Around Saturday, January 1, 1859, five freedom seekers fled Fairmont, Virginia (now West Virginia) heading toward western Pennsylvania. A local newspaper report labeled this a "Negro Stampede" while observing that the five runways "took a fine horse" from one of their slaveholders. This escape from what was then known as the "Virginia Panhandle" was only one of many stampedes during the period. Another newspaper noted: Our 'Mountain county' exchanges bring us frequent reports of stampedes among the negro population, and sometimes affect desperate wrath; we recollect when such occurrences were frequent hereabouts, and whenever they happened, there would be considerable fuming, fretting, and some swearing among the victims of misplaced confidence in negro flesh; but gradually it would wear off, and they become reconciled to their losses."