Remarkable 1858 legal attestation of Bishop Samuel McCoskry of the Episcopal Church of Michigan regarding the freedom of a black man named Henry Garrett. Taken on June 4, 1858, the attestation details Garrett’s journey to freedom. From the words of McCoskry:

“I was well acquainted with Henry Garrett (a colored man) from Canada. He visited me frequently. He stated to me that nearly twenty years hence he had run away from his master, Walter Leigh of Richmond, Virginia, but that he had never felt free - always apprehensive that he would be arrested. He stated that he had by appointment met Mrs. Leigh and her children in Clifton House, Canada, that they had never lost their attachment to him. I at once advised him to go and see Mrs. Leigh who had removed to New York after the death of her husband. He followed my advice. He went to New York and handed to me his free papers given by Mrs. Leigh. I read them carefully. They contained a full and entire relinquishment to his services, and from that date thereof he was a free man - I knew the papers were dated in the autumn of 1857.”

Garrett’s journey from Virginia to Canada in the late 1830s or early 1840s strongly indicates that he may have availed himself of the services of the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad, of course, was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. The network was assisted by abolitionists and others sympathetic to the cause of the escapees.

The document itself is in very good condition, with two pages of testimony and a docketing note on the verso.




[African-American History, Slave, Slavery, Abolition, 13th Amendment, Abolitionist, Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Civil War, Union, Confederate, Document, Letter] [Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe]