Alice L. Baumgartner's "South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War" tells the story of the freedom seekers who went to Mexico, instead of North via the Underground Railroad.
During my thirty-plus years of teaching American History, I always taught my students about how some enslaved people in the Old South escaped north to freedom by navigating a clandestine network popularly known as "The Underground Railroad".
Recently, I learned something new. While most of the enslaved who escaped did head north, some, particularly in Louisiana, sought freedom by heading west and then south to Mexico. Alice L. Baumgartner tells this fascinating story in her book South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War (Basic Books, 2020).
This western trek toward Mexico began in the early 1800s because the enslaved there had more freedom of movement, and the Mexican people sometimes protected freedom seekers, especially if they were fleeing from abusive enslavers.
In 1936, Felix Haywood, a formerly enslaved man from Texas, was interviewed about his life experience. He recalled how his family laughed at those enslaved individuals who talked of fleeing north to freedom. “All we had to do was walk, but walk south, and we’d be free as soon as we crossed the Rio Grande. In Mexico you could be free. Hundreds of [enslaved] did go to Mexico and got on all right. We would hear about them and how they were going to be Mexican. They brought their children up to speak only Mexican.”
Natchitoches, Louisiana, was an important jumping off point for these escapees seeking a better life in Mexico, because the road known as the El Camino Real snaked west from Natchitoches to Nacogdoches, Texas. In the early 1800s, Texas was a province of Mexico.
One of the earliest records of escaped enslaved people heading to Mexico comes from October 1804, when thirty of them escaped plantations along the Cane River near Natchitoches and fled west.
Four years later, a an enslaved person known only as "Rechar" arrived at a Spanish fort near modern-day Madisonville, Texas, with part of his family. He told officials that his family had been separated in Louisiana, with him being sent to a plantation in Opelousas. Rechar escaped, managed to find his wife and three of their seven children, and then made a harrowing journey across the Sabine River.
In her book, Baumgartner also tells how in 1819, four enslaved men named Martin, Samuel, Fivi, and Richard stole a couple of horses and a mule to make their escape. Slave catchers were soon on their trail, but it appears the freedom seekers may have reached safety; there are no records showing that they were ever brought back to Louisiana.
New Orleans was another starting point for enslaved people seeking freedom in Mexico. There, James Frisby’s enslaver hired him out to serve aboard the steamer Metacomet, bound for Veracruz. It’s not known whether Frisby jumped overboard or escaped by rowboat, but he was discovered missing when the ship prepared to return to New Orleans. American officials demanded that he be returned to his enslaver, but the Veracruz port captain refused.
After winning independence from Spain, Mexico began freeing its enslaved in 1829. This progressive step was one reason American-born settlers in the Texas province revolted against Mexico in 1835. Texas won and in 1845 was admitted to the U.S. as a slave state.
Under the terms of the federal Fugitive Slave Act, Texans were required to return captured freedom seekers to their owners, so it became more difficult for them to make it to freedom in Mexico. To avoid slave catchers, runaways usually walked in the thick Texas woods at night, parallel to the road. They were sometimes helped by anti-slavery German immigrants.
Even if freedom seekers made it to Mexico, they still had to be vigilant against the slave catchers sent to retrieve them.
Mathilde Hennes, a freedom seeker from Cheneyville, Louisiana, learned to never let down her guard. After reaching Mexico, she found work as a maid in the home of Manuel Luis del Fierro. But on the night of August 20, 1850, her former enslaver William Cheney and another man crept into Fierro’s home and held Hennes at gunpoint to take her back to Louisiana.
Fortunately for Hennes, Fierro appeared with a rifle and rescued her. Cheney was arrested and held in a Mexican jail for a month before being released.
Baumgartner estimates that 3,000-5,000 formerly enslaved individuals from Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, and Indian Territory (Oklahoma) gained their freedom by slipping into Mexico. That is far fewer than the 30,000-100,000 enslaved who are believed to have escaped to northern states and Canada through the Underground Railroad but, for the former, Mexico was closer and held fewer risks.
Dr. Terry L. Jones is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. An autographed copy of “Louisiana Pastimes,” a collection of the author’s stories, costs $25. Contact him at tljones505@gmail.com
