By the Compass or By Any Star: 



I 



North Carolina's 



Maritime 

 Underground 

 Railroad 



by David Cecelski 



ji the decades before the Civil 

 War, a slave named Peter guided 

 vessels in and out of Wilmington 

 harbor. Merchants and planters rou- 

 tinely depended on skilled local pilots 

 and engineers like him to guide their 

 ships safely around the dangerous 

 shoals on the Cape Fear River and 

 across its narrow, shifting channel into 

 the Atlantic. 



But Peter navigated more than 

 freight through those treacherous 

 coastal passages. He also secretly 

 steered fugitive slaves toward freedom 

 and played a vital role in a maritime 

 section of the Underground Railroad 

 that flourished in antebellum North 

 Carolina. 



"Peter enjoyed the friendship of 

 two very distinguished Quakers, 

 Mr. Fuller and Mr. Elliot, who owned 

 oyster sloops and stood at the head of 

 what is known in our country as the 

 Underground Railroad," his son, an 

 ex-slave named William H. Robinson, 

 remembered in a little-known autobi- 

 ography. "Father was with Messrs. 

 Fuller and Elliot every day towing 

 them in and out from the oyster 

 bay. This gave them an opportunity to 

 lay and devise plans for getting many 

 [slaves] into Canada ... , and my father 

 was an important factor in this line." 



A correspondent to the Wilming- 

 ton Journal underscored the success 

 of the slave-smuggling conspiracy, 

 writing in October 1849 that "it is 

 almost an every day occurrence for 

 our Negro slaves to take passage 

 [aboard a ship] and go North." 



Q 



r nly recently have scholars 

 begun to explore the complex and 

 important roles played by black 

 watermen and sailors in the antebel- 

 lum past, where many African- 

 Americans combined mobility, 

 skill and solidarity to challenge the 

 institution of slavery. 



"Even at night," a former 

 Currituck bondsman recalled, "I could 



O NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1994 



