The first ship entered the Cochin harbour on 26th May 1928. The transformation of Cochin from a mere roadstead into a modern harbour is credited to Sir Robert Bristow, the harbour engineer who implemented the decision of the then rulers by creating a proper shipping channel by cutting the sand bar at the mouth of the harbour, during his two decades stint at Cochin (1920-1941). Colonial conquerors having trading interest administered the Kochi area for centuries. Thereafter, Cochin was developed as a trading hub and visited by several international travellers. The then harbour Muziris got silted up during the floods and a new opening formed at Cochin. It is believed that the Cochin Port was formed in AD 1341 as a result of the heavy floods in the river Periyar. It can be found in the Library of Congress. The author, William Still, was a black abolitionist and businessman who was a key member of the Philadelphia stop in the freedom network. The book gives the testimonies of hundreds of slaves who escaped to freedom using the network of agents and safe houses. “The Underground Railroad” was published in 1872. He was a member of the Baptist Church in good and regular standing. He, by the way, “now lives in Hanover county, about eighteen miles from Richmond, and for fear of the sheriff, makes himself very scarce in that city.” ( I was confused by this sentence until I realized that William is referring to Walter Tyler being afraid of the sheriff).Īt fourteen years of age, William was sold for eight hundred dollars he would have brought in 1857, probably twelve hundred and fifty dollars. Twice William had been sold and bought in, on account of his master’s creditors, and for many months had been expecting to be sold again, to meet pressing claims in the hands of the sheriff against Tyler.

His own slaves, spoken of as having been gambled away, came by his father-he has been married the second time.” Sale And Resale Through her I fell into the hands of Tyler. His wife was a tolerably well-disposed woman in some instances-she was a tall, thin-visaged woman, and stood high in the community. Tyler was a thin raw-boned man, with a long nose, the picture of the president. I was hired out this year for two hundred dollars, but when I would go to him to make complaints of hard treatment from the man I was hired to, he would say: “G-d d-n it, don’t come to me, all I want is my money.” “What made me leave was because I worked for him all my life-time and he never gave me but two dollars and fifteen cents in all his life.

He shot at me once with a double-barrelled gun.

He was a doctor, circulated high amongst southerners, though he never lived agreeably with his wife, would curse her and call her all kinds of names that he should not call a lady.įrom a boy of nine up to the time I was fifteen or sixteen, I don’t reckon he whipped me less than a hundred times. He had owned as high as forty head of slaves, but he had gambled them all away. “He (master) was about sixty-five years of age was a barbarous man, very intemperate, horse racer, chicken-cock fighter and gambler. Tyler, brother of ex-President Tyler, who was described as follows: William acknowledged that he was the property of Walter H. William unquestionably possessed a fair share of common sense, and just enough distaste to Slavery to arouse him most resolutely to seek his freedom. William Taylor’s Account Of Walter Tyler.

President tyler railroad story