Caroline Quarlls

Caroline Quarlls (1826–1892) was the first enslaved person to travel through Wisconsin using the Underground Railroad. She escaped bondage in St. Louis, Missouri in 1842. Multiple abolitionists, including Lyman Goodnow, helped Caroline on her journey to Canada even as pursuers followed continuously. Quarlls' journey ended in Sandwich, Ontario (the same year she fled). She married Alan Watkins, a freedman, becoming Caroline Quarlls Watkins.

Early life and family Caroline Quarlls was born in St. Louis in 1826, enslaved by her paternal grandfather, Dr. Robert Quarlls. According to an article published by the Windsor Star, Dr. Quarlls served as a captain in the Revolutionary War who received land in Missouri as his pension. Upon her father's death, Caroline was acquired by her new mistress, Robert's sister and her aunt, Miss. Charles R. Hall. As an enslaved teenager, Caroline was responsible for sewing and embroidery work as well as "probably to wait upon her mistress." Determined to escape such assaults, she managed to gain permission from her mistress to see a friend of hers who was in poor health. She traveled by stagecoach through Illinois to Milwaukee. From Milwaukee, Quarlls was brought to Pewaukee, Wisconsin by Samuel Brown; the two traveled via an old rickety wagon. At times she walked, and other times she hid under hay in a horse-drawn wagon. There were days of dusty trails and other times heavy rain. They traveled through stations on Wisconsin's Underground Railroad, including Prairieville (now Waukesha), Spring Prairie and Gardner's Prairie near Burlington and on to Illinois. At a schoolhouse at Beebe's Grove, Quarlls asked about the "liberty pole" near where she was standing. She learned that it was common in villages in the North as a commemoration of the birth of liberty in the United States. Quarlls asked, "How can it commemorate liberty in a country where there is no liberty; where more than one-fifth of the inhabitants are in bondage?" Her journey lasted five weeks throughout multiple states into Canada.

Life in Canada After arriving in Canada, Caroline attended school during her first year in Canada. After three years, she married an older widower, Allen Watkins, himself a freed slave. From Virginia and Kentucky, he had children with his first wife. He was a cook and Quarlls and her husband made a good living for their family through hard work. She had learned that she had been left property, which she would have received if she had remained in St. Louis until she became of age.

Legacy Quarlls' descendants continue to tell her story today. In 2003, Kimberly Simmons discovered she was related to Quarlls as her great-great-great-granddaughter. Simmons joined the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom to tell the story of Quarlls' self-emancipation journey. In 2019, Simmons wrote (with the assistance of McClellan) To the River, a book about Quarlls' familial connections that trace to people such as Meriwether Lewis, Langston Hughes, and even people who signed the Declaration of Independence.