Matthews’ Grave and Hallowell Cemetery on Network to Freedom Website
By Bob McIntire
James Matthews was born enslaved in South Carolina but escaped and made his way to Hallowell where he lived for nearly fifty years. Matthews told his story to a local minister, it is thought, and it first appeared in 1838, in the Advocate of Freedom, a Hallowellbased abolitionist newspaper, then republished in the national slave movement's New York publication, Emancipator in 1838, where it received widespread attention. Entitled "Recollections of Slavery by a Runaway Slave," Matthews’ horrific account added fuel to the abolitionist movement. His story, told in candid and graphic detail, described countless examples of the cruelty he witnessed and suffered at the hands of slave masters, including cruelty to very young children.
Matthews managed to escape, thanks in part to the kindness of a ship's steward who smuggled him onboard a vessel bound for Boston. Little, if anything, is known of how Matthews reached Hallowell, but he never healed from the continuous trauma of his first 20 years of life. He lived at the Hallowell Poor Farm where he died June 7, 1886. Members of the Sanborn Lodge of the International Order of Oddfellows arranged for his burial in the Hallowell Cemetery and paid for his headstone.
The National Park Service created the Network to Freedom website in 1998 to document stories and locations of the Underground Railroad. Dr. Susanna Ashton, from Clemson University, learned of Matthews’ life and aided by student Brian Mueller, applied on the part of the city to have the gravesite added to the listing. There are over 800 sites identified, but only three others in Maine.
James Matthews’ story figures in the Historic Hallowell mural. Hallowell artist, Chris Cart envisioned Matthews stealing his way through a birch forest on the way to freedom. Row House, Hallowell’s historical society, is raising funds to install a bronze plaque at the entrance to the Hallowell Cemetery, identifying it as a Network to Freedom site and another plaque on Monument Avenue near Matthews’ grave, sharing the story of his escape and life in Hallowell. Contributions can be sent to Row House PO Box 3 Hallowell, ME 04347. More information about James Matthews can be found on the website www.historichallowell.org.