Editing William Still (section)

== Personal Revelation ==

One of the most dramatic episodes in Still's career came in August 1850, when he interviewed an escaped slave named Peter Friedman who had made his way to Philadelphia from Alabama. As Still recorded the man's story, he realized with astonishment that Peter was his own brother—one of the children his mother had been forced to leave behind when she escaped from Maryland some 40 years earlier. The siblings had never known each other, and their mother had feared her lost children dead. The reunion of the family—made possible by Still's position in the Underground Railroad—underscored the human dimensions of slavery's cruelty and the determination of the enslaved to reconnect with their families. The story became widely known and added to Still's reputation as a symbol of the Underground Railroad's work.<ref name="blockson"/>