Saint or Demon? The Legendary Delia Webster Opposing Slavery

A fascinating, complex, long-overlooked and controversial operator on the Underground Railroad, Webster was passionately opposed to American slavery, which she described as "a system as bad as the Devil and wicked men can make it, a canker worm gnawing at the vitals of our best interests." This crusader (1817-1904), born on rocky New England soil, gently reared and highly educated, had the courage of her ancestors, including an early Governor of Connecticut. She boldly confronted Kentucky slave holders who had her committed to a slave- jail, and later to the Kentucky State Penitentiary (an extremely rare occurrence in southern society for a female offender). Later, she suffered two additional jail terms for "aiding and abetting slaves to escape." Though colleagues like Harriet Beecher Stowe were faithful supporters, Webster paid a psychic and physical price for her antislavery activities, according to contemporary media accounts. Was she "an abductor, an agent, and a spy"; "a desecrator of her sex"; "a vile wretch"; or was she a "strong-minded woman and an original abolitionist"; "a lover of justice and hater of oppression"; "a New England schoolteacher, pious and much abused"; and "a defenseless woman because she loved humanity"? She was familiar with these contradictory assessments of her life's work.
Delia Webster taught school in Vermont, briefly in New York City, in Lexington, KY, and in schools for black children in southern Indiana. In Kentucky, she operated a 600 acre "free labor" farm, an antislavery experiment where escaping slaves could safely hide in caves overlooking the Ohio River and "free territory."

Webster was an enigma. Was there a love affair between her and the impetuous, controlling, domineering, yet spellbound prison warden who eventually despised her but found her unforgettable?

A residue from slavery confronts American society today. Webster's brave, troubled life story was part of a catastrophic struggle that calls for thoughtful, judicious consideration in our own time.

About the author:

Frances K. Eisan spent twenty-seven years teaching history to advanced secondary school students. She received the National Teacher Educator's Award from Freedom's Foundation, Valley Forge, PA, in 1976. Her previous publications include The Way It Was: Glimpses into the Past of Madison and Jefferson County, River Village: Gateway to the West, Sifted Grain, A Fragment of Jawbone, and Nineteenth Century Architectural Ironwork and Foundries of Madison, IN.