[Ads-l] underground railroad antedating

[James Eric Lawson]

Thanks, interesting article. "Sam Weller" (a character from *The 
Pickwick Papers*, 1836) must be the Thomas Smallwood.

On 9/13/23 17:42, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
> https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/opinion/man-who-named-underground-railroad.html?unlocked_article_code=msBkDn1oBuLVrHWncLuLsVF_kJCkmjQh0yW357frrWqt-zn8Jtpzm02RpS2wCAqRGRsWQbztipldVCMonVG0QwhsFkFCI3XFaRK42ddTeWaBrR1IwXLtZnatyuUnr0PHHpDa-f4iXkgkvLBu7pFA5UUPM-MmvcYsQQb9DM9SWQxdGTahJba-6j7ebAzbQ24-eU-inJhL5BHzkpvMqZrQBymEU4TxzxU2CrjuoSlqENntDbfPICVUcLa4mNHrO4dIQYxgjjKcGf35nfLhgoGvfGwDDplTjZsUHLrjWxNfre5h8CneuDJMhSbaLCvzB0MuCUJZlWhQG5zTOZRAOjo5Rscua7ACP3ilXx2i&smid=url-share
> 
> On Wed, Sep 13, 2023, 8:00 PM James Eric Lawson <jel at nventure.com> wrote:
> 
>> 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

-- 
James Eric Lawson

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