Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100Lasting Legacies (continued from page 63) f e b r u a r y / m a r c h 2 0 1 7 7 1 PersPective ing and unexpected–and some- times only discovered long after the fact. UndergroUnd railroad If walls could talk, those of the Stowe House on 63 Federal Street, Brunswick, would sure- ly tell a colorful tale. Many fa- mous guests have known its rooms, from writer Harriet Beecher Stowe–for whom the house is named, to a young Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and even honey- mooners Bette Davis and Gary Merrill. Perhaps the most intriguing visitor of all spent only one night here, and most like- ly slept in a cupboard. In the late months of 1850, John An- drew Jackson, fleeing enslavement in South Carolina, arrived at Harriet Beecher Stowe’s door under cover of darkness. “We have a letter sent from Stowe to her sister that proves Jackson took ref- uge in her home in Brunswick that night,” says Tess Chakkalakal, Professor of Af- ricana Studies and English at Bowdoin, who spent 2008-2016 working to restore the house and establish its place on the National Underground Railroad Net- work to Freedom. “To me, the house is so important be- cause it was here that Stowe really proved what kind of wom- an she was,” she says. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, also known as the Bloodhound Law, had passed only weeks before. Anyone caught assisting an en- slaved fugitive could face six months in jail. “The risk of what Stowe did was not just le- gal,” says Chakkalakal. “She also harbored a stranger, a man, in the home where she lived with just her children [Stowe’s hus- band was not yet living in Brunswick]. She took him in, examined the whip marks on his back, and gave him five dollars and a letter of introduction for his arrival in Canada. He played and sang to her young children. Their interaction showed an ex- change between equals.” U ndoubtedly, the encounter with Jackson, coming face-to-face with the scars and stories etched by en- slavement, had a profound effect on Stowe. Just a few months later, she would pen the first installment of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the anti-slavery story that would become the best-selling book of the 19th century, sec- ond only to the Bible. Jackson successfully escaped through Maine into New Brunswick, Canada and from there on to London, England, where he established himself as a lecturer and writer. Given her later success, Stowe’s let- ter of introduction helped open doors in- ternationally. In the foreword to his pow- erful memoir, The Experience of a Slave in South Carolina, Jackson writes: “During my flight from Salem to Can- ada, I met with a very sincere friend and helper, who gave a refuge during the night. Her name was Mrs. Beecher Stowe […] she listened with great interest to my story.” “This is one of the only instances where an example of the Underground Railroad is corroborated by both parties: Jackson in his book and Stowe in her letters to her sis- ter,” says Chakkalakal. The evidence en- abled Chakkalakal and a team of research- ers to get the Harriet Beecher Stowe house listed on the National Underground Rail- road Network. Today, next to a cramped cupboard in the kitchen, a small plaque hangs in testa- ment to a night in 1850 when two writers met in secret, quietly altering the course of each other’s lives. n —By Sarah Moore WearecuratinganonlineresourcebasedaroundtheAfrican AmericanexperienceinMaine,startingwithacollectionof PortlandMonthlystoriesfromovertheyears.Wewelcome yourideas,input,andinformationtohelpdevelopthisonline museum.Pleaseemailstaff@portlandmonthly.com. Tess Chakkalakal,Professor of Africana Studies and English at Bowdoin.