06/25/2026
Juneteenth, National Independence Day, is a federal holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States.
Today, we’d like to highlight the incredible story of Peter Still.
Still was born in 1801 in Maryland. At a young age he was sold to an enslaver in Kentucky and lived there for 13 years before he was sold to an enslaver near Tuscumbia, Alabama. In 1825 he married Lavinia, who was enslaved nearby.
Still was "hired out," meaning that his enslaver "loaned" him to work for a craftsman or merchant. He worked for a bookseller named Allen Po***ck who allowed Still to keep the money he made after he satisfied the number of hours he was hired to work. In this way, Still started to save money. He was later hired out to Joseph Friedman, who agreed to purchase Still from his enslaver. Still worked for Friedman to pay the cost of this purchase. Upon the sale of Still to Friedman, the latter produced a certificate of freedom for Still.
Peter Still moved to Philadelphia, PA where he worked to raise money to attempt to buy his wife and children. The enslaver of his wife and children refused to sell and Still turned to Seth Conklin, a white abolitionist. Conklin agreed to make the trip to Tuscumbia and bring Still's family north to Canada, where Still would join them.
Conklin, calling himself Miller, traveled the Tennessee River to Tuscumbia (South Florence) and was able to meet Vina and her children. They made it to Indiana where they were apprehended by “slave catchers.” There was a reward for the return of people who fled slavery which created incentives for slave catchers, law enforcement officers, and white citizens to seek out Black people and turn them in to authorities. Vina and her children were returned to Alabama. Conklin was found washed up on the shore of a river, his hands and feet bound and skull fractured.
From Philadelphia, Still’s brother William contacted a friend in Tuscumbia who asked Vina's enslaver–Bernard McKiernan– to sell her and the children. McKiernan requested $5,000–about $214,000 in today's money. His response to William Still's request to purchase his brother's family has been transcribed and edited for clarity below.
“South Florence Ala 6 August 1851
Mr William Still,.. some time last march a white man by the name of Miller [Conklin] appeared in the neighborhood & abducted the above negroes was caught at Vincennes, Indi with said negroes & was thare convicted of stealing & remanded back to Ala to abide the penalty of the law & on his return met his Just reward by Getting drownded at the mouth of cumberland River on the ohio in attempting to make his escape I recovered & braught back said 4 negroes or as You would say coulard people under the Belief that peter the Husband was accessory to the offence thereby putting me to much Expense & Trouble to the amt $1000 which if he gets them he or his Friends must refund these 4 negroes are worth in the market about 4000 for they are Extraordinary fine & likely & but for the fact of Elopement I would not take 8000 Dollars for them but as the think now stands you can say to Peter & his new discovered relations in philadelphia I will take 5000 for the 4 coulerd people & if this will suite him & he can raise the money I will delever to him or his agent at paducah at mouth of Tennessee river said negroes."
Still attempted to raise money to purchase his wife and children by speaking at abolition events throughout the northern United States for nearly two years before raising the money.
After raising the $5,000 Still sought to purchase his family's freedom. However, in the time it took Still to raise the purchase money, a grandson was born. The enslaver wanted an extra $200 for the infant--a price that Still could not pay. The boy was left with the enslaver as Vina and her three children moved north with Peter.
You can read more about Peter Still in the book, “the Kidnapped and the Ransomed,” written by Still along with Tuscumbia schoolteacher Kate Pickard; or check out the virtual exhibit at Pope’s Tavern Museum: https://msnha.stqry.app/story/160951
