Thomas Carlin

Thomas Carlin was an Underground Railroad contact in Cincinnati who received William in a shipping crate after a dangerous journey north. He and a companion opened the box and initially feared the unconscious man had died. When William awakened, Thomas explained that the new Fugitive Slave Law made Ohio unsafe and that the nearby settlement at Cabin Creek was nearly empty. He provided a route to Canada drawn on durable leather, giving William a better chance of reaching freedom. Thomas also sheltered Benjamin, another fugitive, until Nathan used the same law to force entry and capture him. Working under growing legal danger, Thomas offered practical aid, information, and temporary refuge to people whom the law threatened to return to slavery.