Thomas Garrett, a Quaker from Wilmington, Delaware, had a genial disposition unless provoked to defend his strong anti-slavery beliefs. Unlike most other white abolitionists who viewed slavery in more abstract and constitutional terms, Garrett, like free black abolitionists and the slaves themselves, saw slavery in very personal terms. He believed so strongly in the Underground Railroad and in helping slaves escape that he chafed under the Quaker belief in non-violence when force seemed to be the only way to win freedom for the slaves he was trying to help. When he died in 1871, Wilmington’s black community saluted him as ‘their Moses.’
Station Master on the Underground Railroad: The Life and Letters of Thomas Garrett
was an important work in antebellum reform when it was first published in 1977. Author James McGowan disputed earlier arguments that white abolitionists were unified in their opposition to slavery and that they were largely responsible for the success of the Underground Railroad while the escaped slaves were helpless and frightened passengers who took advantage of a well-organized network. The present volume has been revised to include new information on Garrett’s relationship with Harriet Tubman and the abolitionist newspaper editor William Lloyd Garrison. It also gives readers a new perspective on Thomas Garrett, recognizing his shortcomings as well as the uncompromising nature of his Quaker faith.