Underground Railroad Chair

The "captain" in this quote was abolitionist John Brown, and the chair was in the house of Underground Railroad conductor Charles Smith.

In the early hours of a cold January morning in 1859, John Brown arrived at "Smith Station" with nearly 30 people--among them ten slaves liberated on a raid into Missouri just a few weeks earlier. The previous day Brown had triumphed in the Battle of the Spurs, an infamous but bloodless encounter between abolitionist and proslavery forces. During this "battle," a band of slavery supporters blocked the John Brown party at Straight Creek in Brown County, Kansas. The proslavery party's intent was to stop Brown from escorting the fugitive slaves to Canada, but the Brown party passed safely because only words--not gunfire--were exchanged.

Escaping slaves could chose from several different routes through Kansas, depending on their location within the territory. Many slaves escaping from Missouri most likely made their first stop at Quindaro in Wyandotte County. Established in 1844, this town became an Underground Railroad station about 1857 and remained so until the start of the Civil War. The next stop on the route often was the free-state town of Lawrence. Slaves then made their way to Topeka and turned north. The last leg of the route through Kansas, and the best known, was the Lane Trail.

James H. Lane originally laid out this trail so free-state immigrants coming to Kansas Territory could avoid proslavery settlements along the Missouri River. Marked with rock piles known as Lane's chimneys, the trail began in Topeka and continued north through Jackson and Brown counties (along today's US Highway 75) and ended at the Kansas-Nebraska border. By 1856 its usage as an immigrant trail had fallen off while runaway slave traffic increased. Because of the need for secrecy, records were not kept on exactly how many slaves used the 136-mile route through northeast Kansas.

The Underground Railroad is reported to have existed in America as early as the 1700s. It reached its height of operation after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 which made it a federal crime to aid escaping slaves. It consisted of a network of trails with "stations" or safe houses where runaway slaves could stay and receive food and shelter. People who aided the fugitives on their journey north to freedom were referred to as conductors. Conductors came from all occupations including farming, business and the ministry.

Charles Smith, the Kansas farmer who owned this chair, settled in the Locknane Township of Brown County, Kansas in 1856 with his wife and 3 children. The family home, also known as Smith Station, was located in the lower southwest section of Brown County on the Lane Trail. According to an account written by one of Smith's sons, J. Albert, food and shelter were provided for the John Brown party the night they arrived at Smith's door. Smith Station was only a one-room cabin with few places to sleep, including the bare floor or one of two chairs. Brown, being a famous abolitionist, was offered this chair for the night (see close-up image of its splint seat at lower left).

The demand for an Underground Railroad route in Kansas lessened with its admittance to the Union as a free state in 1861. James Lane became one of the first U.S. Senators from Kansas, but died by his own hands in 1866. John Brown was hanged after an aborted attempt to take over the U.S. arsenal at Harper's Ferry later that year. Charles Smith lived the rest of his life quietly in Brown County.

This chair is the only artifact in the Kansas Museum of History's collections associated with the Underground Railroad.

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