Samuel Harper and Jane Hamilton

On December 20, 1858, eleven enslaved human beings located in Missouri were rescued by Abolitionist, John Brown, his friend, John Henry Kagi, and a raiding party. Two of those slaves were Samuel Harper and Jane Hamilton. It was believed that Jane was pregnant at the time, and along the way, she gave birth to a child who was named Captain John Brown. For over two months, the fugitive slaves, and their rescuers made their way through Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. One of the places the party stopped along the way was the Mayhew Cabin in Nebraska City. This was the home of Allen and Barbara Mayhew. Barbara was John Henry Kagi's sister. The party continued travelling through Iowa, onto Illinois and Michigan. Finally, on March 12, 1859, Sam and Jane Harper boarded a ferry in Detroit, Michigan, crossed the Detroit River and landed on free soil in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

In 1895, historian Wilbur Siebert interviewed Jane and Sam. They were living on Bruce Street in Windsor, Ontario. They told Siebert they had a son living in Detroit. When asked the question did he mourn John Brown? His words leave no room for doubt. "I wish, I was in a position to pay John Brown Junior, one half what I owe his father, for what he did for us," Harper told essayist James Cleland Hamilton. Harper claimed his former owner sought him out in Windsor and tried to talk him into returning to Missouri. The man promised he'd treat him better, but Harper wasn't impressed. He said his owner must have thought him a foolish man, indeed; otherwise why would he have come "all dis way to ask me to go back to slavery."

Harper said it took him, Jane and the others three months to reach Canada. But if he had known slavery would end so soon he said he might never have left Missouri, where he could have scooped up land after the war for twenty-five cents an acre and lived in a climate milder than Canada's.

He expressed no regrets, though, for marrying Jane. They, after all, had shared both doubts and desires, nightmares and dreams on their journey to the land where they made a life together.

Sources: Freedom by Any Means: True Stories of Cunning and Courage on the Underground Railroad, by Betty DeRamus; Portrait of Sam and Jane photographed in Canada at the Murdoch Brothers Studio, Dec. 1894