William Still and Vigilance Committee Rescue Jane Johnson and Sons

Arriving by train from Washington D.C. on July 18, 1855 was slaver Col. John H. Wheeler of North Carolina; and a black enslaved woman Jane Johnson; and her two sons, Daniel and Isaiah. Wheeler was the American minister to Nicaragua, and his party was passing through, on their way to New York. Wheeler left Jane and her sons locked in a hotel room, giving specific instructions not to talk to any of the black hotel staff. Jane, however, did just that, informing a black worker that she was a slave who wanted to be free. The hotel worker drafted a note to William Still, the African American head of the Vigilance Committee of the local Underground Railroad, and sent it off to Still at the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society office at 153 N. 5th St.(C). Still alerted his white colleague, Passmore Williamson, at his office on 7th and Arch (point D), and they raced off to the hotel. They arrived as the 5 o’clock ferry was about to depart and approached the Wheeler party accompanied by five black dockworkers -- John Ballard, James P. Braddock, William Curtis, James Martin and Isaac Moore -- who quickly perceived the situation. Still told Jane that under Pennsylvania law she was a free woman and could leave Wheeler here and now if she wished.