Underground Railroad

It is believed that the system started in 1787 when Isaac T. Hopper, a Quaker, began to organize a system for hiding and aiding fugitive slaves.

Opponents of slavery allowed their homes, called stations, to be used as places where escaped slaves were provided with food, shelter and money. The various routes went through 14 Northern states and Canada. It is estimated that by 1850 around 3,000 people worked on the underground railroad.

Some of the most best known of the people who provided help on the route included William Still, Gerrit Smith, Salmon Chase, David Ruggle, Thomas Garrett, William Purvis, Jane Grey Swisshelm, William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, Lucretia Mott, Charles Langston, Levi Coffin and Susan B. Anthony.

The underground railroad also had people known as conductors who went to the south and helped guide slaves to safety. One of the most important of these was the former slave, Harriet Tubman. She made 19 secret trips to the South, during which she led more than 300 slaves to freedom. Tubman was considered such a threat to the slave system that plantation owners offered a $40,000 reward for her capture. Stations were usually about twenty miles apart. Conductors used covered wagons or carts with false bottoms to carry slaves from one station to another.

Runaway slaves usually hid during the day and travelled at night. Some of those involved notified runaways of their stations by brightly lit candles in a window or by lanterns positioned in the frontyard. By the middle of the 19th century it was estimated that over 50,000 slaves had escaped from the South using the underground railroad. Plantation owners became concerned at the large number of slaves escaping to the North and in 1850 managed to persuade Congress to pass the Fugitive Slave Act. In future, any federal marshal who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave could be fined $1,000. Any person aiding a runaway slave by providing shelter, food or any other form of assistance was liable to six months' imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. The Fugitive Slave Act failed to stop the underground railroad. Thomas Garrett, the Deleware station-master, paid more than $8,000 in fines and Calvin Fairbank served over seventeen years in prison for his anti-slavery activities. Whereas John Fairfield, one of the best known of the white conductors, was killed working for the underground railroad.

According to Walter Hawkins slaves constantly talked about the possibility of escape: "there arose in some an irrepressible desire for freedom which no danger or power could restrain, no hardship deterred, and no bloodhound could alarm. This desire haunted them night and day; they talked about it to each other in confidence; they knew that the system which bound them was as unjust as it was cruel, and that they ought to strive, as a duty to themselves and their children, to escape from it".

The main problem was having to leave family and friends. Henry Bibb wrote in his autobiography that it was "one of the most self-denying acts of my whole life, to take leave of an affectionate wife, who stood before me on my departure, with dear little Frances in her arms, and with tears of sorrow in her eyes as she bid me a long farewell." They also knew that there was the possibility that if they evaded capture, their closest relatives would be severely punished.

They also knew that successful escapes were rare. Slaveowners used bloodhounds to trace their slaves. Problems of finding food and shelter in a hostile environment and the absence of maps were also other factors in understanding why most slaves failed in their bids for freedom. Moses Grandy explained the problems that runaways faced: "They hide themselves during the day in the woods and swamps; at night they travel, crossing rivers by swimming, or by boats they may chance to meet with, and passing over hills and meadows which they do not know; in these dangerous journeys they are guided by the north-star, for they only know that the land of freedom is in the north. They subsist on such wild fruit as they can gather, and as they are often very long on their way, they reach the free states almost like skeletons."

Within a few days of leaving the plantation most runaways were brought back and heavily punished. Francis Fredric was free for nine weeks but was captured and received 107 strokes of the whip. Moses Roper, received 200 lashes and this was only brought to an end when the master's wife pleaded for his life to be spared.

A study of runaway notices of local newspapers revealed that 76 per cent of all fugitives were under 35, and 89 per cent of them were men. Another study suggested that field slaves were more likely to try and escape than house slaves.

The development of the underground railroad increased the number of slaves who were able to reach safety. By the middle of the 19th century it was estimated that over 50,000 slaves had escaped from the South using this method. Plantation owners became so concerned by these losses that in 1850 they managed to persuade Congress to pass the Fugitive Slave Act. In future, any federal marshal who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave could be fined $1,000. Any person aiding a runaway slave by providing shelter, food or any other form of assistance was liable to six months' imprisonment and a $1,000 fine.

In 1850 Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law. Only John P. Hale, Charles Sumner\, Salmon Chase and Benjamin Wade voted against the measure. The law stated that in future any federal marshal who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave could be fined $1,000. People suspected of being a runaway slave could be arrested without warrant and turned over to a claimant on nothing more than his sworn testimony of ownership. A suspected black slave could not ask for a jury trial nor testify on his or her behalf.

Any person aiding a runaway slave by providing shelter, food or any other form of assistance was liable to six months' imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. Those officers capturing a fugitive slave were entitled to a fee and this encouraged some officers to kidnap free Negroes and sell them to slave-owners.

Many people associated with the Underground Railroad only knew their part of the operation and not of the whole scheme. Though this may seem like a weak route for the slaves to gain their freedom, hundreds of slaves obtained freedom to the North every year.

The resting spots where the runaways could sleep and eat were given the code names "stations" and "depots" which were held by "station masters." There were also those known as "stockholders" who gave money or supplies for assistance. There were the "conductors" who ultimately moved the runaways from station to station. The "conductor" would sometimes act as if he were a slave and enter a plantation. Once a part of a plantation the "conductor" would direct the fugitives to the North. During the night the slaves would move, traveling on about 10-20 miles (15-30 km) per night. They would stop at the so-called "stations" or "depots" during the day and rest. While resting at one station, a message was sent to the next station to let the station master know the runaways were on their way. Sometimes boats or trains would be used for transportation. Money was donated by many people to help buy tickets and even clothing for the fugitives so they would remain unnoticeable.

Some people %u2014 most of them, naturally, pro-slavery Southerners %u2014 were upset by this whole process. Resulting from many efforts to fix this ostensible problem, a law was passed that allowed slave owners to hire people to catch their runaways and arrest them. The fugitive slave laws became a problem because many legally freed slaves were being arrested as well as the fugitives. This then encouraged more people of the North to become a part of the Underground Railroad. Oftentimes, "bounty hunters" would abduct free blacks, and sell them into slavery.

From Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881)

One important branch of my anti-slavery work in Rochester, was as station master and conductor of the underground railroad passing through this goodly city. Secrecy and concealment were necessary conditions to the successful operation of this railroad, and hence its prefix "underground." My agency was all the more exciting and interesting, because not altogether free from danger. I could take no step in it without exposing myself to fine and imprisonment, for these were the penalties imposed by the fugitive slave law, for feeding, harboring, or otherwise assisting a slave to escape from his master; but in face of this fact, I can say, I never did more congenial, attractive, fascinating, and satisfactory work.

True as a means of destroying slavery, it was like an attempt to bail out the ocean with a teaspoon, but the thought that there was one less slave, and one more freeman, brought to my heart unspeakable joy. On one occasion I had eleven fugitives at the same time under my roof, and it was necessary for them to remain with me, until I could collect sufficient money to get them on to Canada. It was the largest number I ever had at any one time, and I had some difficulty in providing so many with food and shelter, but as may well be imagined, they were not very fastidious in either direction, and were well content with very plain food, and a strip of carpet on the floor for a bed, or a place on the straw in the barn loft.

The underground railroad had many branches; but that one with which I was connected had its main stations in Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and St. Catharines (Canada). It is not necessary to tell who were the principal agents in Baltimore; Thomas Garrett was the agent in Wilmington; Melloe McKim, William Still, Robert Purvis, Edward M. Davis, and others did the work in Philadelphia; David Ruggles, Isaac T. Hopper, Napolian, and others, in New York city; the Misses Mott and Stephen Myers, were forwarders from Albany; Revs. Samuel J. May and J. W. Loguen, were the agents in. Syracuse; and J. P. Morris and myself received and dispatched passengers from Rochester to Canada, where they were received by Rev. Hiram Wilson.

"Moses" is coming! You've heard the stories about her. She is Harriet Tubman, a former slave who ran away from a nearby plantation in 1849 but returns to rescue others. Guided by her "visions," she has never lost a passenger. Even if Moses can't fit you into her next group, she'll tell you how to follow the North Star to freedom in Canada. In her book, Harriet Tubman, The Moses of Her People , Sarah Bradford explained the role that Harriet Tubman played in the Underground Railroad. (1886)

It would be impossible here to give a detailed account of the journeys and labors of this intrepid woman for the redemption of her kindred and friends, during the years that followed. Those years were spent in work, almost by night and day, with the one object of the rescue of her people from slavery. All her wages were laid away with this sole purpose, and as soon as a sufficient amount was secured, she disappeared from her Northern home, and as suddenly and mysteriously she appeared some dark night at the door of one of the cabins on a plantation, where a trembling band of fugitives, forewarned as to time and place, were anxiously awaiting their deliverer. Then she piloted them North, traveling by night, hiding by day, scaling the mountains, fording the rivers, threading the forests, lying concealed as the pursuers passed them. She, carrying the babies, drugged with paregoric, in a basket on her arm. So she went nineteen times, and so she brought away over three hundred pieces of living and breathing "property," with God given souls.

The way was so toilsome over the rugged mountain passes, that often the men who followed her would give out, and foot-sore, and bleeding, they would drop on the ground, groaning that they could not take another step. They would lie there and die, or if strength came back, they would return on their steps, and seek their old homes again. Then the revolver carried by this bold and daring pioneer, would come out, while pointing it at their heads she would say, "Dead niggers tell no tales; you go on or die!" And by this heroic treatment she compelled them to drag their weary limbs along on their northward journey.

But the pursuers were after them. A reward of $40,000 was offered by the slave-holders of the region from whence so many slaves had been spirited away, for the head of the woman who appeared so mysteriously, and enticed away their property, from under the very eyes of its owners.

The only chance of procuring her freedom, depended upon getting her away on the Underground Rail Road. She was neatly attired in male habiliments, and in that manner came all the way from Washington. After passing two or three days with her new friends in Philadelphia, she was sent on (in male attire) to Lewis Tappan, of New York, who had likewise been deeply interested in her case from the beginning, and who held himself ready, as was understood, to cash a draft for three hundred dollars to compensate the man who might risk his own liberty in bringing her on from Washington. After having arrived safely in New York, she found a home and kind friends in the family of Rev. A. N. Freeman, and received quite an ovation characteristic of an Underground Rail Road.

Francis Fredric, Fifty Years of Slavery (1863)

Since my first attempt to escape I was so uniformly treated badly, that my life would have been insupportable if I had not been soothed by the kind words of the good abolitionist planter who had first conveyed to me a true knowledge of religion. I had been flogged, and went one day to show him the state in which I was. He asked me what I wanted him to do. I said, "To get me away to Canada."

He sat for full twenty minutes thoughtfully, and at last said, "Now, if I promise to take you away out of all this, you must not mention a word to any one. Don't breathe a syllable to your mother or sisters, or it will be betrayed." Oh, how my heart jumped for joy at this promise. I felt new life come into me. Visions of happiness flitted before my mind. And then I thought before the next day he might change his mind, and I was miserable again. I solemnly assured him I would say nothing to any one. "Come to me," he said, "on the Friday night about ten or eleven o'clock; I will wait till you come. Don't bring any clothes with you except those you have on. But bring any money you can get." I said I would obey him in every respect.

I went home and passed an anxious day. I walked out to my poor old mother's hut, and saw her and my sisters. How I longed to tell them, and bid them farewell. I hesitated several times when I thought I should never see them more. I turned back again and again to look at my mother. I knew she would be flogged, old as she was, for my escaping. I could foresee how my master would stand over her with the lash to extort from her my hiding-place. I was her only son left. How she would suffer torture on my account, and be distressed that I had left her for ever until we should meet hereafter in heaven I hoped.

At length I walked rapidly away, as if to leave my thoughts behind me, and arrived at my kind benefactor's house a little after eleven o'clock. He said but little, and seemed restless. He took some rugs and laid them at the bottom of the waggon, and covered me with some more. Soon we were on our way to Maysville, which was about twenty miles from his house. The horses trotted on rapidly, and I lay overjoyed at my chance of escape. When we stopped at Maysville, I remained for some time perfectly quiet, listening to every sound. At last I heard a gentleman's voice, saying, "Where is he? where is he?" and then he put in his hand and felt me. I started, but my benefactor told me it was all right, it was a friend. "This gentleman," he added, "will take care of you; you must go to his house." I got out of the waggon and shook my deliverer by the hand with a very, very grateful heart, you may be sure; for I knew the risk he had run on my account.

He wished me every success, and committed me to his friend, whom I accompanied to his house, and was received with the utmost kindness by his wife, who asked me if I was a Christian man. I answered yes. She took me up into a garret and brought me some food. Her little daughters shook hands with me. She spoke of the curse of slavery to the land. "I am an abolitionist," she said, "although in a slaveholding country. The work of the Lord will not go on as long as slavery is carried on here." Every possible attention was paid to me to soothe my troubled mind. The following night the gentleman and his son left the house about ten o'clock. A little after twelve o'clock the gentleman returned, and said he had got a boat and I was to go with him. His lady bid me farewell, and told me to put my trust in the Lord, in whose hands my friends were, and asked me to remember them in my prayers, since they had hazarded everything for me, and, if discovered, they would be cruelly treated. I was soon rowed across the river, which is about a mile wide in that place.

The son remained with me in the skiff whilst his father went to a neighbouring village to bring some one to take charge of me. After some time, he brought a friend, who told me never to mention the name of any one who had helped me. He took me to his house outside the town, where I had some refreshment, and remained about half-an-hour. A waggon came up, and I was stowed away, and driven about twenty miles that night, being well guarded by eight or ten young men with revolvers.

It would do any real Christian man good to see the enthusiasm and determination of these young Abolitionists. Their whole heart and soul are in the work. A dozen such men would have defied a hundred slaveholders. From having seen over and over again slaves dragged back chained through their country, and having heard the tales of horrible treatment of the poor hopeless captives, some having been flogged to death, others burnt alive, with their heads downwards, over a slow fire, others covered with tar and set on fire, these noble, courageous, self-sacrificing men have been so wrought upon, that they are heroes of the highest stamp, and I verily believe they would willingly lay down their lives rather than allow one fugitive slave to be taken from them.

William Wells Brown was born near Lexington, Kentucky, in 1814. His father was George Higgins, a white plantation owner, but his mother was a black slave. His mother had seven children, all with different fathers. William served several slave-masters before escaping in 1834. He adopted the name of his friend, Wells Brown, a Quaker who had helped him obtain his freedom.

Brown became a conductor on the Underground Railroad and worked on a Lake Erie steamer ferrying slaves to freedom in Canada.

In 1843 Brown became a lecturing agent for the New York Anti-Slavery Society. After obtaining a reputation as one of the movement's best orators, Brown was employed by the American Anti-Slavery Society where he worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips.

Birth: 1814
Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky

Death: Nov. 6, 1884
Chelsea, Suffolk County, Massachusetts

Buried: Cambridge Cemetery
Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts

The Underground Railroad developed its own jargon, which continued the railway metaphor:

• People who helped slaves find the railroad were "agents" (or "shepherds")
• Guides were known as "conductors"
• Hiding places were "stations"
• "Stationmasters" would hide slaves in their homes
• Escaped slaves were referred to as "passengers" or "cargo"
• Slaves would obtain a "ticket"
• Financiers of the Railroad were known as "stockholders".

As well, the big dipper asterism, whose 'bowl' points to the north star, was known as the drinkin' gourd, and immortalized in a contemporary code tune. The Railroad itself was often known as the "Freedom train" or "Gospel train", which headed towards "Heaven" or "the Promised Land" - Canada.

Underground Railroad Code Phrases

“The wind blows from the south today” = warning of slave bounty hunters nearby

“A friend of a friend” = a password used to signal the arrival of fugitives with an Underground Railroad conductor

“The friend of a friend sent me” = a password used by fugitives traveling alone to indicate they were sent by the Underground Railroad network

"Load of Potatoes," "Parcel," "Bundles of Wood," or "Freight" = fugitives to be expected

"A friend with friends" = a password used by railroad conductors to signal to the listener that they were in fact a conductor.

In Fountain City, Indiana, Levi and Catherine Coffin opened a store/manufacturing plant and began to help fugitive slaves escape to freedom. Their zealous antislavery sentiment and involvement in helping runaways earned Levi the nickname "president" of the Underground Railroad.

Devout Quakers, the Coffins made their home into a well-known "safe house" for escaping slaves. In 1847, they moved east to Cincinnati and opened a warehouse that handled goods produced by free - not slave - labor.

During and after the Civil War, the Coffins were important figures in the Western Freedmen´s Aid Society, which helped educate slaves. Levi´s lectures and efforts in England and Europe raised more than $100,000 in one year.

Birth:  

Oct. 28, 1798

 
American Educator, Abolitionist. A vast networking of lines, called the Underground Railroad, helped fugitive slaves escape to freedom after they traveled the most difficult part of their journey. People came together to develop this network for the specific purposes of helping fugitive slaves and of defying the law of the land. One of the best known agents of the railroad was Levi Coffin, a Quaker, who was a former Southerner. He moved to Indiana after he married and quickly became involved in anti-slavery issues, including Indiana's connections to the Underground Railroad. However, Coffin wasn't alone in his task because he employed the help of many blacks, such as William Bush. He was so desperate to become free, after his escape from a plantation in the South, William walked the entire way to Levi Coffin's safe house in Newport, Indiana (now Fountain City) wearing only wooden shoes. He stayed on until his death working as a conductor for other runaway slaves. The conductors were responsible for getting the fugitive slaves to the next station. Levi Coffin was born and raised on a farm in a rural area near New Garden, North Carolina, the only son in a family of six girls. He was home schooled by his father and the education received was sufficient to qualify him for a teaching job upon reaching adulthood. Levi was tempered by the cruel treatment of the Negroes. His Quaker upbringing was paramount to his aiding the escape of slaves beginning at age fifteen. He angered slave owners by operating a Sunday school for Blacks where he taught them to read and write using the Bible. Unpopular, he joined other family members and settled in Newport, Indiana (now Fountain City) opening a country store. Coffin prospered, expanding his operations to include cutting pork and manufacturing linseed oil. He was elected director at the State Bank's Richmond branch. His interest in the slaves continued and became active in the secret organization, the "Underground Railroad". Its purpose to transport slaves from member to member until a safe place was reached where the Negro was set free. Hundreds of escaping slaves were hidden as guests by Levi Coffin and his wife Catharine in their house which became known as "Grand Central Station", safe from bounty hunters until passage could be arranged. One of the refugees who found shelter in the home was later immortalized as the character Eliza, the heroine of Harriet Beecher Stowe's classic novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. Levi and Catharine Coffin are supposedly depicted in the book as Simeon and Rachel Halliday. The Quakers long before the Civil War urged consumers not to buy goods produced with slave labor. In their convention at Salem, Indiana, they funded Coffin and he was able to open a wholesale warehouse in Cincinnati that handled only cotton goods, sugar and spices produced by free labor. He became president of "The Underground Railroad'. After heading the organization for over thirty years, with the war over and adoption of the fifteenth amendment, Coffin resigned and the organization no longer needed, simply faded away. Levi turned his attention to the "Western Freedmen's Aid Society", which helped educate and provide basic living needs for former slaves. Coffin was the main fund raiser and journeyed to Europe on successful money raising trips In one year alone, he raised over $100,000 dollars. He died in Avondale, Ohio of a heart attack as he neared 80 years of age and was buried beside his wife in historic Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati. Crowds of colored people came to his Quaker funeral to say farewell. All of the slaves he and his wife aided reached freedom. Quaker graves are usually unmarked. The Coffin marker is a monument six feet high. Ex-slaves received permission to erect this marker and raised the money. The inscription, "Aiding thousands to gain freedom, a tribute from the colored people of Cincinnati". Legacy...The Coffin house located in Fountain City, Indiana, is today owned by the State of Indiana. The house was restored and is now open to the public and has the designation as a National Historic Landmark. The home's fireplaces, floors, doors, and most of the woodwork are original. The furnishings all predate 1847 and as nearly close as possible when it was the residence of the Coffins. The residence has many unusual hiding places where slaves were able to hide and avoid detection until they could be transported to one of the free states. The house contains an unusual indoor well which concealed the vast amount of water necessary to sustain the many extra guests. A vast amount of items pertaining to slavery are housed here. Coffin was the focus of a book published in 1875, "Reminiscences of Levi Coffin." (bio by: Donald Greyfield)

Buried: Spring Grove Cemetery
Cincinnati,  Hamilton County, Ohio

To the thousand of escaped slaves, an eight-room Federal style brick home in Newport (Fountain City), Indiana, became a safe haven on their journey to Canada.   This was the home of Levi and Catharine Coffin, North Carolina Quakers who opposed slavery.  During the 20 years they lived in Newport, the Coffins helped more than 2,000 slaves reach safety.

In their flight, slaves used three main routes to cross into freedom:  Madison and Jeffersonville, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio.  From these points, the fugitives were taken to Newport.  Once in the house, the presence of the runaway slaves could be concealed for up to several weeks, until they gained enough strength to continue their journey.

So successful was the Coffin sanctuary that, while in Newport, not a single slave failed to reach freedom.  One of the many slaves who hid in the Coffin home was "Eliza", whose story is told in Uncle Tom's Cabin.  In 1847, the Coffins moved to Cincinnati so that Levi could operate a wholesale warehouse which supplied goods to free labor stores.  The Coffins continued to assist the cause, helping another 1,300 slaves escape.

The Coffin house was purchased in 1967 by the State of Indiana.  The house was restored and then opened to the public in 1970.  The site is a registered National Historic Landmark and is operated by the Levi Coffin House Association.

Anderson, Elijah

Anderson earned the nickname "General Superintendent" of the Underground Railroad for his efforts in Northwestern Ohio. He is thought to have helped approximately 1,000 fugitives along the way to freedom before he was caught and taken to a Kentucky jail where he died in 1857.

Anderson, Osborne Perry

One of five escapees from John Brown´s raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Anderson was a printer by trade. He was born a free Black in Pennsylvania and moved to Chatham, Ontario, a popular end-point of the Underground Railroad. At Chatham he heard John Brown speak in 1858 about the evils of slavery. Anderson volunteered to join Brown´s ill-fated attack on Harpers Ferry. After escaping during the raid, Anderson went on to serve as a Union soldier in the Civil War. He later wrote the only account of the raid by one of the people involved.

Bibb, Henry (1815-1854)

This brave man tried to escape from seven different owners before finally being successful. "Among the good trades I learned was the art of running away to perfection. I made a regular business of it," he wrote. In a letter, Bibb wrote one of his former owners: "You may perhaps think hard of us for running away from slavery, but as to myself, I have but one apology to make for it, which is this: I have only to regret that I did not start at an earlier period." He spoke to abolitionist audiences of his experiences as a slave. Later, he established a community in Canada for fugitives, called Refugees´ Home.

Brown, Henry ´Box´

Brown´s story is one of the cleverest ones in the history of the Underground Railroad. He convinced a White carpenter to build a crate and another man to take the crate, with Brown in it, to the Adams Shipping Company in Richmond, Virginia. From there, the crate was sent to the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Office. Twenty-six hours later, the top of the crate was pried off and Brown emerged, a free man. He wrote a book about the experience and became well-known for his creative approach. Brown toured England speaking to anti-slavery audiences in the early 1850s.

Craft, Ellen and William (1826-1890) (1824-1900)

This couple assumed false identities and managed to escape. In 1848, Ellen, the child of a slave and her owner, disguised herself as a man traveling with his slave, who actually was William, her husband. She was light-skinned and could "pass" as a White person. Cleverly, they even figured a way to avoid having Ellen sign her name, since she couldn´t read or write. She pretended to have broken her arm, so when they registered at a hotel, the hotel keeper signed for her. Their 1,000-mile trip from Macon, Georgia, to Boston was full of danger and several times they narrowly missed being discovered. After the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, they left the United States for Canada and from there went to Britain and true freedom.

Cratty, William

In the years from 1836 - 1855, Cratty is said to have helped 3,000 slaves escape. This man from Central Ohio was reportedly upset by seeing a fugitive on whose neck was an iron band with points that curved up and over his head. Southern slaveholders offered a $3,000 award for him delivered dead or alive below the Mason-Dixon line.

Doyle, Patrick

In 1848 Drayton, an Irish American college student, tried to help 75 armed Kentucky slaves cross the Ohio River to freedom. They were all caught. Three of the Black leaders were executed. Doyle, from Danville, Ohio, was given 20 years in jail. This attempt at a massive escape was one of numerous armed slave uprisings that received little public attention, perhaps to keep the information from encouraging other slaves.

Evans, Wilson Bruce and Henry  

Wilson and his brother Henry were free Black men from North Carolina who worked as cabinetmakers in Oberlin, Ohio. They helped fugitive slave John Price in what became known as the "Oberlin-Wellington Rescue." The Evans brothers served time in jail for their part in the rescue. When the Civil War broke out, the light-skinned Wilson Bruce enlisted in the Union army, never revealing that he was African American. He died in 1898, only a few days after the 40th anniversary of the rescue. Henry died in 1886.

Fairbanks, Calvin Rev.

A minister, Rev. Fairbanks wrote an account of his life that describes his activities on the Underground Railroad. He wrote of helping people ... "through forests, mostly by night; men in women´s clothes and women in men´s clothes; boys dressed as girls, and girls as boys; on foot or on horseback, in buggies, carriages, common wagons, in and under loads of hay, straw, old furniture, boxes and bags; ...swimming or wading chin deep; or in boats, or skiffs; on rafts, and often on a pine log. And I never suffered one to be recaptured." One of those whom he helped was Lewis Hayden, who went on to harbor fugitives in his house and to serve as a prominent abolitionist. Unfortunately, Rev. Fairbanks did not escape being captured. In 1844, he was tried and imprisoned for 17 years for aiding and abetting fugitive slaves.

Fairfield, John

The son of wealthy Virginians, Fairfield hated slavery. He began a successful 12-year career in helping fugitives escape when he escorted one of his father´s slaves north. In all, he is thought to have helped several hundred fugitives find their freedom. Fairfield posed as a slaveholder or peddler, convincing Southerners so completely that he was not suspected. On one of his trips, he led 28 people to freedom by staging a fake funeral. Fairfield put one fugitive in a coffin and directed the others to act as mourners. The funeral procession proceeded without interruption. Fairfield is said to have taken some of the fugitives to Levi Coffin and to have traveled with others to Canada. He continued to go into the South to help fugitives until 1860, when he was reportedly killed in a slave revolt in Tennessee.

Fitzgerald family of Chester Co., Pennsylvania, The Thomas

This family of free African Americans lived on a farm in Pennsylvania near the boundary of slave territory. They never officially declared themselves to be abolitionists. Their descendant, Pauli Murray (a lawyer who became one of the first women to be ordained an Episcopal priest) reports that "They were not joiners of reform movements but they were stubborn in what they believed to be right." The family is reported to have frequently harbored fugitives in their barn and offered food for their journeys.

Garnet, Henry Highland Rev. (1815-1882)

Henry and his family escaped to New York City in 1825 in a daring venture. After he had heard that his family would be split up and sold, Henry´s father arranged for passes to attend a funeral. Instead, the family used the time to escape.

While Henry was at work one day, bounty hunters tracked down his family. They managed to escape to "safe houses" on Long Island, but Henry returned from work to find his entire family gone. Eventually the family was reunited, but Henry´s hatred of the slave system grew.

He attended the New York African Free School where he soon became known for his intelligence. He and two other students walked all the way to Canaan, New Hampshire, to enroll in Noyes Academy, only to find that local farmers wrecked the school because it admitted African Americans. Henry and the others escaped back to New York. Later he studied at Oneida Theological School in Whiteboro, New York, and became a frequent speaker at abolitionist meetings. An ordained Presbyterian minister, he served a racially mixed congregation in Troy, New York. David Walker´s writings moved him a great deal and he visited Walker´s widow in Boston. He began calling for African Americans to organize their resistance and take up arms. In editing an 1848 version of David Walker´s "Appeal," Henry told the slaves that "You had far better all die - die immediately, than to live slaves and entail your wretchedness upon your posterity."

Garrett, Thomas

In 1820 Thomas Garrett made a decision that changed his life and that of thousands of escaping slaves. He decided to spend his life working for the abolition of slavery.

This iron seller was a Quaker who believed that slavery was against God´s law. His house in Wilmington, Delaware, was strategically located. Slaves fleeing up the East coast would find shelter with him as their last stop before the free state of Pennsylvania. Garrett is said to have helped some 2,700 fugitives reach freedom. Repeatedly, slaveholders and those who supported slavery threatened him with violence. Fined for his role in aiding fugitive slaves and forced to sell all his property, Garrett is reported to have told Judge Roger B. Taney, (Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court who issued the Dred Scott decision): "Thou has left me without a dollar...I say to thee and to all in this court room, that if anyone knows a fugitive who wants shelter...send him to Thomas Garrett and he will befriend him." After the Civil War, the African Americans of Wilmington hailed Thomas Garrett as "Our Moses."

Gibbs, Joseph R.

This printer used his trade to help fugitives. He kept on file a large number of so-called "free papers" from African Americans who had died. Gibbs gave these papers to fugitives so they could use them to conceal their true identity. In this way, he is said to have helped some 2,000 fugitives.

Grimes, Leonard Andrew Rev.

Grimes had a first-hand view of slavery, not as a slave himself but as an employee of a slave trader in the South. When he bought a buggy shop in Washington, DC, he made good use of it to help enslaved people escape. After a handful of successful efforts, this free Black man was captured and sentenced to a Richmond prison for two years for his part in trying to rescue a slave family. Prison, however, did nothing to dampen his passion for helping runaways. After being released, Grimes moved to Boston where he served as a minister of the Twelfth Baptist Church, known as the "fugitive slave church." When fugitive slave Anthony Burns was captured in Boston and forced to return to slavery, Grimes organized an effort to purchase Burns´s freedom.

Haviland, Laura

Haviland founded the Raisen Institute in northern Michigan for Black and White students. The school also taught both males and females, another unusual practice at the time.

She worked with fellow Quaker Levi Coffin to help fugitive slaves escape to Canada, reportedly "braving slave-catchers´ pistols on more than one occasion."

When John White, a fugitive working near the Raisen Institute, appealed for her help to bring his wife to freedom, Haviland consulted with Coffin and several of White´s friends in Rising Sun, Indiana. Then she traveled to Kentucky, posed as an aunt of a free light-skinned African American woman and delivered John White´s message to his wife Jane. Tragically, the escape planned for several weeks from then was unsuccessful as a slave-catcher caught up with White, who had returned to Kentucky, and Jane. John somehow got word back to his friends in Michigan; the Cincinnati Vigilance Committee raised $400 to buy John White´s freedom, but by that time his wife had died. Laura Haviland again journeyed to Kentucky, this time returning with John White. She eventually moved to Windsor, Ontario, to teach children of former slaves.

Hayden, Lewis

Hayden´s life and work were tied with many other important conductors and abolitionists. He himself had been a slave in Kentucky. Calvin Fairbank (see his profile) was jailed for helping Hayden.

This rescue may have encouraged Hayden to help others. After reaching Canada, Hayden lived there for six months before returning to the United States and settling in Detroit.

To band together with other abolitionists, he moved his family to Boston. The Haydens´ downtown Boston home was well known for harboring fugitive slaves. Today, it´s a pilgrimage site on Boston´s Black Heritage Trail. Once, when writer Harriet Beecher Stowe visited, she said she met 13 escaped slaves under the Haydens´ roof. When William and Ellen Craft (read their profile on the Web site) escaped, they stayed in the Hayden home for a while. This man was instrumental in the Boston Vigilance Committee. In one year, 1851, the committee recorded helping 69 fugitives. Forty-nine African Americans were on the payroll for harboring fugitives. Hayden hated the Fugitive Slave Law and announced that he had put two kegs of explosives in his home, threatening to blow up the home rather than surrender a fugitive. It never came to that and he continued to aid fugitives personally as well as the cause of abolitionism in many courageous ways.

Horse, Chief John

Born in Florida as a slave, John Horse became an important chief of the Black Seminoles. He was a ferocious warrior who fought all those who tried to take away his tribe´s land and freedom. Those enemies included the US government under Gen. Zachary Taylor, Texas slave-catchers, and Mexican "filibusters." John Horse was a man of many skills, including the ability to speak several languages. He interpreted for other tribes and negotiated with U.S. federal officials including James Polk and Ulysses Grant. He also represented his tribe in trying to obtain land in Mexico, dealing with Mexican officials in Mexico City. In 1849, Chief Horse founded Wewoka, a city in Mexico that became a refuge for fugitive slaves.

Johnson, Octave

At 21, this young man had had enough of slavery and fled from New Orleans to live in a Maroon wilderness settlement for one and a half years. (Maroons were descendants of slaves from the West Indies.)He later dictated an account of his life as a Maroon and how he stole food from a nearby plantation to survive. Johnson´s account also notes that at one point, 30 fugitives were hiding together in the wilderness, dealing with attacks from slavehunters´ dogs and exchanging beef for corn meal with the field slaves. He left the Maroon community to fight in the Civil War, earning the rank of corporal.

Jones, Mary and John

Born to a free blacksmith in Memphis, Mary Richardson married John Jones, another free Black. Together they were active in the Tennessee Underground Railroad, helping fugitives escape slavery. Taking their savings of $3.50, they moved in 1845 to Illinois, a free state. There they continued their work to help runaway slaves, including harboring abolitionist John Brown. John Jones wrote a pamphlet against the state´s Black Laws.

Lambert, William

Lambert and his colleague George De Baptiste are reported to have established a secret escape approach for fugitives in Detroit. Called "African American Mysteries: The Order of the Men of Oppression," the network used a series of passwords, hand grips, and rituals meant to assure secrecy. Katz quotes Lambert as saying "It was fight and run - danger at every turn, but that we calculated upon, and were prepared for." One writer (Buckmaster) asserts that in 31 years of aiding runaway slaves, Lambert helped 30,000 fugitives across the river from Detroit.

Lewis, Jane

Lewis left her home in New Lebanon, Ohio, to get to the banks of the Ohio River. There she helped runaways escape from Kentucky to the free state of Ohio. She is reported to have regularly rowed them across the river to safety.

Loguen, Jermain Wesley Rev. (1813-1872)

A close friend of Harriet Tubman, Loguen was a well-known Black stationmaster on the Underground Railroad. Escaping from bondage in Tennessee, he made it to Canada. But he didn´t stay there.

He and his wife moved to Syracuse, New York, where he became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Together, the Loguens used their home and their church as "safehouses" for escaping fugitives. They are thought to have helped some 1,500 enslaved people reach Canada.  Rev. Loguen´s aid didn´t end with helping fugitives escape slavery. As manager of the Fugitive Aid Society in Syracuse, he worked hard to help fugitives find jobs, urging area residents to hire them in their farms and businesses. Largely because of his work, Syracuse became known as "the Canada of the United States." Of course, that was before the Fugitive Slave Law, of which Loguen said: "I don´t respect this law - I don´t fear it - I won´t obey it! It outlaws me and I outlaw it." He published an autobiography in 1859, Rev. Jermain W. Loguen as a Slave and as a Freeman.

Malvin, John (1795-1880)

Malvin was a successful Black business owner who helped runaways escape from slavery. He owned a canal boat that regularly traveled between Cleveland and Marietta, Ohio. His boat frequently transported fugitives who had come to Marietta from the southern side of the Ohio River. Using some of his business income, Malvin bought the freedom of his father-in-law, Caleb Dorsey. In 1836, Malvin established the School Education Society for African Americans in Cleveland.

Mason, John

Mason fled from slavery in Kentucky into Canada. He returned south for other enslaved people, eventually bringing a total of some 1,000 people to freedom. After successfully helping 265 to Canada, Mason was caught and sold back into slavery. For resisting, both of his arms were broken. He somehow managed to escape once again and returned to his mission of helping people find freedom.

Parker, John (1827-1900)

John P. Parker was eight when he was sold from his enslaved mother in Norfolk, Virginia, to an agent from Richmond. Sold again to a slave caravan, he walked shackled to other slaves from Norfolk to Mobile, Alabama. His account of the journey is one of the early incidents in His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1996). The book draws from a series of interviews with Parker conducted in 1885 by newspaperman Frank M. Gregg.

In Mobile, a doctor bought Parker and the doctor´s sons taught him to read and write. John, 16, went north with those sons as they enrolled in college; however, the doctor, fearing Parker would escape, ordered him back to Mobile.

Parker tried several times to escape to freedom. Apprenticed as a plasterer, he tried to escape to New Orleans after one of his coworkers repeatedly harassed him, but was found and returned to the doctor. Next Parker was apprenticed to a molder at a local iron foundry, where he was allowed to keep some of his earnings. Parker begged an older patient of the doctor´s to "buy" him; she eventually agreed, and he worked day and night to purchase his freedom from her.

A free man, he moved to Southern Ohio. Around 1853 he started his own foundry behind his home in Ripley, a tobacco center on the banks of the Ohio River and a focus of Underground Railroad activity. Parker invented several devices, including a tobacco press. He became one of a handful of African Americans to obtain a U.S. patent in the 19th century.

As he grew into a successful businessman, he also became involved in Underground Railroad activities. Although he could not keep written records that might be used to convict him of aiding slaves, he is thought to have helped hundreds of enslaved people escape to freedom. Well-known by regional slave-catchers, Parker risked his own life time and again by traveling across the river to lead fugitives to safety in Ripley. Once the fugitive slaves were across the river, Parker would deliver them to other conductors, such as Rev. John Rankin, who would harbor the fugitive slaves and help them to the next depot on the network. The John P. Parker House is located in Ripley, Ohio, at 300 Front Street. The house is currently being renovated.

Pleasant, Mary Ellen

A free Black woman, Pleasant somehow got to the west. Not much is known about her earlier life except that she may have sent money to John Brown for his raid in Harpers Ferry. In California she helped slaves flee their owners. She may also have operated a house on the Underground Railroad. After the Civil War, she worked hard to desegregate San Francisco´s streetcars.

John W. Posey, M.D.
?-1884

Born in South Carolina, Posey moved to Indiana with his family in 1804. Settling in Pike County, he practiced medicine until his retirement in 1855. Dr. Posey was known as a champion of slaves and his home on the bluffs overlooking the White River was reported to have been a station on the Underground Railroad. Legend says the house had secret passages and a tunnel leading to the river through which slaves could make their way to skiffs and be taken across the river.

Dr. Posey also used his coal mine to help runaways evade capture. In 1837 two African Americans awaiting return to Kentucky were whisked away from their guards and hidden in the coal shaft until they could make a getaway.

Purvis, Robert (1810-1898)

Robert´s family moved from Charleston, SC, to Philadelphia when he was ten years old. His father was an English cotton merchant and his mother a freeborn woman of German-Jewish and African heritage.

After his father´s death, Robert inherited a small fortune that he invested in real estate. He became a contributor to abolitionist causes, in 1838 helping to found the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee.

In 1831, Robert married Harriet Forten, the daughter of prominent African American businessman James Forten. Together with William Still, the Purvises are said to have helped nearly 9,000 people along the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania. The Purvis home was called "Saints´ Rest" by abolitionists in Philadelphia. Their son, Henry, was elected to the South Carolina legislature during the Reconstruction period.

Rankin, John Rev.

A Presbyterian minister, Rev. John Rankin penned some of the earliest published writings against slavery. The Ripley, Ohio, newspaper published Rankin´s letters to his brother in Virginia, a slave state. In 1826 Rankin bound the pieces in Letters on American Slavery. This book was widely read, influencing a number of abolitionists including William Lloyd Garrison.

From his home overlooking the Ohio River in Ripley, Rankin was an active participant in helping fugitives escape north. Jean Rankin and their 13 children were also involved, harboring and feeding an estimated 2,000 people on their way to the next safe place towards freedom.

Among those in Ripley who worked with Rankin and former slave John Parker were several White residents, including Dr. Alexander Campbell and the Collins brothers as well as many free African Americans, including Rhoda Jones, Polly Jackson, Lindsey Jackson, Billy Martin, Joseph Settles and others. The Rankin House in Ripley is a National Historic Landmark.

Ray, Charles B. Rev. (1807-1886)

This Black abolitionist maintained a haven for fugitive slaves in his New York City home. One report notes that 14 fugitives walked up his front steps one summer morning. A blacksmith-turned journalist and Congregationalist minister, Ray worked as the editor of The Colored American from 1839-1841. He was also active in voting rights and temperance issues. As the corresponding secretary for the New York State Vigilance Committee, Ray was an important figure in that organization. From 1851-1853, the Committee counseled more than 600 former slaves and eventually secured the freedom of 38 who had been brought to New York, a free state, by their owners.

Ross, Alexander M.D.

A Canadian doctor who was fascinated by the natural world, Alexander Ross hated slavery and vowed to do something about it. He came to the United States to speak with other abolitionists. They devised a creative plan: Ross would go south, posing as a scientist observing the area´s birds. He would actually give information to slaves about escaping their bondage.

On his first trip, he went to Richmond, Virginia, and observed what he could about the slaves there. Arranging to speak to a group of slaves at a minister´s house, he described routes they could use to head toward freedom. He also offered money, food, weapons, and compasses. His scheme worked and he continued to help people escape to freedom up until the start of the Civil War.

Ruggles, David (1810-1849)

David Ruggles headed the New York Committee of Vigilance and was the conductor who sheltered Frederick Douglass when he escaped to New York. From there, Ruggles helped him get to New Haven, Connecticut.

In addition to offering a safe house to fugitives, Ruggles monitored the legal cases of those fleeing slaves who had been recaptured. The New York Committee of Vigilance, which he founded and led, was one of the most active such groups in the country. In all, Ruggles is reported to have helped more than 1,000 slaves escape. Frederick Douglass once said of Ruggles: "He was a whole-souled man, fully imbued with a love of his afflicted and haunted people."

Smalls, Robert (1839-1915)

This man made one of the boldest escapes of any fugitive slave. Having worked for many years as a boat pilot in Charleston (SC) Harbor, he was an excellent navigator. Along with eight other African Americans in the crew of a Confederate gunboat, Smalls worked out a plan to deliver themselves, their families - and the boat! - to the Union forces.

They smuggled their families on board in the early hours of the morning on May 13, 1862. Under the Confederate flag, Smalls sailed past the forts in the harbor, using the usual steam-whistle salute. Approaching the Union forces, Smalls took down the Confederate flag and replaced it with a white one, signifying truce. Too late, the Confederates realized what was happening and fired upon the boat, but by that time, Smalls and his eight associates and their families were free people.

The sailors supplied useful information about the harbor and the Confederates´ plans and power to the Union forces. For his courageous act, Smalls won his freedom papers and was named captain of the ship. He took part in at least 17 naval engagements on the side of the Union forces.

Freedom was always on the minds of African American slaves; it was a destiny that became idealized in many African American spirituals (including the one excerpted above). The "freedom train" came infrequently and was often not on time. But when it did arrive, it was big enough and strong enough to carry the souls of the weary and to lighten the burdens of the downtrodden. The freedom train even brought hope and inspiration to those who could not physically make it on board. For years slaveholders mistakenly attributed the imagery of the freedom train in Negro spirituals to fanciful illusions in the minds of slaves about dying and going to heaven. It is now generally known, as the slaveholders learned, that the freedom train was real and powerful.Known officially as the Underground Railroad, the freedom train was an extensive network of people, places, and modes of transportation — all working in the deepest secrecy to help transport slaves to freedom in the North and Canada. Many slaves made the journey with the help of guides, who were often free blacks committed to the cause of abolition. White abolitionists also made significant contributions, but the freedom train was a powerful political statement made by African Americans who chose to "vote for freedom with their feet."

Historians have traditionally underestimated and understated the role of blacks, and overestimated the role of sympathetic whites in the Underground Railroad. White abolitionists did provide safe houses, money, boats, and other material resources that were sometimes vital to successful escapes. But free blacks often risked much more — their own freedom and lives — in order to travel South, to help lead others to safety. Among the more prominent "conductors" of the freedom train was Harriet Tubman. A former slave who had escaped to the North, Tubman traveled to the South an estimated 19 times and guided more than 300 slaves to freedom. She epitomized the success and daring of the freedom train. Through her stories and those of others, there exists a rich legacy detailing the network that is said to have helped over 1000 slaves each year to free themselves from bondage.

Few details of the Underground Railroad are known because of the extreme secrecy required in its operation, but there are reports of its existence as early as 1837. The exact number of slaves who were freed by the railroad is also not known because, in the interests of security, the conductors of the railroad could not keep records. Although this number was never high enough to threaten the institution of slavery itself, the legends and metaphor of the freedom train proved much more ominous to slaveholders. Tales that were often repeated throughout the nation included, for example, the story of Henry "Box" Brown, a black man who packed himself in a wooden crate and shipped himself to freedom in Philadelphia, and the story of William and Ellen Craft, a married couple whose escape was based on their disguise — she as a "Spanish gentleman" and he as her black slave. The accounts of runaway slaves instilled fear in the hearts of Southern slaveowners, and inspired Northern abolitionists to form larger and stronger antislavery organizations.

As the Underground Railroad gained notoriety, it became even more secret. A virtually undetected escape route ran from Texas to Mexico, but almost no information exists about how it functioned or how many African Americans quietly blended into the Mexican populace. It became difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction in accounts of the escapes. But researchers have been able to uncover many details, especially from the accounts of free blacks who wrote memoirs or autobiographies. Free blacks such as William Still, David Ruggles, William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglass, and Henry Highland Garnet joined Tubman in the struggle for self-emancipation. Most worked in silence and sometimes even in disguise.Runaway slaves waded through swamps, concealed themselves in the hulls of ships, hid on the backs of carriages, and navigated circuitous routes by using the North Star at night — always with the understanding that they might be caught or betrayed at any time. Many were pursued by professional slavecatchers (some with dogs), who all had the authority to detain and hold itinerant African Americans south of the Mason-Dixon Line. The southern press was full of advertisements for escaped slaves. These descriptions constitute one of the few sources of accurate personal details about individuals in the slave community. The advertisements, in the slaveholders' own words, often mentioned maimed limbs and scars from whipping — vivid descriptions that northern abolitionists used verbatim in their condemnation of slavery.

On the way to freedom, slaves and their guides often found it difficult to obtain food, clothing, and shelter. Free blacks in cities such as Philadelphia and Boston formed Vigilance Committees to meet these and other needs. The committees cared for runaways after they arrived on free soil, hid them to prevent their recapture, and aided them on their way to Canada. The Philadelphia Association for the Moral and Mental Improvement of the People of Color was one of the most prominent black vigilance committees.With the aid of black vigilance committees the underground railroad continued to guide slaves to freedom, up until the time of the Civil War itself, when thousands of slaves freed themselves by leaving the plantations and escaping behind Union Army lines. For those who still labored as slaves at the beginning of the Civil War, the legend of the Underground Railroad held out hope. In the words of another Negro spiritual:I know my Lord is a man of war; He fought my battle at Hell's dark door. Satan thought he had me fast; I broke his chain and got free at last.

Legend has it that in 1831 a runaway slave named Tice Davids slipped into the Ohio River with his owner in hot pursuit. Tice swam for his life across the great river while the other man sought out a boat to row after him. Tice landed first in Ripley, Ohio, and immediately disappeared from view. The owner continued to search for Tice, but eventually gave up without a clue to his whereabouts. In frustration, the man concluded that it was as though Tice had "gone off on an underground railroad..."

For Tice and tens of thousands of others, traveling through Ohio meant freedom, hope of a better life, and often a life-and-death struggle. From about 1816 to the dawn of the Civil War, individuals and communities ushered fleeing slaves from southern states along the difficult and dangerous journey northward to freedom in Canada. The network of homes or barns with concealed rooms and hiding places, secret tunnels, well-worn trails through dense woods, and conductors leading the runaways to the next safe haven became known as the Underground Railroad. Although members of the Underground Railroad did not encourage slaves to run away, they made every effort to assist the slaves who did.

The need for secrecy was all-important, for many slave owners pursued fleeing slaves themselves or hired bounty hunters to pursue them. The penalties for apprehended slaves or persons caught assisting them were severe. Although Ohio was a free state, early federal laws allowed for the legal capture of escaped slaves from free territory and imposed a penalty of $500 on any person who hindered arrest of, harbored or concealed a fugitive slave. Runaway slaves returned to their owners were usually treated brutally and subjected to even more misery than before. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 raised the penalty to $1,000, imposed prison sentences and required citizens to assist federal marshals when called upon to apprehend fugitive slaves.

The Underground Railroad in Ohio was an amazingly efficient and well organized operation, despite the impossibility of open communication and coordination. Routes through the forests, farms and towns were established from one hiding place to the next. In all, nearly three thousand miles of routes criss-crossed the state, most bound in a northeasterly direction, and at least 23 points of entry were established along the Ohio River1. The Underground Railroad in Ohio reached its greatest level of activity in the 1840s, and more stations existed in Ohio than in any other state. For the safety of all involved, few records were kept of the numbers and identities of persons who reached freedom along the railroad, but it is estimated that at least 40,000 passed through Ohio.

Notable individuals and religious communities, in particular the Quakers, gave the railroad its start. In Cincinnati, Levi Coffin became known as the "President of the Underground Railroad." In Ripley, the home of John Percial Parker, an African American abolitionist and industrialist, was one of the earliest and busiest stations. Nearby, the light from Reverend John Rankin's house on a hill overlooking the Ohio River shone like a beacon to fugitives making the dangerous journey across the great river. Further north, additional towns, such as Oberlin, became important centers with high levels of support for and participation in the railroad. Eventually, people from all walks of life, including former slaves who already achieved their freedom, became members or conductors. In town and on farms, ordinary people dared to offer a meal, a place to stay, or safe passage to the next stop. Fleeing slaves were hidden in wagons, covered with everything from sacks of flour to pumpkins; stowed away on canal boats; driven in carriages, disguised as women with heavily-brimmed bonnets; or snuck onto railroad freight cars.

Harriet Beecher Stow, who lived in Cincinnati from 1832 to 1850, was deeply moved by an incredible story she had heard there about a woman's frantic race across the frozen Ohio River to earn freedom for herself and her baby. In 1852, she retold the story in her book Uncle Tom's Cabin, which became immediately famous, raising awareness in the north of the horrors of slavery and the plight of runaway slaves. As a result of the book, anti-slavery feelings ran even higher and were expressed more openly. Within another decade, the Civil War was underway.

Today, there are scattered reminders of the journeys taken by many thousands of brave men, women and children who risked everything to earn their rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Some remnants also remain of the hiding places and routes of travel, as well as stories of the schemes devised by those who bravely took risks to help them.

One of the most famous Underground Railroad routes in central Ohio was Africa Road. This was the setting of one of the most extra-ordinary chapters in Underground Railroad history. The tiny unincorporated zone in southern Delaware County which was once the community of Africa touches the southern border of what is now Alum Creek State Park. Prior to 1840, the hamlet then known as East Orange was a rural crossroads north of the bustling town of Westerville. Country gentlefolk had erected small cabins there as temporary housing while building permanent homes on their estates. After a time, the woodlands north of Westerville harbored a cluster of these abandoned cabins, as folks moved into their newly completed houses.

In 1859, a slave owner in North Carolina passed away and his widow freed the family's slaves. Miraculously, the group of 35 freed slaves traveling together found their way safely across the Ohio River, where they were advised to press on until they were far from the state border. Many slave hunters were ruthless mercenaries who would abduct any black person, regardless of their status as free citizen or escaped slave. Once these slaves arrived in the strongly anti-slavery town of Westerville, the group was ushered to the cabins north of town where they were invited to make themselves at home and were offered paid employment helping local farmers harvest crops. The black residents became very involved in the Underground Railroad themselves, providing food, shelter and acting as conductors. They risked not only fines or imprisonment, but potential kidnapping and return to slavery in the south. One joined the Union Army and fought for the anti-slavery cause during the Civil War.

One of the few pro-slavery landowners in the area sarcastically nicknamed the community "Africa," and the name stuck. Ever since, the community and the road have proudly kept the name, although the story behind it has been nearly forgotten. After the Civil War, the black residents of Africa moved on to better prospects in Westerville, Delaware and other parts of the state. The cabins in the woods and the few homes, businesses and church that were once Africa are gone now, but this great story perseveres.

Another critical route of the Underground Railroad followed an Indian trail known as the Bullskin Trace from the Ohio River to Lake Erie. A section of the old Bullskin Trace is incorporated in the hiking trail system at Caesar Creek State Park, and north of Xenia, it tracks State Route 68, which passes just to the west of John Bryan and Buck Creek state parks. The community of Harveysburg, adjacent to Caesar Creek State Park, and the neighboring countryside contained a number of underground railroad stations. Many of the homes reputed to have secret rooms and hidden tunnels are gone now, but their legacy lives on. From Harveysburg, fleeing slaves sometimes traveled up the Miami River on their way to Dayton. Although travel through the river was sometimes difficult, it was effective in throwing sniffing hounds off the trail. Other fleeing slaves took advantage of the natural shelter provided by caves along Caesar Creek while on their dangerous journey.

The Underground Railroad helped pave the way for the establishment of a number of black settlements in Ohio. The history of these settlements is rich, and the stories of the people who brought themselves from extreme poverty to prosperity despite every disadvantage and obstacle are fascinating.

Although many of the landmarks of the Underground Railroad in Ohio are gone or their significance forgotten, time and progress can't erase the example set by this incredible bond of community, however brief, among those in desperate need and those who assisted them. Some families kept their commitment as stations on the railroad for decades, touching two or three generations and reaching far beyond that. This chapter in Ohio history is one worth studying and passing along, for it shows how each individual decision to take a risk and do the "right thing" for oneself or for someone else lays down tracks that link together for everyone's ride on the great train of freedom.

--Jean Backs