The Fugitive Son Read Free Page A

invitation to join them out West. With River Bend in the hands of strangers, where would runaways seek refuge in the future? This house had been the only station in the area for slaves risking their lives in their quest for freedom.
    She shivered. The house that had once rung with laughter and music was cold and silent. It was a house built, not to trumpet wealth or proclaim power, but as a home – a place to nurture a family and a haven for those in bondage. Tomorrow, a new family would drive a carriage up the wide avenue of pines that led to the front entrance.
    They would bring their own treasures and beliefs into the two stories of weathered stone. And in the still summer evenings, they would sit and sip sweet tea on the double-story veranda supported by ionic columns. How would they respond if a runaway slave came to their doorstep? she wondered. Would they risk prison to help someone in need? She hoped the new inhabitants of River Bend would be as happy there as her family had been. And as generous to those who cried for help.
    Elsie patted the money pouch pinned beneath her bodice as if to reassure herself that it was still intact. That money, from the sale of River Bend, would pay her passage to St. Louis and then to Kansas City, Missouri, where she was to purchase enough dry goods to stock an emporium in Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory. Then she would hire drovers to get her goods safely through Indian territory and buy tickets for herself and Isaac on a Wells Fargo stagecoach to their new home out West.
    She sighed – a deep, fearful sigh. Was she up to it? Thoughts of the long journey ahead, the dangers and the possibilities, were daunting. She had been aboard a riverboat but once, a vacation trip with her family up the Ohio River. That had been a time of excitement and security. But now? Could she manage this huge task with only Isaac to help? And could she keep him safe?
    She knew she couldn’t simply stay in Kentucky. Her family, devout Methodists originally from Massachusetts, had always hated slavery. Grandfather Condit had determined after much thought that he could be of most use to the cause of abolition by furthering the education of black men and women. Thus, River Bend had become a place of tutelage to create a corps of leaders for the time slavery was finally abolished.
    Over the years, hundreds of slaves had been schooled and quietly freed at River Bend. Many of them were now teachers, doctors, lawyers, and craftsmen in the North. Papa had carried on the family tradition. Every slave who came to the plantation was educated, mostly in secret. Although Kentucky was one of the few states that allowed slaves to be taught, many plantation owners objected to such activity. Papa told them he was simply protecting his own interests by making his slaves better able to handle his business affairs. For the most part, the neighbors ignored the Condits, thinking them a bit eccentric but harmless. That made it easier for Papa to establish River Bend as a station on the Underground Railroad.
    Then Papa had died. His will had provided for the manumission of all his slaves, plus enough money to equal a fair wage for each month of service with accrued interest. Elsie had tried to keep the news quiet, but giving dozens of slaves their freedom did not go unnoticed. Even now, if word got out about Papa and Isaac’s activities in helping slaves escape, things could get very ugly for her. With the talk of secession, feelings were running high on the subject.
    Once more fingering the letters from her brothers, Elsie knew beyond doubt that it would be far too dangerous for her to stay in Kentucky. Her unpopular abolitionist views were becoming too widely known. Besides, she knew she couldn’t run a plantation alone.
    She directed her gaze back out the window, again taking in the vast expanse of land that was River Bend in the early summer. A dozen mares grazed and played with their foals in a nearby pasture. Trees dotted