[Ads-l] underground railroad antedating

[James Eric Lawson]

I don't have access through the paywall at NYT, but a letter from Sam 
Weller dated Aug. 1, 1842 in the "Communications" section of the Aug. 
10, 1842 *Tocsin of Liberty* credits "one of your [sc. Thos. A. Scott] 
city constables" with the phrase:


1842  *The Tocsin of Liberty* (Albany, New York) 10 Aug 2/1 (Digital 
Commonwealth)  I half suspect you describe so much clothing merely to 
give northern people the idea that *you clothed him well*, when *you 
know* that he had to buy for himself, and that it was *your cruelty* to 
him, that made him disappear by that same “under ground rail-road” or 
steam balloon," about which one of your city constables was swearing so 
bitterly a few weeks ago, when complaining that the “d------d rascals” 
got off so, and that *no trace* of them could be found!

https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/book_viewer/commonwealth:4x51m5365#?&cv=1&h=under-ground


On 9/13/23 12:26, Bill Mullins wrote:
> The OED has 1845.
> 
> An article in the Sep 11 2023 New York Times dates it to Aug 10 1842.
> 
> https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/opinion/man-who-named-underground-railroad.html
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

-- 
James Eric Lawson

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org