All posts by Rancocas Pathways

Rancocas Pathways, a legally registered 501c3 organization. Formed to enhance awareness of NJ's 360 square mile watershed and promote multi-use public access on the Rancocas Creek Water Trail - Grass Root Advocacy of the Rancocas Creek as a National Water Trail.

Undergound Railroad and Delaware River Bay Sailors

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Will be posting beta on the underground railroad and slaves who used the Mid-Atlantic tidewaters to find freedom. Will be focused on New Jersey. Discussions are encouraged. Contact me 609-456-9344 via text or post suggestions and ideas on this teasing thread of American heritage

Moses Grandy (c. 1786[nb 1] – unknown) was an African-American author, abolitionist, and, for more than the first four decades of his life, an enslaved person. At eight years of age he became the property of his white playmate, James Grandy, and two years later he was hired out for work. The monies Moses earned were collected and held until James Grandy turned 21. Moses helped build the Great Dismal Swamp Canal and learned how to navigate boats. It was that skill that led him to be made commander of several boats that traveled the canal and Pasquotank River, transporting merchandise from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, to Norfolk, Virginia. The position allowed him to be better fed, shod, and dressed. Able to keep a portion of his earnings, Moses arranged to buy his freedom twice and twice his owners kept the money and held him in slavery. An arrangement was made for an honorable man to buy him and Grandy earned the money to buy his freedom a third time, this time successfully. Read his narrative below. Page 48 he discusses landing on NJ’s Maurice River.

narrativeoflifeo00grandyDownload