# 11: Hiding behind a newspaper: Jesse Howell’s escape in 1859
- Cheltenham Chronicle (U.K) - Jesse Howell "...he succeeded in obtaining at the railway station a preacher's ticket for Albany, and provided with a newspaper, which he held before his face as if reading, to conceal his features, and which lasted him all his journey, he fortunately succeeded in reaching Canada undetected, and, to his great joy, found himself a free man."
The story of Jesse Howell appears to be little known today. Indeed, I stumbled across him because he seems to have known John Andrew Jackson, the subject of my book A Plausible Man. But his own story is powerful or at least what small glimpses of it we can see here.
According to this article and persuasively so, the most important part of his story isn’t his heroism or his crucial witness to conditions faced by those in bondage. Instead, it is the simple fact that he left his wife and three children behind with no defense and no protections, even the few protections which an enslaved spouse might be in a position to provide.
He made it to the UK and delivered a few lectures but then I don't know what happened to him.
But LET’S TALK ABOUT HIDING BEHIND THE NEWSPAPER - It’s a wonderfully vivid scene…reminiscent of Frederick Douglass’s train escape from Baltimore when his borrowed seaman’s paper were scanned by a conductor. He, too managed to hid behind a paper, as it were. But this literal, not figurative use of print is certainly ripe for reference. Harriet Jacobs similarly used newspapers by not only reading them when she was imprisoned in the attic (on the rare occasion she could get one) but also reading and studying them once when was in NYC because she could follow the comings and goings of white people who might be pursuing her or her children - their arrivals were often noted in such papers. And we know, too of many example of fugitives telling their stories to newspaper editors who then could share the tales, often hiding them behind anonymous or fake names. But Howell, hid his face between Albany and the Canadian border with an unfolded paper. I suppose too, traveling on a discounted “preacher’s ticket” (Which a “creole Baptist Minister used a “pass” to purchase on his behalf) might have helped him avoid some notice but it was that newspaper that saved the day.
As always seems to be the case: journalism will ever save us.
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These types of accounts and fugitive testimony are just ALL OVER the British papers and desperately need to be collected. I'm so grateful for the digitization done thus far (albeit in a private database I pay out of pocket for access), but it is the tip of the iceberg. I need help finding Jesse Howell in American or Canadian sources.
Argh - he doesn't appear in the US, Canadian, or British Census. I must dig harder......(he's of interest to me mainly because I believe he traveled with and was friends with John Andrew Jackson).
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Cite:
Ashton, Susanna. "Hiding behind a newspaper: Jesse Howell’s escape in 1859," Runaway Chronicles. Squarespace. 07/22/2024. URL.
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3/29/1859 - Cheltenham Chronicle (U.K)