commendation for the prisoner and his family and states that "he
was not without the sympathy of those who attended the trial."
Though Dillingham committed a crime to which the death penalty
was attached in some of the States, the jury affixed the minimum
penalty of three years' imprisonment for the offense. As
Nashville was far removed from Quaker influence or any sort of
anti-slavery propaganda, Dillingham was himself astonished and
was profoundly grateful for the leniency shown him by Court,
jury, and prosecutors. This incident occurred in the year before
the adoption of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. It is well known
that in all times and places which were free from partizan
bitterness there was a general natural sympathy for those who
imperiled their life and liberty to free the slave. Throughout
the South men of both races were ready to give aid to slaves
seeking to escape from dangers or burdens which they regarded as
intolerable. While such a man as Frederick Douglass, when still a
slave, was an agent of the Underground Railroad, Southern anti-
slavery people themselves were to a large extent the original
projectors of the movement. Even members of the families of
slaveholders have been known to assist fugitives in their escape
to the North.

The fugitives traveled in various ways which were determined
partly by geographical conditions and partly by the character of
the inhabitants of a region. On the Atlantic coast, from Florida
to Delaware, slaves were concealed in ships and were thus
conveyed to free States. Thence some made their way towards
Canada by steamboat or railroad, though most made the journey on
foot or, less frequently, in private conveyances. Stalwart slaves
sometimes walked from the Gulf States to the free States,