Borrowed Bones

The Weems Family

• Sarah Sexton • Episode 26

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John Weems' determination to free his family from slavery is one of trust, cooperation, and human ingenuity, spawning from the most desperate of situations. Listen to hear how John Weems and the underground railroad raised money and awareness to ensure the entire Weems family found freedom. 


Sources:

BlackPast.org , Weems The People, WorldHistory.org, Archives of Maryland, The Shadow on the Household, Railroad Ties, Anna Maria Bio, HeritageMontgomery.org 

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello, everyone.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm Sarah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm Cole.

SPEAKER_00:

And you're listening to Borrowed Bones, a podcast about fucked up, interesting, and toxic families.

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00:

Today?

SPEAKER_01:

I have no idea what we're talking about today. I don't have an inkling of a clue.

SPEAKER_00:

I thought I told you a little bit.

SPEAKER_01:

You gave me one.

SPEAKER_00:

I gave you the era.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that was it. But I don't know the subject. You didn't give me any names or anything, so.

SPEAKER_00:

We are talking about the Weems family.

SPEAKER_01:

Weems. W-E-E-M-S?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Not familiar.

SPEAKER_00:

I was not either.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

But their story is kind of familiar. So I think.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. I'll know the story, but not the name. I think so.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. We are in antebellum, America.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Around the 1850s.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Antebellum.

SPEAKER_02:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00:

I do like that word. I like the word. It's a pretty word. But the era.

SPEAKER_01:

Lady antebellum. They're Lady A now. Yeah. When their name should have been Lady Anti B L M.

SPEAKER_00:

I I I hate to admit, but I do I do like a few of their songs.

SPEAKER_01:

I do. I know when I first heard of them, what, well, 10 years when they came out. It's not my genre, so but I was like, why would anyone choose that as a name? Like that's a statement. That's a dog whistle in and of itself. The good old days, you know, where we could own people. That's what you're saying. You're romanticizing a horrible era.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you yeah. Just like romanticize 1870 forward, you know? Like you don't have to be so specific. Like you specifically anyway, we're going.

SPEAKER_01:

We're going on a yeah. Back to the subject. The Weems family.

SPEAKER_00:

The Weams family.

SPEAKER_01:

That's weird. Antebellum where?

SPEAKER_00:

I will tell you. Okay. March 1st, 1829.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

John Weems and Arabella Talbot get married at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Rockville, Maryland.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

This union was unique because Arabella was a slave.

SPEAKER_01:

And Maryland's a slave state.

SPEAKER_00:

Mm-hmm. And not many enslaved people were allowed a proper Christian marriage.

SPEAKER_01:

Was Weems not a slave?

SPEAKER_00:

He was a free man.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, so a free man marries at the time a slave. Mm-hmm. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

They were both allowed to do it in a Catholic church as well, which is like another like, whoa, how'd this happen? Yes, then John was born a slave, and he bought his freedom from his owner, Adam Robb. That's the owner's name. Okay. I hate first names that are both the first and last name. So we're gonna call him Rob.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Rob is Arabella's current owner.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So John bought his freedom from Rob, and Arabella's still under Rob.

SPEAKER_01:

Gotcha. They probably said the same master at some point. That's more how they knew each other.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, gotcha. Rob and John had a deal. John would pay Rob every month to keep his family, his wife, everyone together because now time has moved forward and they have nine children.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. So now we're in like 40s, 50s, 1840s, 1850s. They would eventually have ten children, um, six boys and four girls. And I'm I'd like to say their names here because it's not very often we know names of slaves. Um I don't I don't like saying slaves, but it that's that's the truth, though. It's ugly.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, um there's no point in sanitizing slavery. It should not be sanitized. You're right.

unknown:

You're right.

SPEAKER_01:

It's horrific and should be depicted in its horrific nature.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep, and these children were born into slavery, so yeah. Um, their names are Mary Jane, Catherine Ann, William Augustus, Thomas Richard, Charles Adam, Anna Maria, Joseph, John Lewis, Sylvester, and Mary. Okay. Mary was not born yet.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So right now they have nine. Gotcha. I'm not sure of the order. The fact that we have other names, great.

SPEAKER_01:

That's yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

According to the book, The Shadow on the Household, One Enslaved Family's Incredible Struggle for Freedom by Brian Rice, John was a peaceable, unoffending, industrious citizen.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

He always supported his family in comfort and respectability. According to this book as well, Arabella, or as she went by, Ari, was a slave woman of superior culture. She was devout and very well respected from an early age. A lot of this little more detailed information I got from excerpts from this book. Um, I didn't read the book. I tried. I tried to look for it at my library, the local library, and they didn't have it. And I looked it up online and I just I didn't want to buy another book. I've been buying a lot of books for this, and I've only been like reading them once. So honestly, I just in this economy, I can't do it. But I did find a bunch of excerpts and a bunch of reviews. So, you know, did my best. I also, of course, used other sources as well. John and Arabella, they seem to have a pretty decent relationship with their master, Rob. Again, they were able to keep the family together. I mean, Arabella still had her mother there, and like her sis, like sister was there too. So it's very interesting that Rob was keeping people together.

SPEAKER_01:

Right term, yeah. He's not as bad as he could have been. Kind of good for him.

SPEAKER_00:

He did occasionally allow them to share a home like once a year with the whole family. They were allowed to stay in one house together. Like, I don't not a house, but you know, in one room. Yeah. So once a year he did allow that, which was quite a privilege for slaves. But again, once a year you're allowed to see your family. Yeah. Thanks. And like you were saying, let's not get it twisted. Owner Rob was not a kind man.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. You could have just freed them all if he was so enlightened. Yes. You could have just recognized how inherently horrible it is and done his small part to rectify it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. Um, Rob came over to the US from Scotland before the Revolutionary War.

SPEAKER_01:

Wait a minute.

SPEAKER_00:

No, not before that. His family did. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, well, that's not real.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, but yeah, so his family did, and then he must be like second generation or whatever. But yeah. He would end up moving to Rockville, Maryland, where he is now, and he opened a tavern called the Fountain Inn. And it was advertised as a house of entertainment where Rob and his wife promised anything and everything would be given to the travelers and others that stopped by. Okay. It was locally referred to as Rob's Tavern, and it became a community gathering place. He would hold auctions at this tavern.

SPEAKER_01:

Slave auctions. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Real estate land, people, slive stack. All of it. Yeah, all of it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

According to one of Rob's slaves, his name is Josiah Henson. We have an account that he gave. He was purchased by Rob during one of these auctions. Henson was placed with about 40 others of all ages, colors, conditions, and strangers. That's what he said.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, he said that nobody cared for him. He had to fend for himself. Henson soon became ill and he was just lying on the dirt floor for days. One or two other slaves would find pity on him and give him a little bit of bread or maybe some herring, but he was very feeble, close to death. After a few days, he was sent to his mother, a slave, on another plantation a few miles south. Henson got better. His mother cared for him. He just needed someone to like care for him, and no one would because you're struggling so hard on your own. So Henson got better and he did well for himself at this other plantation. He was very capable. Um, he ran, he actually ran the farm for many years. And the owner of that plantation and Henson, they struck a deal and said that Henson would be able to buy his freedom along with his families. But as we all know, the better worker you are, the more work you get.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Henson was really good at his job, really well liked by his owner. I almost said boss, his owner.

SPEAKER_01:

The boss. The owner is less likely to uphold his end of the bargain of freeing him if he's such a good worker, because then he's an asset.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. So after an unsuccessful attempt to buy his own freedom, Henson escaped from the plantation, fleeing with his wife and four children to Canada.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay. Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

Mm-hmm. Yeah. This is how he can we can hear his account. Okay. In Canada, Henson became a leader of a free black community. And he was an abolitionist of the Underground Railroad. Um, he was an abolitionist and an underground railroad conductor. Sorry. Yeah. I said that too fast. Um, he also wrote an autobiography. The autobiography is called The Life of Josiah Henson, formerly a slave, now an inhabitant of Canada, as narrated by himself. It's a very long-winded name. Yeah. Very straightforward.

SPEAKER_01:

A lot of those books back then were had ridiculously elaborate titles.

SPEAKER_00:

You had to know exactly what you were buying, you know. This autobiography inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe to write as she was writing Uncle Tom's Cabin. Okay. It didn't inspire her to write it, but it gave her she used Henson as the model for Uncle Tom.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And I I want to shout out where I got this um information from. I found it very interesting. From heritagemontgomery.org.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a link to like a PDF brochure highlighting key figures and landmarks of the Underground Railroad in Rockville, Maryland. It was really neat. It was well put together. Easy to read.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Because the subject's the Weams family. Yes, it is. Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_00:

But I wanted to shout out Henson because that was really inspiring. And also I wanted to shout out the um website, heritage-montgomery.org, because it was really cool. Now back to the Weams family. Okay. Master Adam Robb died in 1847 before he could fulfill his promise to John. Do we know if he ever intended to really? We don't, but he died. When Rob died, his children inherited his assets, his slaves, and his debt. There were two daughters that split everything, the debt as well. Rob was in quite a bit of debt, and his daughters were now having to pay the collectors. They were like, all right, let's go. Where's the money?

SPEAKER_01:

So they start selling their slaves.

SPEAKER_00:

So they start selling the slaves. The daughters did whatever they wanted. There was no will, so there was no one to say what direction to go to. When Rob's estate was evaluated, within his assets, there was a list of quote Negroes and what they were valued at. Here's a few of them. There was 55-year-old Mary Jones. She was worth$75 back then, which is about$3,000 today. There was 55-year-old John Henson, which is a different first name from the Henson from a earlier.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But 55-year-old John Henson was valued at$150. That's like$6,000 today. Arabella's sister, so like her adult sister, was valued at$450, and that's over$18,000 today. And then Arabella's aging mother, Cecilia, she was valued at$15, which is the same as a cow back then. Okay. And that's just over$600 today. It's just crazy to me. And also Maryland was a state that there was a lot of the abolitionists too. It was right there on the cusp of everything. Yeah. So these people back then did know. Like there's like it was like 50-50, hence the civil war. Like half of the population did know that it was wrong. They might not have felt equal to black people because the North was racist still too, but they didn't they they they they knew it wasn't okay to whip and chain them and beat them and force them to do things. Like, my God. Anyway. One of Rob's daughters and her husband, they they obtained Arabella, the mom, along with a couple of the daughters, Anna Maria and Catherine Ann, and then two of the boys. They were then sold to slave traders. They were sent to some like a holding pen in Washington, D.C. to wait until they could be taken to Alabama to be sold at an auction.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Anna Maria and her sister Catherine were sold to Charles Price. Okay, so Anna Maria and sister Catherine Ann were sold to Charles Price. And then mom and the boys were sold to the traders and went to Washington, D.C. Okay. All right. Before this happened, though, John was still fully expecting to purchase his family's freedom. He went up to New York to make arrangements for their freedom. When he returned, he found out that his wife and children had been put in a Washington, D.C. slave pen just waiting to be sold. And also the price for their purchase went up quite a bit. Of course. The Weams family had been sold to slave traders for$3,300. Today, that's$137,000 today. When John Weams returned, he was offered his wife and youngest daughter for$900. They're like, we can have these two for$900. That's about$37,000 today. Weems only had$600, so he couldn't make that. He couldn't do that. There was an offer by a local businessman to lend him$1,700 if John could raise$1,600. But John only had a couple days to raise the money. They were like, we'll hold them for a few days. We'll give you some time, but only a couple days. And John couldn't come up with it in time. He was able to purchase his wife and um the daughter, but not everyone. So he got a couple, but not everyone. So John did what the only thing he could think of, he went for help. He traveled the countryside to raise awareness and get support from anti-slavery communities in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York, England, Scotland. He didn't go to England and Scotland, but the connections. Through this awareness, the Weems Ransom Fund was created to save up money to buy the Weams' family freedom. So he he's getting organized now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Because the government's never gonna help you. So you rely on the charity of strangers.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00:

The first round of funds were used to purchase his daughter Catherine before she reached childbearing age. Oh. Yeah. They were thinking of that. They were like, we want her. They're trying to, yeah. However, escape plans were necessary for the other two daughters because their owners were not accepting offers, even when they were well above the asking price. The offer for Mary Jane was$700, which is$28,000 today, and the owner refused. And John and these other people that were helping him, they were trying for six years to buy her, to buy these other daughters. So they realized escape was the only option, right? You can only try so much. We have to get her out. We have to help her escape. A man named Henry Garnett helped Mary Jane escape. Henry Garnett, who is that? He was a prominent African-American abolitionist and a minister who himself escaped from slavery in Maryland when he was a child.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So he's a part of the Underground Railroad. He's he's he's right in the thick of it. Mary Jane was 17 when she escaped. This is like I think 1852. Mary Jane, it's said that she suffered mentally from this experience. Um, I tried seeing details of like how the escape actually happened, and I couldn't find any, but I found this. She was very traumatized by it. Yeah, she wouldn't talk much about the details of her escape, and neither would Henry Garnett. Like it just seems like they wanted to put it behind them. Um Mary Jane actually changed her name.

SPEAKER_01:

She her name your escape, you escaped, you're not gonna give too many details. I mean What do you mean? Oh, like the name or like we don't know how they how she escaped. Well, yeah, you're not gonna if you're an escapee, right? You're not gonna give too many details. This is how I did it.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I mean, who knows? Maybe she would grow up one day after the Civil War, write a memoir, you know, but she nothing, like nothing not that I'm aware of anyway. Um, but yeah, so when after she after she escaped, she changed her name to Stella. So you're more likely to see the name Stella when you're looking for it than Mary Jane. Stella still wanted to help her family, even though she was free, of course. She was like, I still need to help my family. And her and Henry wanted to gain more awareness of the family's severe circumstance. They're like, we still need to get more people knowing about this. A pamphlet was published in in Scotland detailing the Weams' plight and was circulated in 1852. It describes Stella Weems as Garnett's adopted daughter. And there's an anonymous author, we don't know who wrote it, but people are pretty sure Garnett wrote it and helped publish it and helped push it through to get the people overseas to be interested in this and to send money, basically. Stella Weems moved with Henry Garnett and his family to Jamaica. They would end up moving there, but as they're in Jamaica, they're sharing their her family story, they're raising money. She also went on missions to England and Scotland with him, so she's raising awareness by moving and grooving with him and his family. I don't know if she ever reunited with her family. I don't recall where her story ends, quite honestly. A lot of it just kind of peters out.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

But she's with him and his family. Several years later, her younger sister, Anna Maria, she escapes to her family in Canada disguised as a male coach driver. This is the story most people know. Is this child specifically? So let's get into Anna's story. Anna's story reminds me of that miniseries, The Good Lord Bird, that we watched about John Brown. Because Anna disguises as a different gender in this, um, I think it's interesting. I I'm obviously I think it's just inspired.

SPEAKER_01:

If you've seen that miniseries, there's um based on a James McBride novel, same title, The Good Lord Bird, and it's about a it's a fictionalized account of James or excuse me, of uh John Brown's Ray at Harper's Ferry. Yes. But told from the perspective of a fictionalized teen boy who's mistaken by John Brown for a girl, yeah, and he just lets him believe he's a girl.

SPEAKER_00:

Like he assumes the role and well, he's treated kind of nicer, yeah, being a girl versus being a boy.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So he's of the age that could be mistaken, not like super identifiable. As any gender. So let's John Brown voy. Maybe he becomes like the camp cook.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, he does like all the easy stuff. Well, easy to him stuff, right? Not the manual labor.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, and isn't there a moment in the miniseries where they run across someone, a John, like a a s a free man, but he's staying around to free his family?

SPEAKER_02:

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I I John Weems.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I think I think that the author then of the book must have known these this story a little bit. And maybe it was he was, you know, inspired by it. That's kind of similar.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, not exactly at all. I mean, he didn't like just copy and paste or anything, but it seems inspired.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So I just, it popped into my head when I was researching it. Anna Maria and her sister Catherine were sold to Charles Price, like I mentioned earlier. But Catherine was already, her freedom was already purchased by her dad and the Underground Railroad. Yeah. I remember. For the childbearing age. But Anna Maria was still there. So now we have abolitionist and lawyer Jacob Bigelow who is going to help. He's going to step in. However, Price figured it out by now, and he knew that the Underground Railroad was attempting to free her. He didn't want them to have her. He was like, I don't want you to buy her, and I don't want you to free her either. She can't escape. So Price made Anna Maria sleep in his bedroom. And this went on for two years. Price being nervous that she's going to escape. Um, it's so she had to sleep in that bedroom for two years. And the thought is that she was being kept and kind of hoarded, not hoarded, yeah. She was being kept because they wanted her to be like a breeder.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

At this time, Anna Maria is about 14 or 15. I'm I use I'm gonna say 15 just for consistency. And after exhausting all legal means of freeing her, Bigelow and another abolitionist, William Still, arranged to have another person, Dr. Lwood Harvey, who goes by Dr. H, travel to Washington, D.C. And at the same time, they sent word to Anna Maria that she would need to get herself from Rockville, Maryland to Washington, D.C. on a certain date. Okay. So they're coordinating with multiple people part of the Underground Railroad, these abolitionists, these allies, and then her. We all need to meet in Washington, D.C. on September 23rd, 1855.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Anna Maria escaped the Price household that night and made it the 15 miles to Washington, D.C. Again, I don't know those details, but she made it out. And she meets up with Jacob Bigelow. That's her first meeting point.

SPEAKER_01:

The lawyer.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. At this point, Price was aware that um his slave was gone. And he placed a newspaper ad about her escape, offering a$500 reward for her capture. This is 1855, so the Fugitive Slave Act is fully going on right now. So if you're an escaped slave, you have to be returned, even if you make it to a free state.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. There's no like once I cross the finish line, I'm in the clear. Once I once I tag out, I'm out.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. You have to be brought back.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. So oftentimes there would be rewards as well to bring them back. And yeah, so$500 reward for her, and that's about$18,000 today. So it's a big reward. The ad described her as a bright mulatto with some small freckles on her face, slender person, thick suit of hair, inclined to be sandy.

unknown:

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Because of this large reward, Anna Maria had to hide in Bigelow's house for six weeks. During this time, they created a plan to disguise her as Mr. Joe Wright, a male carriage driver. She wore a driver's uniform, a cap, and a bow tie. She was taught how to walk and act like a young man. So she was able to get the mannerisms down. When things got a little bit quieter, Bigelow's friend, Dr. H, he's a white man, he helped her escape Washington, D.C. So they meet up in front of the White House, which I hope is true. I read it and I I hope that's true. But they they met up near or in front of the White House to do the exchange, where then Anna Maria would take the driver's seat and she would drive out of the city with the white Dr. H in the carriage.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Which is pretty standard. That's not weird. So it's a pretty good cover. However, along the way, they did meet some toll gate operators and some ferry operators who questioned them. Wait, 1850s. What's a toll gate in the 1850s?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, there's still toll roads.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, were there? With horse and I guess I didn't think of that. I guess I figured that was a pavement only thing. I was like, it can't be a car because it's too and they mention a carriage and a horse. I was like, what's happening here?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Gotta pay the troll toll.

SPEAKER_00:

I didn't know that. Oh, wow. We are always just okay. All right then. Okay, well, some toll gate operators and ferry operators would question them just because of the high reward. They're everyone's just on high alert. However, they made it through and they stopped for several days at one of Dr. H's friends' places, but he was a slave holder. So that was your friends with him. I'm sure for certain can you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01:

Keep your enemies closer.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I'm sure there's a reason, right? But they're he's hiding that he's a part of the Underground Railroad. So Dr. H would make jokes that Joe might be a runaway, like, oh yeah, this guy's a runaway. Uh-huh. And Dr. H claimed to have dizzy spells, so Joe had to sleep in the same room with him in order to protect him if he falls. So he did what he could to keep him safe, and that went well. I can just imagine that was a very tense couple days. Yeah. They finally reach William Still's house in Pennsylvania. So now we're on to that third stop. They reach his house on November 22nd, 1855. Here there's a photograph that was taken of Anna Maria in her disguise to send to her mother. I found it online, so I'll post that on Instagram. William Still would write in a report for the Underground Railroad like a description of her. Oh, I just mentioned him. They're at his house now, William Still's house in Pennsylvania. Okay. Yeah. Um, so they're at William Still's house in Pennsylvania, November 22nd, 1855.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So then he writes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. And then he's writing a report for the Underground Railroad. And he describes Anna Maria as about 15 years of age, bright mulatto, well-grown, smart, and good looking. I just like to read those things. Yeah. Anna Maria stayed at the Stills house for several days before being taken to New York. On November 28th, Reverend Charles Bennett Ray escorted her to meet another abolitionist, Lewis Tappan, and his wife in Brooklyn. And she stayed with them for several days.

SPEAKER_01:

And she's trying to get to Canada?

SPEAKER_00:

She's trying to get to Canada. Okay. Yep. There is I think there's like an aunt and uncle of hers that are up there. Um, but either way, no matter what, they're trying to get to Canada. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Canada. America Done Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And then next, she was taken to the home of another reverend uh in Brooklyn. And then he would then take her to Canada by train, traveling through Rochester, New York, and Niagara Falls. All right. So she made it to Canada. I just like to point out all of the stops, all of the organization, how they all had to move in such a coordinated way. It's fascinating. Not fa that's not the right word. It's I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

It's just it fascinates you that it's fascinating.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. I I don't know. It's interesting to see the will of people and how they can come together, unfortunately, in the most dire of times. I guess I'm seeing like the great ingenuity of human power and working together, but also under such a awful time period. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01:

Like fighting what? The oppression of the majority.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

It's always the majority of humans that are oppressing the minority. So like whenever there's like a like the optimism of the human spirit fighting, what's it fighting against? Other humans.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And that that's where I nothing will kill the human spirit. Not even other humans.

SPEAKER_00:

I guess I just wish that we could discover this great human ingenuity in these human parts of ourselves that are so fantastic without being squeezed into such a negative spirit like I don't out of that. I wish you could have something like the Underground Railroad, that kind of coordination, that kind of working together, that that kind of human ingenuity to keep going, but without such a bad thing forcing it to happen. Like, why can't we just be really good with peace and goodness around? Like, why can't we just be good? I don't know. I'm granting now.

SPEAKER_01:

Why can't fish breathe air? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's not their nature. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It's not ours.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I just hate that good things have to come out of being squeezed. Yeah. You know? I just don't like that part of it. Anyway. So Anna Maria makes it to Canada. She's there once in Canada. She travels by train to Chatham, and from there they were taken by carriage to the Don settlement for former enslaved people in Ontario, Canada. Okay. And this was oh, this was where her and uncle also found safety. So she met up with them. And the long journey for her finally ended December of 1855.

unknown:

Gosh.

SPEAKER_01:

What did she do then?

SPEAKER_00:

I'll get there.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

William Still, um, in 1872, he recorded this event in the Underground Railroad Records. And here's an excerpt from it. He says, As noted, because the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 meant any freedom seeker in a free state could legally be captured and returned to slavery, Weems' freedom was by no means secure. And she was sent on to New York and from there to Canada, where she was reunited with her family in December 1855. To be a person of that time and to say, like, because the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 meant that this person might like it's just so I can't even imagine being in a place with slavery. And here we are today, I hear people saying, Well, if we if a state votes on it, it'll be okay. And I'm like, Are you kidding me, you guys? Like, first of all, you can't vote on slavery because that is just impossible. Think of the word. What does that mean?

SPEAKER_01:

It's not impossible. It could bring up, I mean, well, no, no.

SPEAKER_00:

In in today's world, these people that are saying it are saying if if a state votes on it, then it's okay, which I understand that's what the Civil War was about, but they're saying that like everyone must want it then. And I'm like, literally, that's not what it is, because just because the majority of people vote for it doesn't mean that everyone wants it. And they're saying it in a phrase today, like on TikTok, and these podcasters are saying it like, well, if it's voted for, then everyone must want it. And I'm like, well, if you're saying it like that, like every single person must want it. That's an idiotic thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Then you can't be worth acknowledging. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, that's beyond the pale of these are also the people that are saying the Holocaust wasn't that bad. These are the same people. They're out there, they're real, and it's frustrating. So I'm just saying these things are written down, they're recorded. It is well known that no one wants this.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, well, not no one.

SPEAKER_00:

You're true. I mean, true, not no one, but yeah. Anyway, back to Anna Maria in Canada. She was educated at the Buxton Mission at the Elgin Settlement. I think E-L-G-I-N.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Now it is the Buxton National Historic Site and Museum. This settlement that she lived in in Canada was one of four communities in Canada established for black people.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

The Buxton settlement was a large area of 9,000 acres. It offered education and religious services to its residents, most of whom had been enslaved. So Canada was like, we see people fleeing, and they're like, we'll create a space for them. We'll just they can stay here. They're not being kicked out. Wild.

SPEAKER_01:

Again, Canada always better than America.

SPEAKER_00:

The land that was given to them was divided into 50-acre farms that people could pay for over the course of 10 years. So Canada's even giving them a little bit of opportunity here. I mean, I don't want to praise Canada too much. I know they have their own issues. I'm not, but you know what I mean. Yeah. The community also had a brick making plant, a general store, a mill for grinding grain, and a sawmill. Over time, it grew to include a hotel, a post office, and other businesses. So it was like thriving.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

In 1856, 120 students attended the mission school. The education there was so good that it was called the most successful black settlement in North America. Then the local school in that area for white children closed, and those children transferred to the Buxton school to get a better education.

SPEAKER_01:

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And then the students from Buxton went on to become politicians, doctors, teachers, and missionaries.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, missionaries. Not cool on that last one.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, whatever. It's better than slave owners.

SPEAKER_01:

Not for people being missionaried too.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I know. Everything I say today is a little off.

SPEAKER_01:

And then they became oppressors themselves.

SPEAKER_00:

There aren't really any records about Anna Maria too much after this. We just know it's where she settled. I did see that maybe she died in 1863. Um, so I don't, I don't know. But that's where we know she last is. Okay. Meanwhile, we have John and Arabella, the mother and father. They would now have their tenth and final child, a daughter named Mary, and she was the only one of their children born free. Okay. She was born in 1855-ish, they think. And at this time, they are still in the U.S., they're trying to free their sons. There's still a few that are not free yet. They focused on the girls first, I believe, and then went to the sons. Their freedom was finally purchased with money from the Weems Family Ransom Fund in 1858.

SPEAKER_01:

All right.

SPEAKER_00:

Arabella wrote to William Still saying that she was still expecting her final son, Augustus, any day to be coming home. He was the last family member, still enslaved, and Arabella raised more money by herself to help free him. I don't know if the ransom fund was done at this point or what, but she did it. And she wrote to Still, she said, I am expecting him daily, and may heaven grant him a safe deliverance and smile Oh no, I don't know how to pronounce this word. You probably do. Propitiously?

SPEAKER_01:

Let me see.

SPEAKER_00:

Propitiously here. I tried to highlight it.

SPEAKER_01:

Propetitiously?

SPEAKER_00:

Prop that's what I was trying to say. I just couldn't get it. Okay, let me see that again. She wrote, I am expecting daily the return of Augustus, and may heaven grant him a safe deliverance and smile propetitiously upon you and all kind friends who have aided in his return to me. What does that word propetitiously mean?

SPEAKER_01:

Favorably with uh benevolence, with good fortune.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, look at you, Arabella. Airy.

SPEAKER_01:

Like I always what does it say that slaves in 1850 had a better vocabulary than educated people today?

SPEAKER_00:

Hey.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, our society has been dumbed down.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. We don't use like that. I mean, there was more naturally, too. Yeah, like we don't speak as eloquently anymore, which is sad. That I think that yeah, dumbs us down. It does. Yeah. I mean, look at me. I couldn't, I could barely pronounce it. Anyway, now that they have everyone free, John and Arabella would move to the Don settlement in Canada. They moved there in 1861 with I don't know if all of their kids with them, but with a few of them. And then also that's just before the American Civil War. So I was happy to see that they got out before I was like, do they know what's coming? Right. And they did reunite with Anna Maria while they were in Canada. And they lived in Canada for nine years before returning to Washington, D.C. in 1870.

SPEAKER_01:

May I ask why? That's what I thought too. Whenever anyone moves here, like why?

SPEAKER_00:

I think there was um more of the family there. I don't know if their sons were still there or if Arabella's like sister. I don't know if it was, but I'm pretty sure family is what took them back down to Washington, D.C.

SPEAKER_01:

That's the motivation I just have to accept exists for people. Yes. I don't feel that myself.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I mean, Arabella and John worked their whole lives just to keep their family together. So I guess with freedom, they're like, we have to at least experience freedom together. So I I don't know what I would do. I don't know. But yeah, that's where we end the Weams family in Washington, D.C. I don't know exactly um if Stella ended up being in Washington, D.C. with them if she came back from Jamaica. I don't really know. Because what was Jamaica?

SPEAKER_01:

I can't remember like when slavery ended in Jamaica. Like that I was intrigued when you said that they went there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know what the situation was.

SPEAKER_00:

I really don't know what the situation is.

SPEAKER_01:

I think they actually I do th come to think of it. I think slavery in the West Indies was prohibited before it was in the US, like decades before.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

I think it was. But don't quote me on that. That's something I have to look up to verify.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, look it up. I don't we're sitting in the dark right now. I don't want to look it up. There's no lights in here today. So you guys look it up. I don't know uh the history too well, but that's I mean I know about them. Yeah, they they lived there and um yeah. So that is a story of the Weems family, how they fled, paid, and bled for their freedom.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So they all died free then.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Which I think is great. I mean, I I love hearing this.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, by the they all would have died after Civil War ended. Yes. So they would have been they would have been free you I don't say anyway. But you know, I'm getting a few. Oh, yeah, I know what she means. Yeah. They just waited.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but like, yeah, I get what you're saying.

unknown:

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Just wait one more year. No, no, no, no. Don't tell me to wait one more year. That's not what we're saying.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I was not familiar with that story. You weren't? I mean, not that I I mean, I obviously I'm aware of there's untold numbers of okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I thought you would know Anna Maria's story, because that's what like jogged my memory. I was like, oh, I did hear that story. I didn't know she was like a part of a larger family. I've heard her personal story.

SPEAKER_01:

Not that I recall. Maybe at some point I just forg I've I've forgotten who's yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

unknown:

But yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That's the Weems family. Um, I hope that everyone finds success in life and you work hard to get it. Also, um, I don't know how to transition out of this. Follow us on Instagram, Borrowed Bones Podcast. Thank you. And please rate and review us anywhere you listen. It really, really helps us. If you came this far, you can type in a comment and just say freedom or I don't know, something. Um, John, I don't know. Say something. It'd be funny to see what you say. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Till next time. Until next time. Smoke them if you got 'em.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Bye. Bye.

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Sarah and Cole

Host

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