Caroline Quarlls was the first enslaved person to travel through Wisconsin using the Underground Railroad. She reached Canada and freedom in 1842. Multiple abolitionists helped Caroline on her journey to Canada even as pursuers followed continuously.
Early life
Caroline Quarlls was born in St. Louis in 1826, to her Father, and owner, Robert Pryor Quarlls. At her home in Missouri, Caroline had two white half-sisters, whom she allegedly looked like, but was not granted the same freedom as they were. Upon her father's passing, she was acquired by her new mistress, Robert's sister and her own aunt, Mrs. Charles R. Hall. Caroline was never badly beaten as a slave, occasionally whipped and punished, but nothing too severe physically. Noted as being quite intelligent, she was never taught to read or write and was brought up doing fine sewing, embroidery, and wait upon her mistress. Caroline wanted to be free and thought it over for a long time while enslaved, listening to talk of the north for over a year. At this point Caroline was around 15 or 16, her mistress became angry with her at one point and cut her hair off which directly effected her decision to escape to the north. She managed to gain possession of $100, and the permission from her mistress to see a sick girl. Caroline threw a bundle of clothes out a window and after saying good bye to her friend, she returned to pick up the bundle of clothes she threw out the window and walked down to the ferry.
Biography
In 1842, Caroline Quarlls, a 16 year old fugitive slave from Missouri, was the first escaped slave to use Wisconsin's "Underground Railroad." Quarlls successfully traveled from Missouri to Canada via a network of secret routes and safe houses that helped escaped slaves. Enslaved by her paternal grandfather to work as a housemaid in St. Louis, Missouri, Quarll did not receive the care her other siblings received and began her escape. Quarlls was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1826. On July 4, 1842 she was able to escape Missouri, after taking $100 from her former master, by passing as a white girl and purchasing a ticket for a steamboat to Alton, Illinois. There was a $300 bounty placed on her and she was pursued through Illinois until she was brought across the Milwaukee River by prominent attorney Asahel Finch; he hid her in a barrel in the boat. The former master hired lawyers to pursue Caroline as she passed through Wisconsin. From Milwaukee, Caroline was brought to Pewaukee, WI by Samuel Brown; the two traveled via an old rickety wagon. She avoided capture by sheltering with abolitionists until she made her way into Canada. Her journey lasted 5 weeks throughout multiple states into Canada. One of the Railroad's conductors, Lyman Goodnow, later recounted the story of Quarlls' journey. Lyman Goodnow, a Waukesha man, was the first "conductor" of Wisconsin's underground railroad. The two traveled 31 miles altogether into Canada; abolitionists gave the two a purse of travel necessities to hep the two cross the border. After arriving in Canada, Quarlls married Allen Watkins, himself a freed slave, and they raised six children. Caroline learned to read and write as she started attending school within one year of her arrival. Caroline wrote of not being happy despite her marriage and children; she wrote that if she had stayed, the property on which she was once enslaved would have been hers. Even after surviving the brutal life of a slave, Caroline could not find joy. Caroline Quarlls died in Sandwich, Canada in 1892 after living as an example to many slaves.
