Tilly Escape
The Tilly Escape was a significant event in the history of the Underground Railroad, taking place in October 1856 when the renowned conductor Harriet Tubman helped an enslaved woman, known as Tilly, flee to freedom. This mission was initiated at the request of Tilly's fiancé, who had already escaped to Canada. The journey, fraught with danger, involved multiple modes of transportation as Tubman led Tilly from Baltimore, Maryland, to Delaware, navigating the risks of recapture and harsh conditions. The escape is notable for its complexity and is recognized by a historical marker placed in 2013 on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Despite the success of the escape, details about Tilly remain scarce, and her true identity is uncertain due to the historical context of record-keeping for enslaved individuals. Tubman’s efforts were part of a broader resistance against slavery, with her heroic actions facilitating the escape of many enslaved people. The Tilly Escape exemplifies the courage and determination of those involved in the Underground Railroad, highlighting both the dangers faced and the critical support networks that existed at the time.
Tilly Escape
The Tilly Escape occurred in October 1856 when Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman led an enslaved woman named Tilly to freedom. The action came at the request of Tilly’s fiancé, who had escaped to Canada. The escape required the two women to make their way from Baltimore, Maryland, to Delaware using multiple methods of transportation. It is considered one the most complicated and dangerous rescue missions ever undertaken by Tubman. The escape is acknowledged by a historical marker placed in September 2013 on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom by the National Park Service. More than a century and a half later, little more is known of Tilly, or even if Tilly was her real name.
Background
Tilly’s escape was made through the Underground Railroad, a nineteenth century collective effort by formerly enslaved people and abolitionists to help enslaved people reach freedom. The Underground Railroad included safe houses and hiding places run by people who would provide shelter, food, clothing, medical care, disguises, and documents to help those seeking freedom. Escape plans used transportation over land and water through the pro-slavery Southern states into the free Northern states and Canada.
Guides known as conductors helped lead people along the secret routes of the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman was one of these conductors. Born about 1820 in Dorchester, Maryland, to enslaved parents, Tubman and her eight siblings automatically became property of their parent’s owner at birth. She was often mistreated, even as a child. At the age of twelve, she was struck in the head by a heavy object a slave overseer was throwing at a fugitive enslaved person. The blow fractured her skull, and Tubman suffered headaches and spells where she suddenly fell asleep for the rest of her life.
Despite this, Tubman escaped from slavery on September 17, 1849, along with two of her brothers. They later returned to the plantation, but Tubman, with the assistance of the Underground Railroad, made it to Philadelphia and took a job. Before long, she joined the Underground Railroad to help family members and others escape. Escaping had become even more dangerous after Tubman’s escape because the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made it legal for former slaves and even free Black people to be captured in the North and returned to slavery in the South.
Undeterred by her health issues, the danger, or the added difficulty of the Fugitive Slave Act, Tubman made repeated journeys to the South to lead others to freedom. These trips were most made in the fall and winter when there were more nighttime hours for travel. Between her own escape to freedom and 1865, when the Union victory in the Civil War brought an end to slavery, it is estimated Tubman led at least seventy and as many as three hundred people to freedom.
Overview
In October 1856, Tubman returned to her home state of Maryland to help a woman named Tilly escape slavery. Tilly’s fiancé was a former enslaved person living in Canada. Like many others escaping slavery, he made the decision to leave loved ones behind in a bid for freedom. He later contacted Tubman for assistance and paid the travel expenses for his fiancé’s escape.
The journey would have been difficult, with the travelers subject to the risk of recapture as well as to exposure to the elements. Historians have pieced together details of Tubman and Tilly’s known actions with circumstances of the era to create a timeline and route for the escape. Many of the details come from a letter written by Thomas Garrett in Delaware to Eliza Wigham in Scotland on October 27, 1856. Garrett was an abolitionist and Underground Railroad leader who helped during the final phase of the escape. Wigham was a leader of the Edinburgh Ladies Emancipation Society.
It is known from historical records that steamships left Baltimore once a week on Tuesdays. On October 21, 1856, a steamboat named Kent left Baltimore heading south, and some experts believe this is the ship the women used. It is thought Tubman chose to go south first instead of heading directly for Philadelphia because each Black person traveling north on steamboats had to post a $500 bond to prove they were free. This would be the equivalent of nearly $18,000 in the 2020s. It is thought that Tubman had a letter from another steamship captain who was known by the Kent’s captain, and this convinced him to allow the women aboard.
The steamboat took the two women down the Chesapeake Bay to the Nanticoke River. From there, they sailed to Seaford, Delaware. A number of slave owners lived in the state, including its governor, William Ross, who was eventually forced to flee to Europe during the Civil War. After completing the forty-mile trip to Seaford, Tubman and Tilly walked to a nearby hotel where they stayed the night. The site of the hotel is now Gateway Park in Seaford. Tubman sent a communication to Garrett in Delaware letting him know of their progress.
Slave hunters nearly arrested the pair the next morning, but the hotel owner intervened and protected them. They left on foot for Bridgeville, Delaware, where they caught a train bound for Camden, Delaware. Tubman’s papers indicating she was a free woman from Philadelphia likely helped with this part of the trip. The women were then transported by carriage to Garrett’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, before Tilly was moved on to a permanent home.
There is no positive documentation of Tilly’s identity. The recordkeeping and cultural practices of the time were such that the names of enslaved people can be difficult to pin down with precision. Many—including Tubman—changed their names during their lives, and slaveowners frequently renamed enslaved people when they acquired them. In addition, fugitive slaves often used aliases as they escaped and changed their names once they reached freedom. However, there is a possible clue in a fugitive slave ad placed in the Baltimore Sun. Mary Thompson Bayly placed the ad indicating that “Laura” had escaped the same day Tilly left with Tubman. Some theorize that Tilly was this Laura.
Bibliography
“Gateway to Freedom: The Tilly Escape.” Delaware Public Archives, archives.delaware.gov/historical-markers-map/gateway-to-freedom-the-tilly-escape/. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.
“Harriet Tubman.” History.com, 27 Jan. 2021, www.history.com/topics/black-history/harriet-tubman. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.
“Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument.” Organization of American Historians, www.oah.org/site/assets/files/10217/hatu‗hrs‗-‗final.pdf. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.
Murray, Molly. “Seaford Embraces Role in Former Slave’s Escape to Freedom.” Delaware Online, 17 Feb. 2014, www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2014/02/17/seaford-embraces-role-in-former-slaves-escape-to-freedom/5568347/. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.
“Successfully Escaping Slavery on Maryland’s Underground Railroad.” Maryland Office of Tourism, www.visitmaryland.org/article/successfully-escaping-slavery-marylands-underground-railroad. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.
Walls, Bryan Dr. “Underground Railroad Terminology.” PBS, www.pbs.org/black-culture/shows/list/underground-railroad/stories-freedom/underground-railroad-terminology/. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.
“What is the Underground Railroad?” National Park Service, www.nps.gov/subjects/undergroundrailroad/what-is-the-underground-railroad.htm. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.