The knowledge and skill of black boatmen, or watermen, (both free and enslaved), was key to a successful escape via the Maritime Underground Railroad.

@IrememberOurHistory®
Throughout the Albemarle region, blacks held a variety of jobs on and around the water. Some of these jobs included working as fishermen, sailors, ferrymen, and even riverboat pilots. This gave them a vast knowledge of eastern North Carolina’s abundant waterways and coastal landscapes.

On April 25th, 1808, an advertisement requesting the return of a runaway slave named Dinah appeared in the Edenton Gazette and North Carolina General Advertiser. Phillip McGuire, a Chowan County slave holder had purchased the ad, asking for a $20-dollar reward for Dinah’s return. @IrememberOurHistory®

McGuire made claims that Dinah’s husband, an enslaved riverboat pilot named Hewes from Edenton, had approached him in town and informed him that “he would keep his wife out eternally,” thus threatening to steal Dinah away from her master.

Not long after this confrontation Hewes and Dinah disappeared from Edenton. Though the outcome of their fates is unknown, it is suspected they attempted to escape slavery via the waterways of North Carolina.

Harpers Weekly, April 9, 1864 “Slaves fleeing by boat under the moonlight.”
.

Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23521582?seq=1...

Source: https://dismalswampwelcomecenter.com/history/

Source: https://uncpressblog.com/.../excerpt-crafting-lives.../