Dana F. White's essay "Two Perspectives on the Cotton Kingdom: 'Yeoman'
and 'Porte Crayon' " in the edited volume Graphic Arts in the South
(Univ. of Arkansas Press for North American Print Conference, 1993)
discusses accounts of the Dismal Swamp by David Hunter Strother (writing
as "Porte Crayon" in the Sept. 1856 Harper's New Monthly Magazine) and
by Frederick Law Olmsted (Journey in the Seaboard Slave States).
Strother and Olmsted both encountered escaped slaves living in the
swamp, and the Strother account has a number of illustrations.

Gregg Kimball

Gregg D. Kimball
Director of Publications
  and Educational Services
Library of Virginia
804/692-3722
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-----Original Message-----
From: Julie Rowand [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 9:19 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Dismal Swamp Canal and the Underground Railroad


Hi all:

I recently joined the list serve.  I am a Visitor Services Specialist at
Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.  I am working on a
nomination of the Great Dismal Swamp to the National Park Service's
Underground Railroad Network.  I have found lots of information
regarding the swamp and some information referencing the canal.

Does anyone have any primary sources that would provide a link between
the Dismal Swamp Canal and the Underground Railroad?  I have heard that
a Union officer was using the canal to transport escaped slaves to port
cities or a camp, but I have no documentable source at this time.

The two I have so far are:
   Moses Grandy- a slave who, as a canal boatman, earned enough money to
   purchase his freedom.
   Frank- a slave owned by Joseph Banks, who ran away and was discovered
   working on a flatboat on the Dismal Swamp Canal.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Julie Rowand
Visitor Services Specialist
Great Dismal Swamp NWR
[log in to unmask]
757-986-3705

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