William Cratty portrait   Save
Ohio History Connection
Description: Woodcut portrait of William Cratty (1805-1897), a noted Underground Railroad conductor from Delaware County, Ohio. This illustration accompanied an article in the Chicago Evening Post dated July 18. 1893, and collected by Wilbur H. Siebert as part of his Underground Railroad research. According to the article, Cratty claims to have aided 3,000 fugitive slaves in their flight to Canada between the 1830s and 1850s. During this period, a reward was offered for his capture by slave owners and slave hunters from the South. He was an avowed opponent of the Fugitive Slave Act, passed in 1850, and worked closely with his wife, Candis Bennett, members of his community and local Quaker contacts to provide save passage for those seeking their freedom. In the 1880s, he settled in Marysville, Ohio, and died in nearby Ostrander at the age of 92. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: P116_B54_V0l4_Cratty
Subjects: Ohio History--Slavery, Anti-Slavery and Civil Rights; Underground Railroad--Ohio; Antislavery movements--Ohio--History--19th century; Abolitionists;
Places: Delaware (Ohio); Delaware County (Ohio)