Finding Your Roots

(electric notes ring) (subtle strings music) -

Henry

Can you see where it's from? Baltimore Sun, 1858. John Janey, aged 22. Light brown color, five feet five. Has a scar upon one of his great toes from the cut of an ax. If taken in a slave state, I will give two hundred dollars. Joseph Giffiss. (laughs) Do you know what this means? What are they talking about? It means that your ancestor, John Janey was a runaway slave. - Was a runaway slave. And that is the ad to get his black behind back. So he took off. He split. He is a slave, we found him. (whistling) Through a slave advertisement. (Henry giggles) How did you find this? (laughing) This was in the paper. In the paper. John Janey. Wanted man. -

Guest

Got famous. Negro ran away. On the run. -

Henry

Now this is a page from a very famous book called "The Underground Railroad". Your great, great grandfather is in this book. All the runaways-- My goodness. -

Henry

Could you read the passage? My goodness. September 10th, 1858. John Janey; color brown, well-formed, self-possessed and intelligent. (laughs) Must be in the genes, brother. Right? He says that he fled from Master Joseph Griffiss, of Culbert county, Maryland. He referred to his master as a man of fifty years of age with a wife and three children. John said that she was a large, portly woman with an evil disposition. (Henry laughing) (soft music) -

Henry

Runaway slaves were presumed safe if they crossed the Mason-Dixon line and made to the North. But all that changed with The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required Northern citizens to return runaways. So what happened to John T. Janey, once he reached the Union side in 1861? John Janey, the 22nd Regiment of the United States Colored Infantry. He served in the United States Colored Troops. Wow. Ever see "Glory"? Mmm-hmm. He was there. To actually know that my great, great grandfather was in the Colored Troops. -

Henry

Mmm-hmm. Wow.