THE HAIR OF THE DOG IN SLAVERY

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD MONUMENT

Who would have thought that fugitive slaves traveling to the North would have traveled with a pet? It never dawned on me until I saw the depiction in a monument to the Underground Railroad. 

Typically, fugitives did not travel during winter months. How could they understand snow -- especially those who toiled in the Mississippi cotton fields?

Our motor coach encountered a snowstorm leaving from the Detroit area even into as far into Jones, a little town on M-60, just the other side of 131 South.

Yet, when I really thought about this, I came up with another conclusion.  Dogs were really used to root the runaways.  They could inflict some serious harm to a slave, and many did because that is the way they were trained.

I believe though, this this is simply hyperbole in that this image shows the corralling of controll of the fugitive over things that threatened their survival.  This shows that when the enslaved become more secure, that they also are more in control.  So instead of fearing the hounds -- they fought back and factored dogs into their escape. However, it was noted that at night, in some instances, the slaves would take the dogs hunting and "would tree a 'possum."  So that means, that when a bond between human and canine is established, that it is just that much more difficult for a dog to attack a person who has been nice. 

Still, dogs were feared by slaves -- more than the bite of a water moccasin, alligator or wild animal.