Thomas Garrett
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thomas Garrett (born Thomas Garrett Jr.) (August 21, 1789 – January 25, 1871) was an abolitionist and leader in the Underground Railroad movement before the American Civil War.
Garrett was born into a prosperous landowning Quaker family on their homestead called "Thornfield" in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The house in which he lived until 1822, which was built around 1800, still stands today in Upper Darby Township.
In a family already inclined to abolitionism, Thomas was exceptionally dedicated. When a family servant was kidnapped by men who planned to sell her as a slave in the South, he tracked them down and released her.
A follower of the schismatic Quaker leader Elias Hicks, Garrett split with his orthodox family and moved to Wilmington in the neighboring slave state of Delaware to strike out on his own and pursue his struggle against slavery. He established an iron mongering business and made it prosper.
All the while as he worked to dominate the iron trade in Wilmington, he secretly worked as a Station Master on the last stop of the Underground Railroad in the state. At his house in Wilmington, fugitive slaves would stay in hidden chambers overnight before they made the final push into the free state of Pennsylvania. The authorities were aware of his activities and he was arrested more than once. During his trial in 1848 for assisting runaway slaves, he was told by the judge that the fine would be waived if Garrett promised to stop his illegal activities. Garrett took the opportunity to address the courtroom declaring "Friend, I haven't a dollar in the world, but if thee knows a fugitive who needs a breakfast, send him to me." The subsequent fines and penalties bankrupted him, but, with the commercial acumen so famous among Quakers, he soon enough again prospered. In 1860, the slave state of Maryland offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction for "stealing" slaves.
During the period before the Civil War, Garrett worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison and Harriet Tubman (who passed through his station many times). He estimated that before the war he assisted 2,246 fugitives and during the war an additional 73. During the war, his house was guarded by black volunteers.
At his funeral, Garrett's body was borne by freed blacks who declaimed him "Our Moses." He was interred at the Wilmington Friends Meeting House.
A municipal park in Wilmington is named Tubman-Garrett Riverfront Park after the two Underground Railroad agents and friends.
