Dover Eight facts for kids
The Dover Eight was a group of eight enslaved black people who bravely escaped from the Bucktown, Maryland area in March 1857. They received help from many people involved with the Underground Railroad. However, one person, Thomas Otwell, betrayed them in Dover, Delaware. He tried to get a $3,000 reward by turning them over to the authorities. Despite this, the Dover Eight managed to escape from jail and eventually made it to safety in Canada.
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Planning Their Escape to Freedom
The Dover Eight group included two women and six men. Denard Hughes and Tom Elliott were from the Pritchard Meredith Farm. The other members were Bill Kiah, Emily Kiah, Lavina Woolfley, James Woolfley, Henry Predeaux, and one person whose name is not known.
When they decided to run away, Harriet Tubman gave them directions for their journey. The route was very risky, especially because they had to travel through "slave states" south of the Mason–Dixon line. After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, it became even more dangerous for enslaved people to escape. It was also risky for anyone to even hint at wanting to end slavery. To protect themselves, the Dover Eight carried wooden clubs and pistols.
The Dangerous Journey North
Many people helped the Dover Eight along their way. In East New Market, Maryland, Reverend Samuel Green assisted them. Once they reached Caroline County, Maryland, they contacted Ben Ross, who was Harriet Tubman's father. Ross hid the eight runaways in his cabin at Poplar Neck.
In Delaware, they met Thomas Otwell, a free black man who was supposed to guide them on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman trusted him. For $8, Otwell was meant to take the group from Milford, Delaware to a safe place north of Dover. But instead of helping them, he decided to turn them in for a $3,000 reward. Otwell got James Hollis to help him trick the Dover Eight. The sheriff of Dover, Sheriff Green, was told that the runaways were coming. He planned to capture them at the Dover jail. The runaways were told they were being taken to a safe place in Dover until the next night.
The sheriff made sure several men were ready to capture them at the Dover jail. Around 4:00 in the morning, James Hollis met the Dover Eight, who were cold and tired. He told them he was a friend to runaway slaves. He then led them to the Dover jail. They went up a dark staircase. When a light was lit, they saw iron bars. They were led to a room where the sheriff planned to hold them. The room was cold, so they left it. Henry Predeaux said he "did not like the looks of the place." When Sheriff Green realized they hadn't stayed in the room, he ran downstairs to his family's private area to get a pistol. The runaways followed him, hoping to find a warm room. As Green reached for his gun, Predeaux threw "a shovel full of fire" towards the sheriff. Hughes helped fight off the lawmen. The runaways broke a window and climbed out. They fell 12 feet to the ground, then climbed over a wall around the jail to reach the street.
Confused about where to go, six of the group went back towards Camden (in Dover). They found Otwell again, who promised to take them to William Brinkley, as originally planned. William Brinkley helped the runaways travel 19 miles on foot through forest roads from Dover to Smyrna, Delaware. This part of the journey was through "the two worst places this side of the Maryland line." Predeaux, after jumping out the broken window, found himself separated from the others. He traveled alone to Thomas Garrett's house. What happened to the eighth person in the group is not known.
Throughout the night, the sheriff and some slave catchers searched for the runaways. Three of the slave owners were also looking for them. The lawmen tracked some of the runaways back to the Camden area. However, they could not get a warrant to search a house because they didn't have enough proof. Two of the runaways headed north.
Thomas Garrett had also been watching for the group for several nights. He found some of them near Wilmington and brought them to his home. Two men hired by Garrett found four others. They took them by boat across the Christina River to another Underground Railroad station. James Woolfley and four others made it to William Still's office in Philadelphia. Still wrote down their experiences in Dover and helped plan the rest of their journey along the Underground Railroad. They continued north until they reached Canada.
Rewards from $300 to $400 per person were offered for each member of the group. This would have been $3,000 or more for all of them.
Who Were the Dover Eight?
Tom Elliott
Tom Elliott was from Pritchard Meredith's farm. He safely reached Canada and settled in St. Catharines, Ontario, a community for black refugees where Harriet Tubman also lived. Elliott became a good friend of Tubman. He later moved to Auburn, New York, where Tubman also settled after being sick in Canada.
Around 1864, Elliott married Ann Marie Stewart, who was Tubman's great-niece. They had two daughters, Nellie and Mary. After Ann Marie passed away, Elliott married Helen, who was born in New York.
Denard Hughes
Denard Hughes, also known as Daniel Hughes, was also from the Pritchard Meredith Farm in Bucktown. His owner, Pritchett Meredith, enslaved at least 14 black people. Hughes described Meredith as "the hardest man around." Denard Hughes also made it safely to Canada and settled in St. Catharines, Ontario. He had to leave behind aunts, uncles, brothers, and sisters in the south.
Henry Predeaux
Henry Predeaux, sometimes spelled Predo, decided to run away after his owner, a judge named Ara Spence, threatened to sell him to the Deep South. Predeaux was 27 years old at the time. It is not known what happened to Predeaux after he escaped from the Dover jail.
Lavina and James Woolfley
Lavina Woolfley and her husband, James Woolfley, were enslaved by Samuel Harrington of Cambridge, Maryland. James ran away with the Dover Eight. At some point, Lavina became separated from the group. One story says that Lavina stayed behind with friends where she would be safe. Meanwhile, James quickly went on to Canada. After he arrived, he sent a letter saying he was safe and asking Lavina to join him. Lavina hid for several months and eventually made it to Philadelphia. There, William Still told her that her husband was waiting for her in Canada. In 1857, Lavina traveled north with 24-year-old Ann Johnson, who had also been enslaved by Harrington.
Emily and William Kiah
William Kiah was enslaved by Benjamin G. Tubman, and Emily belonged to Ann Craig.
William and Emily Kiah seem to have been separated from the group that arrived at William Still's office in Philadelphia. They had a daughter named Mary, whom they had to leave behind. It is possible Mary stayed in Maryland, Delaware, or Pennsylvania.
The Trial of Samuel Green
Reverend Samuel Green was suspected of helping the Dover Eight. Sheriff Robert Bell searched Green's house after Green returned from visiting his son in Canada. Among other papers, Bell found a letter from his son in Canada, a map of Canada, train schedules, and the book Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Green was arrested on April 4, 1857, for having Uncle Tom's Cabin. At the time, this book was seen as a "abolitionist handbill" because it spoke out against slavery. The book and other items were believed to "create discontent amongst the colored population." Green became a symbol of free black people who helped others escape slavery.
Charles F. Goldsborough led the case against Green in a two-week trial in Dorchester County, Maryland. Since there was no direct proof that Green was involved with the Underground Railroad, Goldsborough argued that Uncle Tom's Cabin was meant to cause trouble. James Wallace, a slaveholder, was Green's defense attorney. He strongly defended Green and argued against the accusations about the anti-slavery materials. Green was found not guilty of having "abolition papers of an inflammatory character." However, he was found guilty of a serious crime: possessing Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was believed to "create discontent amongst the colored population." This was based on a law from 1841. If found guilty, a free black person could be sentenced to ten to twenty years in prison for having such materials. Green was sentenced to at least ten years at the Maryland Penitentiary in Baltimore on May 14, 1857. It was very unusual for someone to be sent to prison just for owning an anti-slavery book. People asked the governors of Maryland to pardon Green, but he was not pardoned until March 1862. Governor Augustus Bradford pardoned Green on the condition that he leave the state within 60 days.
Other Effects of the Escape
Slave owners on the Eastern Shore of Maryland became very angry about this escape. They realized that more and more enslaved people were determined to find freedom in the late 1850s. Ben Ross, Harriet Tubman's father, was suspected of working with the Underground Railroad. People worried that the nearly 70-year-old man would be arrested. When Harriet Tubman heard this news, she led her parents to safety in Canada.
This was seemingly the last straw for local slaveholders, who had been losing their property to the North at an alarming rate throughout the preceding decade. As far as whites were concerned, there must have been an accomplice or at least someone who had encouraged the bondsmen with radical ideas about freedom.
—Samuel Green biography, Archives of Maryland
Slaveholders became much more watchful of both enslaved and free black people. This put Samuel Green, Ben Ross, and other Underground Railroad helpers in greater danger.
The escape of the Dover Eight became a famous story among those who wanted to end slavery.
John Brown's Plan
Harriet Tubman asked the new Black Canadians to join a group of fighters for John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. Brown's goal was to abolish slavery through force. She found several men willing to join, including Elliott and Hughes. However, they eventually decided not to take part in the planned uprising.
