A Freedom Seeker from Aldie: The Story of Daniel Dangerfield

A Freedom Seeker from Aldie: The Story of Daniel Dangerfield. . , A teenager named Daniel Dangerfield worked in Aldie sometime during the 1840s, possibly here at Aldie Mill. Enslaved, he received no pay for his work, having been rented out to the miller by a local farmer and enslaver, French Simpson, who lived about two miles north of here on Oatlands Road. In 1854, Daniel Dangerfield decided to take his fate into his own hands.

Seeking freedom, Dangerfield fled north to Pennsylvania. We can only speculate on his route north across the Potomac or who may have helped him as a fugitive along the way. He began a new life in the city of Harrisburg, working as a laborer, marrying and having two children. Described as a "good looking stalwart" man of color in his mid-twenties, he gained a free life, yes, but one with the constant fear of being captured and returned to Virginia under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. In April of 1859, the Simpson family heard a rumor that Dangerfield was living in Harrisburg. Searching for him due to his significant financial value, a Simpson son-in-law headed north with a private detective in tow.

Dangerfield was accosted at the public marketplace in Harrisburg, arrested, and taken to Philadelphia for a hearing before three federal Fugitive Slave Commissioners. Four white men from Loudoun County testified they'd known the accused fugitive for many years here in Virginia. Four men of color, however, testified that they had known him outside Virginia prior to 1854. One of these men, William M. Jones, was the chief conductor of the Underground Railroad in Harrisburg, a hotbed of anti-slavery activity. Friends of Dangerfield contacted white attorneys who came to his aid. Both men and women, black and white, packed the courtroom, and nearly a thousand people waited outside , most there to support him. Spectators inside and outside the courtroom included many prominent abolitionists, among them the highly respected Quaker Lucretia Mott, who sat beside Dangerfield throughout the hearing.

The outcome? When Commissioner J. Cooke Longstreth began to summarize the testimony and render his judgment, th sight of the courtroom amazed even the reporters. One newspaper printed "There was not an inch of standing room, and the silence was so intense that even a sigh might have been heard." Longstreth released Daniel Dangerfield on the opinion that there was not enough proof of his identity. Charlotte Forten, a free black woman in Philadelphia, commented in her journal that it was likely overwhelming public opinion, and especially pressure from the women in Longstreth's family, that caused him to rule in Dangerfield's favor. Black and white abolitionists celebrated his freedom long into the night, carrying him on their shoulders and placing him in a carriage that they pulled throughout the city in a torchlight parade.

Daniel Dangerfield quickly disappeared from public view, being spirited to Canada. There, he made a successful life for himself and his family as a farmer in the small village of Drummondville near Niagara Falls. Quakers visited him and other former Virginia freedom seekers in this part of Ontario. One wrote to abolitionist and Quaker Samuel Janney in Loudoun County: "We found [Dangerfield] living comfortably in a neat house with sufficient ground to raise his own provisions...."

Daniel Dangerfield had triumphed. He gained his freedom, and played a role in the Underground Railroad to help others to do the same. The Aldie Mills, meanwhile, ground away.

Good news! … the alleged fugitive, Daniel Dangerfield has been released. , The Commissioner said that he released him because he was not satisfied of his identity. Others are inclined to believe that the pressure of public sentiment , which was, strange to say, almost universally on the right side , was too overwhelming for the Com.[missioner] to resist, particularly as his own family , even his wife, it is said, declared that they would discard him if the sent the man into slavery. , Charlotte Forten Grimke, Journal, April 6, 1859