of the Southern States, and Emigration to them
Preface
EDWARD GAYNOR and MICHAEL PLUNKETT
In 1855 the Boston journalist Benjamin Drew traveled to Canada, where he interviewed dozens of fugitive slaves from the United States. Among the interviews he published the following year in A North-Side View of Slavery is one given by a Henry Gowens of Galt (now Cambridge), Ontario (see
The University of Virginia Librarys Special Collections has long been committed to acquiring African American materials, and slave narratives are a particular area of interest. In August 2006, Tom Congalton, an antiquarian book dealer and the owner of Between the Covers Rare Books, offered for sale to us a published slave narrative entitled Rambles of a Runaway from Southern Slavery, authored by one Henry Goings. With some research, we located the Gowens interview in A North-Side View of Slavery. The close correspondence between details in Henry Gowenss interview with Drew and those in Henry Goingss book made us virtually certain that they were same the man. We realized we were in possession of the narrative promised by Gowens in 1855 and deemed uncompleted by C. Peter Ripley in 1985. After an exhaustive search through bibliographic databases, bibliographies, reference works, and library catalogs in both the United States and Canada, we were unable to locate any other copies of the published narrative, a finding that excited us more. Especially significant to our collecting priorities was the fact that Goings was a Virginian. According to his published narrative, Goings was the son of enslaved parents, Abraham and Catharine Turner, born in Virginia on the estate of James Walker, within three miles of a place called Window Shadespossibly Windsor Shades Plantation in New Kent County. His birth name was Elijah Turner. We eagerly agreed to purchase the book.
It has thus far proved impossible to establish a complete chain of provenance for the book before its entry into the antiquarian book trade a few years ago. Tom Congalton purchased the book from Jim Roberts, the owner of Books End in Syracuse, New York, who had acquired the narrative a few years earlier at a library book sale, most likely in Cazenovia, New York. The back flyleaf of the volume contains a penciled inscription by Nellie Mackyes of Onondaga, near Syracuse, whom we have identified as the daughter of Edwin L. Mackyes, a lifelong resident of Onondaga. As is well known, Syracuse was a major center of abolitionist activity, including support of antislavery societies in Canada.
The books publisher is given as J. M. Robb. We located a census record for John Monteith Robb, which listed him as a publisher, age thirty-nine years, living in Stratford, Ontario, in 1871. The record states that Robb was a native of Ireland; his wife, Elizabeth (age twenty-six years) was a native of the United States; and that his three children, Elizabeth Sarah Robb, John Monteith Robb, and Samuel Robert Robb, were natives of Ontario. Ontario marriage records show that John and Elizabeth were married on May 2, 1860, in Perth County, Ontario, and that Johns parents were Samuel and Margaret Robb, and Elizabeths parents were Robert and Sarah Monteith. In William Johnstons History of the County of Perth from 1825 to 1902 there is an entry about local newspapers. The Perth County News was first published in 1863 by Vivian and Maddocks, and was shortly afterwards, in June of that year, issued as the Herald. John M. Robb bought it out in 1867 and published it until 1872, after which it was published until 1874 by Alex. Williamson and H. T. Butler. The newspaper was then purchased by James Robb.3 The same book lists an entry for a John M. Robb, who was an auditor for the town of Stratford in 1858.
We were not able to locate any evidence that the book was advertised in the Herald. As noted in Canadian book history, presses capable of large print runs were found throughout Canada, and since the printing of a newspaper did not fill an entire workday, many shops also produced books and engaged in job printing.
From the moment we decided to purchase Goingss narrative, we hoped to republish it. As we prepared the text, we have largely maintained Goingss original spelling and orthography throughout the manuscript. We eliminated end-of-line hyphens and did not note when Goings used British (as opposed to American) spellings. The maps locate place names in a contemporary, not historical, setting.
Narratives such as Goingss are a fundamental resource for the study of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American history and literature. The need for and the power of these narratives did not diminish with the conclusion of the Civil War. Former slaves documented their experiences of enslavement both to remind Americans what had precipitated the Civil War and to continue the struggle for full inclusion in American society. We are pleased and proud to have had a small part in bringing Henry Goingss story to light.
. Drew, A North-Side View of Slavery.
. Ripley, Herrle, and Cimbala, The Black Abolitionist Papers, vol. 2, Canada, 18301865.
. Johnston, History of the County of Perth from 1825 to 1902.
. Fleming, Lamonde, and Bruce, History of the Book in Canada, 2:21516.
Acknowledgments
For their contributions to this volume, we thank the following people at the University of Virginia: Christina Deane, Christian Dupont, Jason Eldred, Chris Gist, Richard K. Holway, Kelly Johnston, Ervin L. Jordan Jr., Bethany Nowviskie, and George Riser. We would also like to thank Sandra Alston and Christina Tooulias-Santolin of the University of Toronto, Tom Congalton of Between the Covers Rare Books, William LaMoy of Syracuse University, Catherine ODonnell and James Rush of Arizona State University, Jim Quantrell of the Archives, City of Cambridge, Ontario, and E. Lee Shepard of the Virginia Historical Society.
