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Reference: Arthur Shaffer, a grandson, residing at 813 South Mulberry Street, Muncie, Indiana
Hillery Chavious was free born. He lived on the land near Richmond, Virginia, and was one of fourteen children. He was born in the year of 1833. He saw the misery of his people who were held under task masters, and knowing from experience what freedom meant he and his two older brothers could not look on the scenes about them without becoming deeply stirred. When Hillery was seventeen years of age he and his two older brothers organized their plans that they had long been hopefully discussing and began to steal the slaves away from the plantations and work them over the border. Their method was to contact secretly in the fields or go to their quarters at night and offer them the opportunity to escape. Under the shadows of the night the slaves made their flight to a point they would hurry them on to a hiding place that might consist of a stable loft, a stack of hay or, in case of emergency, a place in the woods where they would be covered over with brush. At this place they would be given food and water and held until the road was deemed safe ahead. They would then be piloted on to station number two.
In most every instance the master would rally his overseer and his blood hounds and give a determined chase to save his property. On missing the slave or slaves, the first thing to be done was to procure a garment or a shoe that bore their body scent, call up the dogs and allow them to familiarize themselves with the smell. This was the dog's identification of the person he was to trail, and rarely did he ever leave that particular track until he had been dragged from the heels of the terrified slave. In case they were overtaken by the dogs the negro would climb a tree or mount some shack building. If the victim had the courage to stand still when over taken they were rarely bitten by the dogs. The plan to defeat the dogs practiced by the Hillery boys was to carry the slave the last half mile with their feet free of the ground, rendering the trailing nose helpless of further pursuits.
After a delivery from one plantation the slave snatchers would change their district of operation and proceed with their sly work. In the time they were active in stealing slaves the Chavious brothers estimated that they had helped at least 200 slaves over the Mason & Dixon line and into freedom.
The great grandfather of the Chavious family was little known for they were constantly shifting. The grandchildren understand that in their veins flows the blood of three races, German, Indian, and African.
