Brian Shumsky
March 19, 2007
HENRY PARKER
Henry Parker was born in West Virginia in 1835. He lived there as a slave of Benjamin Cooper until he was twenty-four years old. His brothers were sold away from him when his was very young. At that point he made a resolution. He resolved that when he became a man he would take his mother and his sisters to find a home where they could be free. To make sure that the master could not re-claim them under the law, he decided to go to Canada.
Parker then goes on to tell the story of their escape. Parker, his mother, and sisters started on the fourth Saturday night of October 1859 at one o’clock. They crossed the Ohio River and took the Underground Railroad. He waded through two other rivers carrying his mother and his sisters on his back. His mom weighed one hundred ninety pounds. He almost gave up after getting his mother and one sister across, but went back for the other sister and carried her on his back, “doubly resolved for freedom or death.”
Along the way they met many friends. John Williams, a colored man, allowed them to rest at his house during the day. Other friends came to guide them along the way, but some started to leave as the weather grew cold and frost settled on the earth. Exhausted, they still pressed on, and then they met Jonathan Lee. Lee asked them their names, recorded them in a book and remarked that they were the one-hundred and tenth runaways who had passed through his hands and not one had been carried back William Mailes, another colored man, allowed the mother and sisters to rest at his house.
They later reached the house of a Quaker who gave them shelter as well.
At one point, when they reach the house of Mr. Cooper, they learn that four slaveholders were there looking for them, and that they were surrounded by spies who were looking to turn them in. Parker talks about his faith in Christ helping him through.
Eventually they reach Franklin, Michigan, where Parker rented a house of a man named William German. He worked for German by the month. During the first week, his mother and one sister became ill, and he then took care of them for two years. “I had to be father, son, and brother to the family.” They were destitute, but Parker did anything to protect them. During the cold winter in two feet of snow he got up at 4 a.m. to feed eighteen cattle, fourteen horses, one hundred fifty sheep; he also prepared wood to run the fires.
Toward the end of the winter he started to feel a burning in his feet. By mid-April he moved the family to Pontiac, Michigan, renting a house from William Hoagaday. He continued to work very hard, and his feet pained him terribly. Since his sick mother and sisters continued to depend on him, he continued tow work.
In Pontiac he became acquainted with Elder Warren and attached himself to the African Methodist Episcopal Church. His faith in God never wavered through all of this.
He remained sick with cold and rheumatism for two years. He was treated by many doctors, and then he got a serious inflammation in his eyes. After hot water began to run out of his eyes, he consulted an eye doctor who turned out to be a quack. After the doctor applied hot poultices and poisons, he became blind. His mother and sister were dying but he still kept his trust in God.
He starts to go to a great eye doctor in Cincinnati named Taliaferro. He needed money and one white man said, “I would rather see all the G...d...niggers in hell than to give this darkey one cent, but if it was a white man I would give him five dollars.” As it turned out, Dr. Taliaferro treated him free of charge and restored his sight.
Not long after he received news that his mother and sister had died. He remained in treatment with Dr. Taliaferro for nearly three years. Mrs. Peyton transported him to the doctor and helped him. His story ends with his eyesight restored and the fact that still has to support himself. One way he chose to do that was writing his story and asking people for contributions when they bought it.
“Accept this, my friends. It is one of the means I have to support myself. Buy this, and you will have the blessings of a BLIND MAN.”
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UNC University Library, 2004.

i enjoyed the sheirfs children it was an intresting new kind of reading for me.The story i thought gave good points and we can probily all relate to one side or the other on the choice the father made. the storys about a mans struggle with the choice of being a good father or Disobeying the law,this story has twists and turns and it keeps you glued to it(only if your kool).

http://www.negrospirituals.com/
preview: this is a good site explaining the songs and dances of slaves
activity:write your own song like the songs writen for slaves to escape.explain ways for the slaves (in code) to escape

final project

For my final project im learning more about the music that was around in the 1900’s.it mostly consisted of African American gospel and spirituals. Some people kept their culture and did African dancing and drumming. Music was also a big part in freedom for the slaves. In the words of some songs it told the way to safe houses on the Underground Railroad.
http://www.negrospirituals.com/
http://www.document-records.com/show_article.asp?articleID=189