Henry,

I came across an interesting account of a carriage pulled 
by African Americans in Philadelphia in 1859. The carriage 
contained Daniel Dangerfield, who escaped from slavery in 
Loudoun County, Virginia and was arrested a few years later 
in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His hearing was in 
Philadelphia. It received much attention, and Dangerfield 
was discharged after the commissioner said he could not be 
sure of the man's identity as a slave. Here are two 
newspaper accounts of the resulting celebration:

"Daniel was taken by some of the officers and put into a 
cab. The horses were taken out, a rope was tied to the 
carriage, and a crowd of colored people took hold and 
paraded him around the streets, as was done to Fanny 
Ellsler many years ago. The enthusiasm was kept up into a 
late hour of the night?general joy was manifested among his 
friends at the unexpected result."
        ?(Philadelphia) Press, April 7, 1859

"This decision was received with wild applause, which the 
U.S.  Marshal vainly endeavored to check. The crowd outside 
composed mostly of colored persons, soon learned the 
result, and when Dangerfield made his appearance, he was 
surrounded by his friends, and carried down Fifth street, 
to the great danger of his life. He was finally taken away 
from his over-zealous friends, and placed in a carriage, 
and driven off. After going down town, the horses were 
taken from the carriage, and a long rope being procured, as 
many as could get hold of it did so, and Dangerfield, in 
company with several other colored men in the carriage, was 
drawn along Eleventh street, Lombard, and up Fifth street, 
past the Court-house, followed by a great crowd of colored 
people."
        ?(Philadelphia) Public Ledger, April 8, 1859

The Fanny Ellsler reference in the first article is 
interesting. She was a world-renowned Austrian ballerina 
who toured the U.S. in 1840-42. Perhaps then it was German 
Americans who pulled the carriage.

Deborah Lee
Purcellville, Virginia






--On Wednesday, January 25, 2006 3:47 PM -0500 Henry 
Wiencek <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> When Jefferson returned from France, word of his
> impending arrival at Monticello reached his slaves, who
> gathered at the foot of the mountain, unhitched the
> horses from the master's carriage, and pulled the
> carriage up the mountain themselves.  This account is
> from "The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson" by his
> great-granddaughter, Sarah Randolph (pp.152-53).  At first
> Randolph doubted that the slaves had actually pulled the
> carriage but she wrote, "I have had it from the lips of
> old family servants who were present as children on the
> occasion, that the horses were actually 'unhitched,' and
> the vehicle drawn by the strong black arms. . . ."
>
> Displays of joy at the return of a master have been
> documented elsewhere, but this business of actually
> pulling a carriage by hand struck me as excessive and
> unlikely, as it did Sarah Randolph.  However, I came
> across an account that describes much the same thing, but
> occurring in late-19th-century England.  It's in Nigel
> Nicolson's "Portrait of a Marriage," (pp. 25, 69): "Dada,
> Mother, and I had a triumphant return to Knole [their
> castle], pulled up in the carriage by the fire brigade
> with ropes, under welcoming arches." And: "The day was
> declared a public holiday . . . . The horses were taken
> from their traces at the approaches to the town, and the
> local fire brigade pulled the carriage through the
> streets and park to the very door . . . "
>
> I had thought that, if the Monticello slaves indeed
> pulled Jefferson's carriage up the mountain, it was a
> spontaneous act, thought up on the spot.  But knowing now
> that this was also done in England, I'm wondering if it
> was an English tradition transplanted to Virginia.  If
> so, how would the slaves have known about it?   Does
> anyone know of other accounts of carriages pulled by
> slaves in Virginia?
>
> Henry Wiencek
>
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