Sept. 2, 1838
Sept. 2, 1838. A black coachman, a freeman named Isaac Rolls, stashes a duffel bag in the rear of a train at the Baltimore station. Under a cloak of impending darkness, a twenty-year-old in a black sailor’s uniform waits in the weeds. He looks down and pulls a weed, pinching off a piece of the pale root…
“De white man, dey won’t harm you if you carry dis root.”