Caroline Quarlls

Caroline Quarlls Watkins
Born Caroline Quarlls
1824 (1824)
St. Louis, Missouri
Died 1892 (aged 67–68)
Sandwich, Canada
Spouse(s) Alan [Allen] Watkins

Caroline Quarlls (1824–1892) was the first enslaved person to travel through Wisconsin using the Underground Railroad. She reached Canada and freedom in 1842.[1]

Biography

Quarlls was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1824.[1] In 1842 she was able to escape Missouri by passing as a white girl and purchasing a ticket for a steamboat to Alton, Illinois.[2] There was a bounty on her and she was pursued through Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan. She avoided capture by sheltering with abolitionists until she made her way into Canada.[2] One of the Railroad's conductors, Lyman Goodnow, later recounted the story of Quarlls' journey.[3]

Quarlls married Allen Watkins, himself a freed slave, and they raised six children.[2] Quarlls died in Sandwich, Canada in 1892.[4]

Further reading

Caroline Quarlls and the Underground Railroad by Julia Pferdehirt[5]

References

  1. 1 2 "Caroline Quarlls". Encyclopedia of Milwaukee. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 "Caroline Quarlls 1824–1892". Wisconsin Women Making History. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  3. ↑ Goodnow, Lyman. "Recollections of Lyman Goodnow". The State of Wisconsin Collection. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  4. ↑ "Quarlls, Caroline (1824–1892)". Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  5. ↑ Pferdehirt, Julia (2008). Caroline Quarlls and the Underground Railroad. Madison, Wis.: Wisconsin Historical Society Press. ISBN 978-0-87020-388-6.
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