[284]
Iii. The underground telegraph.
- A Southern Underground Telegraph -- how it began -- its efficacy attested by a Southern gentleman -- its future destiny,
the thriving condition of the Underground Railroad, establishes conclusively the existence of secret and rapid modes of communication among the slave population of the South. Many extraordinary stories are told by the Southrons themselves of the facility with which the negroes learn of all events that transpire in the surrounding country. In spite of strict surveillance on the plantation, and careful watching abroad, by means of numerous and well mounted patrols, the slaves pass freely over large tracts of country. More especially does this state of things exist among the plantations of the cotton growing States. The dense forests, swamps and morasses, which the negroes alone can tread with impunity, enable them to avoid the highways and beaten paths wherein they would be likely to meet the patrol. This system of secret travel originally grew out of the social desires of the slaves — their love of gossip and wish to meet their friends and relatives; but, as the tyranny of the system grew more insupportable, in the natural course of events, and the yearnings after freedom became stronger in the minds of the negroes themselves, it was used for other and far
