Thomas Smallwood facts for kids

Thomas Smallwood (born 1801, died 1883) was a freedman. This means he was a person who had been a slave but gained his freedom. He worked with a famous person named Charles Turner Torrey. Together, they helped people escape slavery using the Underground Railroad. Many historians think they started the first part of the Underground Railroad in Washington, D.C.. They ran this secret network from 1842 to 1844. Even after they stopped, the network kept going in Washington for 20 more years. Smallwood also wrote for a newspaper called Tocsin of Liberty. It was an anti-slavery newspaper in Albany, New York. Smallwood was its reporter in Washington.

Thomas Smallwood's Early Life

Thomas Smallwood was born enslaved in Prince George's County, Maryland in 1801. When he was a small child, a minister named John B. Ferguson became his owner. Ferguson taught Smallwood to read and write. He also agreed to set Smallwood free at age 30. For this freedom, Smallwood had to pay $500.

In 1831, Smallwood became a free man. He then started working as a shoemaker in Washington. Smallwood had experienced many difficult things as a slave. These experiences, along with his Christian faith, made him want to fight against slavery. Smallwood did not agree with buying enslaved people to set them free. However, he lived in an area where slave owners had a lot of power. This limited what he could do to help.

Community and Faith

In Washington, Smallwood worked at the Washington Navy Yard. He also went to Ebenezer Methodist Church on Capitol Hill. Many Navy Yard workers went to this church in the 1820s and 1830s. At Ebenezer, Smallwood and his family found friends and support. They were part of a church community that was active and forward-thinking.

Many African Americans at this time found the Methodist religion appealing. This newer religion focused on personal faith. It also taught that all people were equal before God. Enslaved people and free people of color took part in adult classes. They received religious lessons. They also had the chance to learn to read and write from the church. Many important African American leaders attended these classes. These included Michael Shiner, Moses Liverpool, Nicholas Franklin, and Sophia Bell. In 1836, Thomas Smallwood was in the same adult class as Michael Shiner's wife, Phillis.

Building the Underground Railroad

In early 1842, Smallwood read about Charles Turner Torrey. Torrey was an anti-slavery activist. He had been put in jail in Annapolis, Maryland. This happened because he tried to report on a meeting of Maryland slave owners. Smallwood arranged to meet Torrey.

Smallwood said that Torrey immediately asked him for help. They planned to help a slave family owned by George E. Badger escape. This plantation owner from North Carolina planned to sell the family to the South. But the escape plans changed. The mother decided to try to raise money to buy her family's freedom instead.

Smallwood and Torrey still went ahead with building an Underground Railroad network in Washington. The people they helped escape north were mostly local slaves. Torrey or Smallwood met them at church. Smallwood also met them through his work at the Navy Yard. He also met them through the reading and writing classes he taught.

Smallwood and Torrey found and guided people escaping slavery. Smallwood's wife, Elizabeth Smallwood, and his landlady sometimes hid these people in Smallwood's Washington home. Once, Captain John H. Goddard searched Smallwood's house. Goddard was the head of Washington's police. He also hunted down escaped slaves. While he searched, a person escaping slavery slipped out the back door. Smallwood and Torrey often paid local Black men to help them. They also got help from a freedman named Jacob Gibbs. Gibbs ran an Underground Railroad network in Baltimore. Smallwood was careful to keep out anyone who seemed to be helping only for money.

Escapes and New Beginnings

Smallwood and Torrey's first group of people to escape included 15 men, women, and children. They all successfully reached Canada. After Torrey moved to Albany, Smallwood led several more escapes north by himself. But Smallwood became worried that he was no longer safe from arrest. This convinced him to move to Toronto in June 1843. He moved his wife and children to Toronto that October.

Soon after, Smallwood and Torrey tried one last mission together. It was an attempt to rescue the families of four escaped Black men. These men had approached Smallwood in Toronto. Abolitionists from the North, like Thomas Garrett, gave them money and supplies. Torrey and Smallwood met the escapees in Washington. But they almost got caught by Goddard. Smallwood quickly fled on foot to Baltimore. There, Gibbs helped him arrange his return to Toronto. Smallwood lived the rest of his life in Toronto. He ran a saw mill there. He also became an important leader in the city's Black community.

Smallwood died of old age in Toronto on May 10, 1883. He was buried in the Toronto Necropolis the next day.