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Underground Railroad
Free Press . . . your
source for news and views on today's Underground Railroad
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Site of the original Uncle Tom's cabin, formerly the Isaac Riley Plantation, now the Josiah Henson Special Park, a protected historic site in North Bethesda, Maryland. This cabin is similar to the one in which Josiah Henson was enslaved at this farm until 1830 when he escaped to Canada on the Underground Railroad. It was Henson upon whom Harriet Beecher Stowe based the title character of her book Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852. Click on Lynx here for more information.
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> | free press prizes for leadership, preservation & knowledge |
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> | how to use the wellman scale to rate an underground railroad site |
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About Underground Railroad Free Press |
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What We Do |
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Underground Railroad Free Press was founded in 2006 to fill the unmet need of objective reporting on the Underground Railroad of today. According to surveys, Underground Railroad Free Press is the most widely read Underground Railroad periodical publication with about double the readership of any competitor. While there are several other very useful news publications on the Underground Railroad, none in our opinion is a truly independent, international, regularly-issued publication devoted to collecting and objectively reporting Underground Railroad news. We find several of these occasional publications to be highly informative and useful, each in its own way, and we recommend them to readers. The main purpose of Underground Railroad Free Press is objective reporting of news on the Underground Railroad of today. This includes what organizations and individuals are doing on behalf of the Underground Railroad and concentrates on useful information for the public, especially the identification of Underground Railroad safe-houses and routes, preservation efforts, Underground Railroad programs and threats to sites or programs. The emphasis is on breaking news. We welcome guest opinion editorials - op-ed pieces - which may be submitted here and are subject to editing for length, clarity, good taste and correct English usage. Underground Railroad Free Press is published six times per year on the fifteenth of January, March, May, July, September and November. The Underground Railroad Free Press Prizes Underground Railroad Free Press annually awards three prizes recognized as the most esteemed honor bestowed in the Underground Railroad community. The Underground Railroad Free Press prizes honor the most outstanding contributions to contemporary Underground Railroad work in leadership, preservation and advancement of knowledge. The prizes also promote awareness and appreciation of contemporary Underground Railroad work to the general public, governments and key decision-makers by publicizing prizes and winners. For more on the prizes or to download a nomination form, click here. Lynx Lynx is a popular Free Press service created as a result of reader requests and serves as the central international registry of Underground Railroad organizations. Accessible at our website, Lynx invites all organizations involved with the Underground Railroad to add their names and web links to a growing list of organizations. To add your link, email us here with the name and web address of your organization. To visit Lynx, click here. Datebook As a feature of our website, Free Press operates Datebook, the central calendar of international Underground Railroad community events. Email us about upcoming events and we will add them to Datebook. Click here to visit Datebook. The Annual Free Press Surveys of the International Underground Railroad Community Underground Railroad Free Press conducts annual surveys on the knowledge, attitudes and practices of Underground Railroad leaders, elected and other officials, Free Press subscribers, site owners and others, and makes the results of surveys available on our website. Click here to view or download our report on the most recent annual Underground Railroad survey. |
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Submissions of News, Articles, Letters to the Editor and Advertising |
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Click here for guidelines on submission of news and guest articles. Click here for guidelines on submission of letters to the editor. Click here for advertising specifications, rates and deadlines. |
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Submissions |
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Underground Railroad Free Press welcomes articles and news releases involving the contemporary Underground Railroad. Articles should be submitted exclusively to Underground Railroad Free Press unless we have otherwise agreed with the author beforehand. News releases do not carry this restriction. We give preference to articles and news releases which do not exceed 800 words in length though the occasional longer piece will be considered. Submit articles and news releases by clicking here. We reserve the right to edit for length and content any articles or news releases submitted. Submissions should be accompanied by the name, email address, postal address and daytime telephone number of the author which we may use to verify submissions. All rights to submissions including email and letters will be treated as unconditionally assigned to Underground Railroad Free Press for publication and copyright purposes, and as subject to the unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially by Underground Railroad Free Press unless otherwise negotiated with authors. Click here for submission guidelines for letters to the editor. Click here for submission guidelines for display and line advertising. |
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We welcome letters to the editor which should be submitted exclusively to Underground Railroad Free Press unless otherwise agreed with the author beforehand. We give preference to letters which do not exceed 800 words in length. Submit letters to the editor by clicking here. We reserve the right to edit letters to the editor for length, content and correct English usage. Letters must be accompanied by the name, email address, postal address and daytime telephone number of the author which we may use to verify letters to the editor. All rights to submissions including email and letters will be treated as unconditionally assigned to Underground Railroad Free Press for publication and copyright purposes, and as subject to the unrestricted right of Underground Railroad Free Press to edit and comment editorially unless otherwise negotiated with authors. Click here for submission guidelines for news and articles. Click here for submission guidelines for display and line advertising.
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Display Advertising |
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Policy Underground Railroad Free Press accepts tasteful, nonpolitical display advertising. Underground Railroad Free Press reserves the right to reject any advertising which for any reason in our sole judgment is not acceptable. Submitting Display Advertisements Submit display advertisements by email attachment to ads@urrfreepress.com in jpg or pdf format or as editable text. Maximum dimensions for display advertisements are as follows. If your advertisement is larger than whichever width you specify, we will reduce it to fit if possible. One-Column Width 2.25" maximum wide by 8.0" maximum long Two-Column Width 4.75" maximum wide by 8.0" maximum long Three-Column Width (Full page wide) 7.5" maximum wide by 8.0" maximum long Deadlines The publication schedule of Underground Railroad Free Press is the fifteenth of January, March, May, July, September and November. Acceptable display advertising copy must be received by us not later than the first day of the month of publication. Rate $25 per column-inch $50 per column-inch for front-page advertisements Payment All advertising must be prepaid by check made to Underground Railroad Free Press. Payment must be received not later than the first day of the month of publication. Click here for submission guidelines for news and articles. Click here for submission guidelines for letters to the editor. |
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Line Advertisements |
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Policy Underground Railroad Free Press accepts tasteful, nonpolitical line advertisements. Underground Railroad Free Press reserves the right to reject any advertising which for any reason in our sole judgment is not acceptable. Submitting Line Advertisements Submit line advertisements by email attachment to us at ads@urrfreepress.com as editable text. Line advertisements are displayed in one-column width and may be longer than one column in length. Deadlines The publication schedule of Underground Railroad Free Press is the fifteenth of January, March, May, July, September and November. Acceptable line advertising copy must be received by us not later than the first day of the month of publication. Rates $15 per column-inch $30 per column-inch for front-page advertisements Payment All advertising must be prepaid by check made to Underground Railroad Free Press. Payment must be received not later than the first day of the month of publication. Click here for submission guidelines for news and articles. Click here for submission guidelines for letters to the editor.
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ContactUnderground Railroad Free Press 2455 Ballenger Creek Pike Adamstown, Maryland, 21710 Telephone > 301.874.0235 Facsimile > 888.605.2fax
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Lynx |
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Lynx is the central international registry of Underground Railroad community organizations, programs and sites. Lynx lists institutions large and small across the United States, Canada and elsewhere which are involved in various aspects of the contemporary Underground Railroad. Following in alphabetical order are the registry listings. This Underground Railroad sites listed here do not include places of enslavement, capture, arrest, trial, lynching or other places which were opposed to the Underground Railroad. To add your organization, program or Underground Railroad site to Lynx, email us here. Underground Railroad sites listed below are indicated as sites and rated for likelihood of authenticity according to the five-point Wellman Scale. A Wellman Scale rating of 5 means that a site is conclusively documented as having been involved in the Underground Railroad. About two-thirds of all sites nationwide have a rating of 2, "oral tradition with no reason to doubt." For more on the Wellman Scale, click here. |
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Adventure
Cycling |
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Adventure Cycling sponsors rides along Underground Railroad routes from the Gulf of Mexico and Alabama to Ontario, Canada, with interesting spur routes along the way. The organization's website contains a YouTube link at which one can watch a short video about the creation of the Underground Railroad in four segments. Visit the website here. |
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The African
American Civil War Memorial and Museum |
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The memorial and museum commemorate the roles of African
Americans and the United States Colored Troops in the Civil War. Using
photographs, documents and state of the art audio visual equipment, the
museum helps visitors understand the African American's heroic and largely
unknown struggle for freedom. Visit the museum here. |
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The African American Heritage Project of Blair County, Pennsylvania |
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The Project preserves and documents African-American history in central Pennsylvania. The Project sponsors an annual Juneteenth festival on the Altoona campus of Pennsylvania State University. Visit the project here. |
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African American Tourism Council of Maryland |
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The Council promotes the research, documentation, preservation, protection, and promotion of African American history, culture and tourism including the Underground Railroad in Maryland. Visit the website here. |
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AfricanDiasporaTourism.com |
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AfricanDiasporaTourism.com is an online magazine dedicated to exploring the culture and heritage influences of people of African descent around the globe in order to encourage visitation and tourism. Visit here. |
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The Afrolumens Project |
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This organization promotes the collection, study and interpretation of data on African American slavery and freedom in central Pennsylvania, and is dedicated to the idea that all Pennsylvania residents share a common history regardless of race, belief or gender. The Afrolumens Project focuses on the period from European colonization and African slavery in Pennsylvania through the Civil War. The organization facilitates communication by making its collection accessible on its website without cost to anyone interested. Visit the website here. |
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Akwaaba Heritage Associates |
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Akwaaba presents stories that bring historical personalities and events to life. From two hours to several days, Akwaaba tours and reenactments are customized to challenge the senses, intellect and heart of visitor and scholar, child and adult. Visit the website here. |
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Allegheny
Portage Railroad National Historic Site (Underground Railroad site: 5) |
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The
Allegheny Portage Railroad is a story of ingenuity, persistence, and the
fleeting power of success. This engineering marvel, which includes the first
railroad tunnel in America, opened a valuable trade route within a developing
nation. The railroad was operated as an Underground Railroad route. Visit the
website here. |
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Allies for
Freedom |
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Allies
for Freedom researches and writes on African American roles in John Brown's
1859 raid at Harpers Ferry, and documents the Underground Railroad
association of John Brown's family in California. Visit the website here. |
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The American Heritage Legacy Tour |
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The organization conducts several tours and productions in the states of Pennsylvania and Virginia including "The Underground Railroad: The Cherokee Woman and the Runaway Slave, A Love Story" Visit the website here. |
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Baltimore Black Heritage Tours (BBH Tours) |
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BBH Tours conducts tours of many African-American and Underground Railroad heritage sites in Baltimore including the Frederick Douglass escape site, his later rental properties, the new Reginald Lewis Museum, Underground Railroad safe-houses and other sites. Visit BBH Tours here. |
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The George
and Rebecca Barnes Foundation |
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The
foundation maintains and operates the Barnes mansion in Syracuse, New York.
The Barnes couple were committed abolitionist organizers and Underground
Railroad supporters who used their resources to exert public pressure and
raise money for the cause. Visit the website here. |
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Beckmaze
Historical Society |
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The
Society is raising funds to purchase, occupy and restore an old mill in
Wyoming, Michigan, which had been used as an Underground Railroad safe-house.
Email the Society here. |
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Belpre Historical Society |
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The organization operates a museum with an Underground Railroad exhibit at 509 Ridge Street, Belpre, Ohio. Visit the website here. |
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Historic Belmont Mansion and Underground Railroad Museum (Underground Railroad site: 5) |
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Located
in Philadelphia, Historic Belmont Mansion and Underground Railroad Museum
presents its story in the context of the region's founding role in the
abolitionist movement. The Mansion played a significant role within the
Underground Railroad allowing Philadelphia to become for a time the largest
free black society in the nation. The American WomenÕs Heritage Society, led
by Founder and President Audrey R. Johnson Thornton, was founded in November
1986 to restore, maintain and preserve Belmont Mansion. The society is the
first organization to operate Belmont Mansion as a historic site and remains
the only African-American womenÕs organization to administer a historic site
in PhiladelphiaÕs Fairmount Park, one of the worldÕs largest municipal parks.
Through the site, the Society has made significant investment documenting the
inclusive history of Belmont Mansion and its ties to the Underground
Railroad. Belmont Mansion contains a timeless story of revolution and
determination, and continues to stand as a reflection of the vast American
experience, giving credence to the diverse struggles and successes of
generations past, present and future. Visit BelmontÕs website here. |
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Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation |
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Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation is an Annapolis-based non-profit organization dedicated to documenting the legacy of Chesapeake Bay African-Americans and promoting bay conservation and education. Visit here. |
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Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence |
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Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence organizes and builds through progressive ideas and direct action a dynamic Education for Liberation Black Education Movement. Visit Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence here. |
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The
Brooklyn Preservation Council |
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The
Council is a preservation organization interested in historic districts,
historical commemoration and the Underground Railroad. Contact the Council here. |
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BuffaloResearch.com |
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This
website assists researchers and others in exploring ancestors, buildings,
companies and more in and around Buffalo, New York. The website has an
Underground Railroad page which includes a list of verified safe-houses.
Explore here. |
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California State University Special Collection on the Underground Railroad in California |
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This collection is housed at the library of the California State University campus in Sacramento, flagship school of the 24-campus statewide system. Using high-quality digital images of letters, journals, photographs, documents and newspapers, the searchable archive documents the brief and often overlooked chapter of California history dealing with slavery and the Underground Railroad. Visit the university library here. |
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The
Carnegie Center for Art and History |
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The
Center operates as a contemporary art gallery and history museum featuring a
permanent exhibition and award-winning, interactive multimedia film entitled,
"Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage: Men and Women of the
Underground Railroad in the Indiana and Kentucky Borderland." Visit the
website here. |
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Colgate University Teachers' Institute on Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad |
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The National Endowment for the Humanities sponsors this annual institute and has designated it as a We the People project. The Institute brings in teachers and graduate students each summer to train them on history of the Underground Railroad. |
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Cooling Springs Farm (Underground Railroad site: 3) |
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This working farm, one of the most often visited Underground Railroad sites in the United States, is open to the public for tours and study. The Underground Railroad safe-house on the farm is thought to be the only safe-house still owned by the same family that operated it during Underground Railroad times. The farm was founded by the family in 1768 and its seventh generation operates the farm today. Visit Cooling Springs Farm here. |
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The David Ruggles Center for Early Florence History and Underground Railroad Studies |
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The Center celebrates the life and accomplishments of Underground Railroad freedom seeker and safe-house operator David Ruggles who settled on Nonotuck Street in Florence, Massachusetts. He and other abolitionists gathered in 1842 to forge a life of equality they hoped would inspire our nation to confront the evils of slavery and corporate greed. Later the street became a haven for self-emancipated slaves, some of whom owned houses still standing there. They worked in the mills along side Irish immigrants who flooded into the area in the wake of the Great Potato Famine. Several successful freedom seekers and their families made Florence their home and most of their houses survive. Visit the David Ruggles Center website here. |
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The
Delaware Underground Railroad Coalition |
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The
group coordinates Underground Railroad interests in Delaware. Visit the
Coalition's Facebook page here. |
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Diversity
Restoration Solutions |
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This
Suffolk, Virginia, international trade promotion firm and cultural diversity
training organization helps to promote the Underground Railroad in its locale
near the Great Dismal Swamp of southeastern Virginia and neighboring North
Carolina where fugitive slaves built maroon communities deep in the swamp to
live free and avoid detection. Visit the website here. |
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Dobbin
House (Underground Railroad site: 5) |
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Dobbin
House, built in 1776 and the oldest building in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,
houses what might be the nation's most authentic Underground Railroad
hideaway, a hidden space between two floors on public display with wax
figures in a tableau as the scene would have appeared in the 1850s. Dobbin
House's use as a safe-house is documented. Dobbin House today operates as an
inn, restaurant and store, and is within sight of the location where Abraham
Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address. Visit Dobbin House here. |
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Ellwood Harvey Website |
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This website is dedicated to the remarkable achievements and life of Ellwood Harvey, M.D., an underground railroad conductor and women's rights advocate, one of the early supporters of the Female Medical College of Philadelphia, the world's first college for female doctors. While at the college Dr. Harvey undertook the risky mission of freeing Ann Maria Weems, a 15-year-old slave from Unity, Maryland. Dressed as a boy, she and Dr. Harvey rendezvoused literally in front of the White House (Franklin Pierce was the president). Posing as Harvey's buggy driver, they spent two days riding north to abolitionist William Still's Philadelphia safe-house. After Thanksgiving, Dr. Harvey took Weems to Camden, New Jersey, via the ferry, and then by train to New York City where he delivered her to Rev. Charles B. Ray who took Weems to Lewis Tappan's house. Amos Noe then took her over the border to the Elgin Settlement in Canada and freedom. This story is chronicled in the books Stealing Freedom (Carbone), Free (Cary), The Underground Railroad (Still) and several other places. Visit the website here. |
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Emmanuel Episcopal Church (Underground Railroad site: 3) |
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This Cumberland, Maryland, church was used as an Underground Railroad safe-house. Visit the church's website here. |
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Essex County Black Historical Research Society of Canada |
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The Society brings together scholars and community members with an interest in Black history-related research, education and information-sharing specific to Windsor-Essex County, Canada, and environs. The Society may be contacted at 3095 Grandview Street, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, N8T 2M1 or at ecbhrs@aol.com. |
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The
Fairfield Inn (Underground Railroad site: 4) |
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Founded
in 1757, the Fairfield Inn in Fairfield, Pennsylvania, is one of America's
oldest, continuously operated inns. The restaurant was a favorite of Ike and
Mamie Eisenhower when they lived at their nearby farm after retirement. A
difficult-to-reach corner of the attic was used as an Underground Railroad
hideaway. The Inn's owners have arranged an authentic tableau in the corner
which is on public display. Visit the Fairfield In here. |
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Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse (Underground Railroad site: 5) |
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The 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse near Canandaigua, New York, was an Underground Railroad safe-house and crucible for several national reform movements hosting debates over freedom and equality for women, African Americans and Seneca Indians. National reformers associated with Farmington include William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. A group led by Historic New York Research Associates (see below) is restoring the Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse as a monument and interpretive center. Visit the Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse website here. |
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Historian
and Author Fergus Bordewich |
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Among a long list of publications, Mr. Bordewich authored the highly acclaimed Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America, and Washington: The Making of the United States Capitol which detailed the role of slave labor in the construction of the Capitol and the White House. Many regard Bound for Canaan as the definitive history of the Underground Railroad. BordewichÕs latest book, AmericaÕs Great Debate, skillfully tells the story of how the Compromise of 1850, wrought in the longest Congressional session in U.S. history, bought the nation a decade of time before the Civil War allowing Lincoln and Grant to rise, and the North to gain strength to prevail in the ultimate conflict. AmericaÕs Great Debate has been nominated for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in History. Visit Fergus BordewichÕs website here. |
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Flying Geese Productions |
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Flying Geese Productions specializes in educational entertainment and promotes literacy through theatrical presentations and workshops. Flying Geese's premier presentation allows the audience to experience the Underground Railroad, as re-enactor Ms. Melissa Waddy-Thibodeaux plays a compelling role of Harriet Tubman. The organization also distributes books to students at no cost. |
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Footsteps to Freedom of South Africa |
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Footsteps to Freedom invites you to reach into the soul of Cape Town, South Africa, by retracing 350 years of dramatic history. Specially trained tourist guides will bring to life the challenges facing the early Dutch settlers, the pain of slavery, the Cape as a colony, the tragedy of apartheid, and the joy and triumph of our new "Rainbow Nation". Visit here. |
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Forging the Freedom Trail Foundation |
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This organization promotes heritage tourism especially regarding the Underground Railroad in the state of New York. Visit the foundation here. |
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FrederickRoots.com |
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FrederickRoots
serves as a resource for researching the history of the African American
families of Frederick County, Maryland. Visit the website here. |
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Freedom
Bound |
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Freedom
Bound, a website operated by Lycoming College focuses on the history of the
Underground Railroad in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania and features the voice
of Mamie Sweeting Diggs and the stories handed down to her from her
great-grandfather Daniel Hughes, an African-American conductor on the
Underground Railroad. The banners used on this exceptionally well done
website are permanently housed at the Transportation Museum in Williamsport,
Pennsylvania. Visit Freedom Bound here. |
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Freedom Time |
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The organization, based in Maysville, Kentucky, offers slave & Underground Railroad tours, presentations and exhibits. Visit Freedom Time here. |
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The Freedom Underground Railroad Museum (Underground Railroad site: 3) |
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The museum is located in Bierbower House, an Underground Railroad safe-house in Maysville, Kentucky. The Museum displays artifacts of local descendants of African slaves, materials related to local and regional anti-slavery activists who made a national impact and the Bierbower safe-House on the lower level of the building. Visit the Museum website here. |
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Friends of
the Forks of the Roads Society, Inc. |
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This
organization's advocacy resulted in preservation of one of the largest slave
markets in the South at Natchez, Mississippi, called Forks of the Road.
Friends of the Forks of the Roads Society also operates a traveling exhibit
called European/African Roots of the Underground Railroad. Visit the website here. |
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Friends
Historical Association |
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The
Friends Historical Association is an association devoted to the study,
preservation and publication of material relating to the history of the
Religious Society of Friends. Founded in Philadelphia in 1873, FHA has become
an organization that is international in membership and interests and which
anyone, Friend or not, is invited to join. The annual meeting in the Fall and
a historical pilgrimage in the Spring to an area associated with the history
of Quakerism are important activities of the Association. Visit the website here. Email
queries here. |
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Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College |
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This library specializes in the Religious Society of Friends - the Quaker Church - and its role in the Underground Railroad. Visit the library here. |
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Founded in 2007, this private body is a nonprofit support and fundraising group for the National Park Service Network to Freedom program. However, the organization ceased operation in 2009. |
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Friends of the Underground Railroad |
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This private body was founded in 2004 as an Underground Railroad umbrella organization intended to preserve Underground Railroad history, support programs of others and raise up the Underground Railroad legacy for future generations. However, the organization has not conducted business since 2006. Visit Friends of the Underground Railroad here. |
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Forks of the Road |
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This organization presents the history of the Forks of the Roads Slave Market and its contemporary sites in Natchez, Mississippi, and offers a comprehensive brochure at its website. Visit the website here. |
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Galesburg Colony Underground Railroad Freedom Center (Underground Railroad site: 5) |
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The Center, operated by Knox College Professor Owen Muelder, specializes in research and education on the Underground Railroad in Western Illinois. Knox College itself was an Underground Railroad safe-house. See the May, 2007, issue of Underground Railroad Free Press for a review of the book by Owen Muelder, The Underground Railroad In Western Illinois. Visit the website here. |
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Gammon House Restoration Committee (Underground Railroad site: 4) |
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A group of local citizens in the Springfield, Ohio, area is restoring this former safe-house to a state which can be used as a forthcoming Underground Railroad Interpretive Center. The Center does not yet have a website. |
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The Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark (Underground Railroad site: 5) |
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A local nonprofit organization operates a number of history and Underground Railroad programs year round at the former home of one of the most famed abolitionists. Visit the website here. |
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Grace Hill Settlement House(Underground Railroad site: 5) |
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The organization operates the Grace Hill AmeriCorps Trail Ranger Project involving 15 young adults who use their time managing the Mary Meachum Underground Railroad site as well as learning about African-American slave history and providing presentations to the community on the subject. The Grace Hill Settlement House is located at 2600 Hadley Street, Saint Louis, Missouri, 63106. Visit the website here. |
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The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center |
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The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center preserves and interprets Stowe's Hartford home and the Center's historic collections, promotes vibrant discussion of her life and work, and inspires commitment to social justice and positive change. The Center awards the $10,000 Harriet Beecher Stowe Prize to recognize a United States author whose written work makes a tangible impact on a social justice issue critical to contemporary society. Named in honor of Stowe, the prize commemorates the 200th anniversary of Stowe's birth and is awarded biennially. Click here for more. |
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HarrietTubman.com |
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This website provides contemporary remembrances and programs on Harriet Tubman in Delaware and the nearby Eastern Shore of Maryland where she lived, escaped and did most of her Underground Railroad work. The site is maintained by Vivian Abdur-Rahim of Delaware. Click here for more. |
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Harriet Tubman Cultural Center |
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The Center is located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley, and sponsors various events including Rockingham County's annual Harriet Tubman Day observance. Click here for more. |
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Harriet Tubman Historical Society |
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This group has been instrumental in having had several states establish March 10 each year as Harriet Tubman Day and seeks to make the date a national observance. The Society is located in Wilmington, Delaware and Atlanta, Georgia. Visit the Harriet Tubman Historical Society here. |
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Harriet Tubman Institute On the Global Migrations of African Peoples |
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This institute, operated by York University of Ontario, Canada, performs research on the African Diaspora. Visit the Harriet Tubman Institute here. |
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Historic
Gettysburg-Adams County |
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This
is the preservation association of Adams County, Pennsylvania, an area rich
in Underground Railroad history including Dobbin House and the Fairfield Inn
(see above for both). Visit Historic Gettysburg-Adams County here. |
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Historic Palmyra |
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The organization owns and operates four museums within walking distance of the Erie Canal and two Underground Railroad sites in Rochester, New York, and features history from 1800 to the present through artifacts of all types. Historic Palmyra is part of the Rochester Museum and Science Center Freedom Trail and is listed in the Wayne County, New York, inventory of Underground Railroad history and places. Visit the website here. |
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Historic
Underground Railroad Society |
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This Nyack, new York organization operates an exhibit and learning center aimed primarily at grade-school students. Housed in a restored mid-19th century barn in Nyack, the exhibit includes an explanation of the Underground Railroad, old tools and hardware from the era, related items, a secret escape tunnel, a tunnel view of the buried Nyack Brook, an audio tape of the African American slave anthem, ÒFollow the Drinking GourdÓ. Visit the website here. |
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Historical New York Research Associates |
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This organization investigates and promotes Underground Railroad history and sites in upstate New York where it is located and is active in assisting the work of other Underground Railroad groups. Visit Historical New York Research Associates here. |
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The History Center of Niagara County |
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Operated by the Niagara County Historical Society, in Freeport, New York, the History Center of Niagara County presents a glimpse of area life over the last 175 years including the area's rich Underground Railroad history. Visit the Center here. |
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Howland Stone Store Museum |
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Quaker storekeeper Slocum Howland was an active abolitionist. The museum displays an authentic "ticket" used in the Underground Railroad passage of two "parcels." Howland arrived in the area in 1798 with his parents, was a devoted Quaker, wool buyer, entrepreneur, anti-slavery advocate, banker, large landowner, prohibitionist and local leader. His daughter, Miss Emily, was avidly involved in women's rights, temperance, education, world peace, abolition, Political Equality clubs, and rights for Negroes. Located in Aurora, New York, the store was built in 1837 by Slocum Howland and is important as a graceful and virtually unaltered example of a simple Greek revival cobblestone building, hence its name. Visit the website here. |
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Indiana Freedom Trails |
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Indiana Freedom Trails works to locate, identify, verify, protect, preserve and promote Indiana's Underground Railroad safe-houses and routes, and is dedicated to the research, education, interpretation and reverence of the state's Underground Railroad heritage for the benefit of future generations. Visit Indiana Freedom Trails here. |
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The John W. Jones Museum |
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The museum is located in Elmira, New York, and perpetuates the memory and the spirit of the men and women of the Southern Tier of New York who supported the Underground Railroad and worked to protect the freedom of those who escaped slavery. John Jones was an Underground Railroad freedom seeker, conductor and safe-house operator. The board of trustees of the museum is restoring the Jones house as a museum commemorating the life and work of the former slave who safely assisted nearly 800 freedom seekers to Canada. Visit the museum here. |
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Nathan and
Mary Johnson House |
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Nathan
and Polly Johnson of New Bedford, Massachusetts, were prominent African
American abolitionists who sheltered escaped slaves in their home which they
used as an Underground Railroad safehouse. It was here in September, 1838,
that Frederick Douglass found freedom, a new name and, with his wife Anna,
his first home. Nathan and Mary Johnson House is operated by the New Bedford
Historical Society. Visit here. |
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The Josiah
Henson Special Park |
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This
park in North Bethesda, Maryland, is the site from which Josiah Henson
escaped and fled to Canada in 1830. Today it is operated by Montgomery County
Parks as the Josiah Henson Special Park. Harriet Beecher Stowe based her1852 Uncle Tom's Cabin on Henson and his
cabin at this site. Visit the Josiah Henson Special Park website here.
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The Journey Through Hallowed Ground |
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The Journey Through Hallowed Ground contains one of the heaviest concentrations of Underground Railroad routes and over 70 safe-houses just in the Maryland and Pennsylvania portions of the Journey. This newest National Historic Area recognizes the unparalleled cultural, historic and scenic resources along the 125-mile Journey corridor from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to Underground Railroad-rich Frederick County, Maryland, to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's Virginia home. With nine Presidential homes, Camp David, 73 National Historic Districts, most Civil War Battlefields, 15 historic Main Street towns, and many scenic landscapes, roads, and rivers, the Journey Through Hallowed Ground, "Where America Happened", holds more history than any United States region of similar size. Visit here. |
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Kennett
Underground Railroad Center |
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The
Kennett Underground Railroad Center, a multicultural and diverse
organization, celebrates the values that brought an end to slavery in America
and the heroes whose courage led them to dare so much, simply to live a
decent life. Surrounded by one of the greatest concentrations of Underground
Railroad stations in the country, the Center identifies and preserves
buildings, artifacts and documents associated with that inspiring time in our
history for the purpose of educating present generations and those to come. Visit
the website here. |
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Kent County
Tourism |
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This is a tourism promotion agency that publicizes the
Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway in Kent County, Delaware. Visit here. |
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Kim and Reggie Harris |
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The couple has been researching, recording and performing music of the Underground Railroad and of the Civil Rights movement for more than 25 years. Their many albums are widely available. See the September, 2007, issue of Free Press for more on their work. Visit the Harris website here. |
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Knox College Underground Railroad Freedom Center (Underground Railroad site: 5) |
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The Center operates the Knox College Underground Railroad Freedom Station, a campus building which was used as an Underground Railroad safe-house by College faculty. The Center holds exhibits on the history of the Underground Railroad in western Illinois and gathers and preserves documents about the Underground Railroad. Visit the Center here. |
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The MapMuse Map of the Underground Railroad |
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The MapMuse website has compiled the most complete and informative map of Underground Railroad safe-houses and routes that we have seen, and is continuously expanding the map and its content on sites. This relatively new on-line interactive map of grows as the international Underground Railroad community learns of it and adds more and more sites. Visit the National Underground Railroad map here. |
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Mark Priest |
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The often-awarded Mark Priest is a painter of Underground Railroad scenes and people, and a Professor of Art at the University of Louisville. Visit his website here. |
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Maryland Underground Railroad Coalition |
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The organization is the umbrella group for Underground Railroad organizations throughout Maryland and led the effort to have the Maryland legislature in 2000 declare March 10 as an annual observance of Harriet Tubman Day in Maryland. Visit the Maryland Underground Railroad Coalition here. |
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The Mary
Meachum Freedom Crossing (Underground Railroad site: 5) |
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This
site on the Mississippi River in North St. Louis City, Missouri, is where
nine enslaved African Americans launched a skiff in the early hours of May
21, 1855, their destination, Illinois across the river. Their conductor was
Mary Meachum, a free woman of color and widow of Rev. John Berry Meachum,
known nationally for liberating slaves through purchase. The freedom-seekers
were met on the Illinois shore by a sheriff and owners, and five were caught.
Mary Meachum was arrested for running an Òunderground railway depotÓ in her
St. Louis home. Today the spot from which the skiff was launched looks much
as it did in 1855, vacant as it was then and largely untouched. Its location
the Riverfront Trail, a pedestrian and bicycle pathway, assures that it will
remain accessible. View a video of a 2011 celebration here. Contact the organizers here. |
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Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation |
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From its website, "The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation is dedicated to educating current and future generations about Gage's work and its power to drive contemporary social change. Matilda Joslyn Gage of Fayetteville, New York, was an Underground Railroad safe-house operator as were her parents, and a leader in the women's rights movement. Visit the Foundation here. |
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The McClew Interpretive Center (Underground Railroad site: 5) |
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Charles and Anna Maria McClew were part of a secret network of people who helped freedom seekers make their way through the Niagara frontier to Canada. The McClews moved to this property in 1850 and built their house and barns using native wood and bricks on site, and used stones cut from the Erie Canal excavation to cap the foundation wall. There is a concealed room beneath the McClew barn where people escaping slavery were able to rest and recuperate. The entrance to the room can still be seen today. Visit at Murphy Orchards, 2402 McClew Road, Burt, New York, 14028. Visit the website here. |
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The Menare Foundation |
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Oldest of the contemporary national Underground Railroad organizations, the Menare Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of Underground Railroad history, historic sites and environments, and to the creation of associated educational programs. Through assistance and training, Menare works with individuals and organizations to preserve the Underground Railroad legacy using history as a resource for community revitalization, race dialogue and cultural growth. Visit the Foundation here. |
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Mid-Hudson Anti-Slavery History Project |
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The Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project conducts research on the history of antislavery in the Mid-Hudson Valley, with special emphasis on the Underground Railroad, interprets this history, share these interpretations with a wide array of residents and visitors to the area with particular attention to students and youth, places local histories of slavery and antislavery in the Mid-Hudson Valley in the broader contexts of racial slavery in the New World and interprets the impact of this historic grassroots movement on subsequent struggles for racial and social justice. Visit the website here. |
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The National Museum of African-American History and Culture |
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The Smithsonian Institution will launch an Underground Railroad program hosted by the new National Museum of African-American History and Culture. The Museum will be housed in a building to be constructed on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The target date for completion of Museum construction is December, 2015. The story of the Underground Railroad will be featured prominently in Museum exhibits, resources and publicity, and the Museum has already begun collecting Underground Railroad oral histories in its Memory Book feature. Click here to visit the Museum website. |
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The National Park Service Network to Freedom |
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Like the National Museum of African-American History and Culture above, the Network to Freedom is another federal government program on the Underground Railroad and is managed by the National Park Service. This program's website maintains partial lists of Underground Railroad sites, programs and collections. Visit the Network to Freedom here. |
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The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center |
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This impressive Cincinnati, Ohio, museum, opened in 2004 to much fanfare and national press coverage, is the world's showpiece on the Underground Railroad. It's authentic slave pen as one enters the museum is utterly arresting in its impact. Beyond the Underground Railroad, the Freedom Center also explores the meaning of freedom and present-day slavery in the United States and around the world. Visit the Freedom Center here. |
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The New
York Historical Society |
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Since
2004, the New-York Historical Society has presented a series of exhibitions
that explore the idea of freedom, emphasizing the history of slavery,
resistance, abolition and the Underground Railroad. These major exhibitions
have been complemented with an array of public programs, educational
programs, websites, and cell phone/iPod tours of sources and sites relating
to New YorkÕs role in the Underground Railroad and abolitionist movement. The
New York Historical Society was one of the very first institutions collecting
during the height of the Underground Railroad movement from the 1830s to
1860s, an effort that began even earlier in the aftermath of the American
Revolution with the founding of the Manumission Society. Visit the Society's
Underground Railroad programs here,
then search on Underground Railroad. |
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Niagara Bound Tours |
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This tour company provides Underground Railroad history tours of Niagara, Canada. Tours are conducted by a descendant of slave who came to Canada in 1850 from Kentucky. As well as seeing the sites, the visitor also hears the personal stories. Visit the website here. |
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Norfolk
Underground Railroad |
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Visit
Norfolk sponsors Waterways to Freedom, the story of Norfolk, VirginiaÕs roles
in the Underground Railroad. Visit the website here. |
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The Norval Johnson Heritage Center |
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This Canadian historical organization is a museum and library associated with the Nathaniel Dett Memorial Chapel, a British Methodist Episcopal church in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. Visit the Norval Johnson Heritage Center website here. |
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North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association |
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This Plattsburgh, New York, organization gives dramatic readings, lectures, and presentations in schools, colleges, and for the general public, and researches, preserves, interprets and promotes the Underground Railroad history of Northeastern New York's Waterways to Freedom. The North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association has done one much to rediscover Underground Railroad routes and safe-houses in the northeast corner of New York. Visit the website here. |
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North Star Historical Project |
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The North Star Historical Project operates in cooperation with the Greenwich Historical Association and the Greenwich Free Library in Greenwich, New York , and promotes the history of the Underground Railroad in the middle part of the eastern tier of New York state. Visit the website here. |
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North Star
Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Area |
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This
program operated by the City of Niagara Falls, New York, celebrates the
city's heavy Underground Railroad involvement as a crossing point into
Canada. Email the program coordinator here. |
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The Ohio Underground Railroad Association |
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The organization bills itself as a grassroots, all-volunteer non-profit organization which researches, identifies, documents and preserves Ohio Underground Railroad sites. Visit the Ohio Underground Railroad Association here. |
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Oneida County Freedom Trail Commission |
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The commission documents Underground Railroad sites, people, and events of Oneida County, New York. Visit the website here. |
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Ontario Black History Society |
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The Ontario Black History Society of Ontario, Canada, is dedicated to the study, preservation and promotion of Black history and heritage. The Society fosters public interest in Black History through recognition, preservation and promotion of the contributions of Black peoples and their collective histories, sponsorship and support of educational conferences and exhibits in this field, and promoting the inclusion of material on Black History in school curricula. Visit the website here. |
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Ontario County Historical Society |
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The organization emphasizes the rich Underground Railroad history of this New York County. Visit the website here. |
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Oswego Public Library |
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The Library was founded by abolitionist and philanthropist, Gerrit Smith of Peterboro, New York, and opened in 1857. Smith stipulated that the library was to be open to all people regardless of race, sex or position in life. The Library's special collections include patron ledgers from 1860 that list library users of the time period including African-Americans. The Oswego Public Library is the oldest library in continuous use in its original building in the state of New York and possibly the country. Visit here. |
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The Paul
Laurence Dunbar Memorial Association |
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The Association promoted the memory of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and supports the efforts of the Paul Laurence Dunbar State Memorial. The Association may be reached at Postal Box 1872, Dayton, Ohio, 45431. |
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Paul Laurence Dunbar State Memorial |
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This Italianate turn-of-the-century structure was the final home of the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. It exhibits his literary treasures, many of his personal items and his family's furnishings. During his short lifetime, Dunbar became known as the poet laureate of African-Americans. Drawing on his observations of society and the experience of his parents - both former slaves - he gave voice to the social dilemma of disenfranchised people of his day and became a proclaimer of black dignity. The life and legacy of Paul Laurence Dunbar with emphasis on the influence of his father Joshua Dunbar who traveled the Underground Railroad from Kentucky to Canada. Visit the website here. |
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Pennsylvania State Archives |
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Just what it say it is. Includes many Pennsylvania Underground Railroad records. Visit the website here. |
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Peerless Rockville Historical Society (Underground Railroad site: 4) |
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Peerless Rockville is an award-winning, nonprofit, community-based organization founded in 1974 to preserve buildings, objects and information important to Rockville's heritage. Peerless Rockville advances its goals through education, example, advocacy, and community involvement. Peerless Rockville operates a guided walking tour of downtown Rockville's Underground Railroad sites. Visit Peerless Rockville here. |
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Philadelphia City Archives |
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The City of Philadelphia Archives within the Department of Records is the repository for official city government records. The comprehensiveness of the records for the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries is unmatched and includes many records on the city's African-American community and some on the Underground Railroad. The holdings of the City of Philadelphia Archives are essential to understanding the actions and decisions of city government officials and the public's interaction. Visit here. |
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Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims (Underground Railroad site: 2) |
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Famed abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher, father of Uncle Tom's Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe, was the first minister of this Brooklyn, New York, church. Tours of the church can be arranged by appointment. Visit the website here. |
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The Quarlls Watkins Heritage Project |
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The Quarlls Watkins Heritage Project is a Michigan non-profit corporation devoted to the public enlightenment and knowledge of the Underground Railroad story. The Project "honors the self determination, perseverance and heroics of the many who sought freedom and justice; recognizes the significance of the Underground Railroad as the beginning of the American Civil Rights Movement; and celebrates its importance in symbolizing the spirit of racial harmony, tolerance and multiculturalism. Visit the Project on Facebook by clicking here. |
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The
Rochester Museum & Science Center |
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The
Center features Flight to Freedom, an Underground Railroad exhibition. The
Rochester Museum & Science Center is a Regional Interpretive Center on
the New York State Underground Railroad Heritage Trail. In addition to the
exhibit, the museum and its Schuyler C. Townson Research Library hold primary
source and literature-based resources for research on the Underground
Railroad. Visit the Museum here. |
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This Baltimore museum, funded from the estate of the late Reginald Lewis, the African-American chairman and CEO of Beatrice Foods, "is dedicated to sharing the courageous journeys toward freedom and self-determination made by African-American Marylanders." Visit the Reginald F. Lewis Museum here. |
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Rejoti Productions |
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Rejoti Productions is a northern New Jersey theater company which specializes in historical performances and storytelling. Visit here. |
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Riverview Farm (Underground Railroad site: 5) |
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Riverview Farm in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, was the home of the Garrett family who used the farm as an Underground Railroad safe-house. Riverview Farm is where Thomas Garrett spent his first 33 years before moving to Wilmington, Delaware. The nearby homes of Isaac P. Garrett and Samuel Garrett, both Underground Railroad safe-houses, still stand. The home of Isaac P. Garrett is located in Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. In the future, Riverview Farm will have a museum. Visit here. |
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Snow Camp
Outdoor Theater |
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Snow
Camp Outdoor Theatre promotes the rich heritage of the Quakers in the Snow
Camp, North Carolina area. Snow CampÕs annual production Pathway To Freedom
is an exciting account of the hardship and heroism which Quakers and enslaved
African Americans faced during the 1840s and 1850s along the Underground
Railroad route from North Carolina to Indiana pioneered by the famous
Underground Railroad Coffin family. Visit the website here. |
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South Bend Berean Seventh Day Adventist Church |
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The church has a broad outreach program to African-Americans and a strong interest in the Underground Railroad. Visit the website here. |
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Sotterley
Plantation |
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Older
than Mount Vernon, Monticello and the nation itself, Sotterley Plantation
dating from 1703 is the only remaining Tidewater Plantation in Maryland that
is open to the public. Although not a stop on the Underground Railroad,
Sotterley Plantation interprets 300 years of life on the Patuxent River in
Maryland with a full range of visitor activities. Sotterley's educational
programs tell the story of the enslaved at Sotterley who resisted and sought
freedom such as Peregrine Young and James Bowie who in 1812 escaped with the
British and helped over 40 other enslaved people at Sotterley escape in the
summer and fall of 1814. The 95-acre historic site includes the plantation
house and an original 1830s slave cabin. For tours and hours, visit the
website here. |
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Sparky and Rhonda Rucker |
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Like the Harrises above, Sparky and Rhonda Rucker are long-time performers of songs of the Underground Railroad and a significant amount of 19th century African-American and Civil War music. James "Sparky" Rucker also researches and publishes on this music. Their many albums are widely available. See the January, 2007, issue of Free Press for more on their work. Visit their website here. |
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Stories of the Chesapeake Heritage Area |
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This program which is operated by Eastern Shore Heritage, Inc. promotes Underground Railroad work on Maryland's Eastern Shore, the part of the state which lies between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Visit the organization's website here. |
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Truesdell House (Underground Railroad site: 4) |
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Owned in the mid-1800s by Thomas and Harriet Truesdell, a mixed-race couple who used the home as a safe-house and contributed funds to Underground Railroad organizations. Today owned by Joy Chatel who saved the home from a redevelopment project. Tours are arranged by appointment. Email here. |
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Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site (Underground Railroad site: 5) |
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Recognized
internationally for his contribution to the abolition movement, Josiah Henson
asserted his leadership as preacher and a conductor on the Underground
Railroad. He worked with energy and vision to improve life for the Black
community in Upper Canada, now Ontario. After escaping slavery in Kentucky,
'Father Henson' quickly attained the status of leader within the Underground
Railroad community of Southwestern Ontario. In 1841 he cofounded the British
American Institute, a vocational school for Underground Railroad refugees.
The Dawn settlement, comprising mostly Black settlers, grew around the
school. The Ontario Heritage Trust has recently erected a plaque
commemorating the Dawn settlement, whose residents farmed, attended the
Institute, and worked at saw mills, gristmills, and other local industries.
Some returned to the United States after emancipation was proclaimed in 1863.
Others remained, contributing to the establishment of a significant Black
community in this part of the province. Harriet Beecher Stowe used Josiah
Henson's memoirs, published in 1849, as reference material for her novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. Henson's dramatic
experiences and his connection with Stowe's book made him one of the most
famous Canadians of his day. Reverend Henson passed away May 5th, 1883, and
is buried adjacent to the Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site in the Henson
family cemetery. Visit the site here. |
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"Uncovering
the Underground Railroad, Abolitionism and African American Life in Montgomery
County, New York 1820-1890" |
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A
survey report compiled by Judith Wellman, Kelly
Farquhar, Scott Haefner, & Alessa Wylie. Contact Dr. Wellman at historicalnewyork@mac.com for a
copy. |
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The Underground Railroad Coalition of Delaware |
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The Underground Railroad Coalition of Delaware is a volunteer organization dedicated to Underground Railroad research, interpretation, education and advocacy for site preservation. Contact dmartin@ci.wilmington.de.us for information or visit the Coalition's Facebook page here. |
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The Underground Railroad Experience Trail (Underground Railroad site: 4) |
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This tour of Underground Railroad sites in and around Sandy Spring, Maryland, is conducted by Montgomery County Parks. Hikes are conducted by volunteer "conductors" who lead groups on a simulated Underground Railroad experience covering two miles from Woodlawn Manor Cultural Park along a wooded natural-surface trail to historic Sandy Spring, then back to the park. Hikers learn about various techniques that freedom seekers used to elude trackers, find food and navigate their way north to freedom. Click here for the website. |
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Underground Railroad Free Press |
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With 15,000 readers, Underground Railroad Free Press is the highest circulation Underground Railroad news publication. Free Press awards the annual Underground Railroad Free Press Prizes for leadership, preservation and advancement of knowledge in the contemporary Underground Railroad community, the highest honors in the international Underground Railroad community. Free Press operates Lynx, the central registry of Underground Railroad organizations, and Datebook, the central calendar of contemporary Underground Railroad events, and conducts the annual Free Press surveys of the international Underground Railroad community. You are currently at the Underground Railroad Free Press website. |
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Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region |
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This organization researches and promotes the Underground Railroad in and around Albany, New York, the state capital, and organizes conferences on the Underground Railroad. Visit the website of the Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region here. |
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The Underground Railroad Research Institute |
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The Institute performs research especially on the Underground Railroad in Kentucky where it is located, publishes the Voice of Freedom newsletter and hosts symposia and conferences. The Institute moved from Georgetown College to the University of Louisville, both in Kentucky, in 2009. Visit the website here. |
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Vale Cemetery |
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This Schenectady, New York, cemetery contains an African American Cultural Plot and the grave of Moses Viney. Visit the cemetery here. |
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Warsaw Historical Society |
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This upstate New York historical society has been active in researching the Underground Railroad since 2003 and mounts regular Underground Railroad programs. This area's 1860s Member of Congress, Augustus Frank, Jr., served as floor manager for the bill introducing the XIIIth Amendment to the Constitution and was credited for its passage. Visit the Warsaw Historical Society here. |
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The Waterford Foundation |
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Waterford Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation, history and research of this Virginia Quaker village with a high antebellum percentage of free Black population. Contact mpolkey@waterfordfoundation.org or visit the website here. |
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Western Maryland Historical Library |
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The Library's website offers good overviews of the African-American history of three of the four western Maryland counties: Washington, Allegany and Garrett. [For whatever reason, Frederick County is omitted.] See, for example, the page on Allegany County's Underground Railroad. Visit the Library's website here. Return to top |
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The Underground Railroad TodayWhen Harriet Tubman, the last living major figure of the Underground Railroad, died in 1913, interest in the Underground Railroad, which still ran high, began to wane. Other than a slight resurgence in the 1930s, the memory of the Underground Railroad began to slip from the national consciousness until by the mid-twentieth century many American adults either had not heard of the Underground Railroad at all or took the name literally as a kind of subway for fugitives. Until about 1970, few schools at any level included the Underground Railroad in history curricula and even fewer text books made mention of the Underground Railroad, even at the college level. Underground Railroad safe-house owners, families whose ancestors had been Underground Railroad freedom seekers, conductors or safe-house operators, and others who prized the legacy of the Underground Railroad remained as a rapidly dwindling repository of this nation-defining American legacy. What contemporary author Fergus Bordewich calls the war for the soul of America, what Underground Railroad Free Press regards as a most defining root of the national conscience, was well along in being relegated to the dusty, nearly forgotten back shelves of history. Beginning about 1970, a reawakening of Underground Railroad interest began when teachers on their own, first a few and then many, began instructing on the Underground Railroad. In the 1990s, the walk of Anthony Cohen, descendant of two Underground Railroad freedom seekers, retracing the route to freedom of one of his ancestors from Maryland to Canada and presented as an article in Smithsonian magazine, triggered a further resurgence of interest in the Underground Railroad. About the same time, Cohen founded the Menare Foundation, the first modern nationwide Underground Railroad organization. This was followed by more and more owners of Underground Railroad safe-houses and routes publicizing the histories of their properties and permitting public access. In 1998, the United States Congress in a signal event created the Network to Freedom, a National Park Service program celebrating the Underground Railroad. Since then, two other federal Underground Railroad programs sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and the United States Department of Education have been created. In 2004, both Friends of the Underground Railroad, Inc., a private organization supporting the Underground Railroad, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the much-lauded Cincinnati museum, were launched. Following in 2005 came Fergus Bordewich's Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America, the definitive Underground Railroad history providing the fullest portrait ever of the Underground Railroad. We highly recommend this book. Others are now busy producing state and national site listings, histories of individual sites, biographies of Underground Railroad figures, and even some good Underground Railroad fiction as the reawakening of the North American memory of the Underground Railroad becomes more and more deliberate. With its launching in 2006, Underground Railroad Free Press was pleased to begin doing its part to bolster this growth and coalescing of Underground Railroad interest by providing regularly published objective reporting on contemporary issues, debates and news regarding the Underground Railroad. Since then, Free Press has launched Lynx, the first comprehensive registry of contemporary Underground Railroad organizations; Datebook, the calendar of Underground Railroad events; the annually awarded Free Press Prizes for contemporary Underground Railroad preservation, leadership and advancement of knowledge; the annual Free Press surveys of the international Underground Railroad community; and Underground Railroad Free Press Books. We welcome your comments.
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History of the Underground Railroad
A 280-Year North American Moral Legacy Many
regard the Underground Railroad as the noblest endeavor in United States
history, both in colonial times and after nationhood. The Underground Railroad
existed for 280 years - more than a quarter of a millennium - from 1585 when
the first enslaved people from Africa arrived in the New World at the Spanish
settlement of Saint Augustine, Florida, to the end of the Civil War in 1865.
The inception of the Underground Railroad, though it would not have a name
for another 250 years, would have been when an enslaved person first escaped
from the Saint Augustine colony and was aided by any other person, most
likely a Native American. Some
historians count as the first written reference to what became known as the
Underground Railroad the letter of George Washington of April 12, 1786, to
William Morris of Philadelphia recounting Quaker assistance to a freedom
seeker escaped from Washington friend, Mr. Dalby, of Alexandria, Virginia.
"In another letter, written to William Drayton on November 20, 1786,
Washington complains that he had apprehended a runaway slave belonging to
Drayton, but when he sent the slave under guard to Baltimore to be reunited
with Drayton, the slave escaped and was aided in this by some sort of escape
network." As a sign of the times and a harbinger of the Civil War, the
man later called the father of his country, torn himself by the conundrum of
slavery, was not only an enslaver himself but a slave catcher. Beginning
in 1754 with the Quakers and continuing through the late 1700s, Protestant
denominations one after another condemned slavery. After the Revolutionary
War, northern states rapidly began abolishing slavery between 1780 and 1786.
The remainder of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth
saw wholesale formation of northern anti-slavery societies and vigilance
committees which began actively aiding fugitives from slavery. The
combination of these various forms of opposition to slavery - the
abolitionist movement - lent renewed hope to enslaved people with the
predictable result that more of the most daring of them attempted flight to
freedom to the northern states and Canada creating a growing wave of
Underground Railroad freedom seekers beginning about 1800. The
long-lived, ubiquitous, illegal clandestine operation which came to be known
as the Underground Railroad did not even have a name for a quarter of a
millennium until the 1830s when participants in what then came to be known as
the Underground Railroad began using the terminology of the new transforming
technology, the railroad. Freedom seekers began to be referred to as
passengers or cargo, their guides along the back ways and trails to freedom
as conductors, and those who gave them shelter along the way as agents,
station operators or station masters. By sometime in the 1830s, the entire
operation, taking on the name of the new technology, became known as the
Underground Railroad. Though
actual railroads, especially the Baltimore & Ohio, were occasionally a
means of transporting people to freedom, and the nature of the flight to
freedom was "underground" by being clandestine, the Underground
Railroad was not literally either a railroad or underground, a distinction
actually lost on some adults today. A
signal event of the Underground Railroad occurring during the 1830s was the
abolition of slavery by Canada in 1833 and by the rest of the British
Commonwealth nations in 1834, resulting in Canada and the British Caribbean
islands becoming magnets for freedom seekers from the United States. Indeed,
after the 1850 passage of the second Fugitive Slave Act which required that
United States citizens anywhere assist in the apprehension of runaways,
Canada became the main safe haven for freedom seekers through the end of the
Civil War. No
reliable method has been developed for estimating of the number of enslaved
people who attempted to flee for their freedom, with the estimates running
from the low five figures to seven figures and the true number very likely
somewhere between, probably in the low six figures. Also unknown is what
proportion of those who broke for freedom attained it. The
reason for existence of the Underground Railroad vanished at the end of the
Civil War with the abolition of slavery, though many of the former
Underground Railroad routes and safe-houses must have continued to be used by
people migrating north. It is likely, too, that these migrants continued to
be assisted after 1865 by some of those who had served as Underground
Railroad conductors and safe-house operators. For
280 years, every American - black, white, Native American and others - was
aware of the institution of slavery, that every enslaved person wanted to be
free, that some would risk all to flee for freedom, and that some free people
would risk all to aid freedom seekers in their quest. All Americans and
Canadians were vividly aware of these things which therefore formed a deeply
rooted part of the very consciousness of the two nations and an integrally
woven part of the fabric of daily life. Thus, the long contest between
freedom and slavery, between good and evil in North America, was, as author
Fergus Bordewich puts it, the war for the soul of America. Indeed it was. It
took 280 years - a very, very long time - to win this war, but won it was.
The moral certitude, perseverance and courage of Underground Railroad
safe-house operators and conductors but most especially of freedom seekers
themselves delivered the continent from darkness. Research
shows that only three to four percent of claimed Underground Railroad sites
today can claim conclusive documentation that they were indeed Underground
Railroad sites. The overwhelming majority of what transpired on the
Underground Railroad was never recorded which makes the Underground Railroad
of today especially dependent on the oral traditions handed down though
families, property owners and others. Because most involved in the
Underground Railroad were illiterate, because the entire operation was
illegal, because those who had assisted freedom seekers could still be
prosecuted after the Civil War and because many families were divided over
the issue of slavery, much of the history of the Underground Railroad was
forever lost, carried untold to the grave by the brave souls who had been the
Underground Railroad. What
remains today through the oral traditions of handed-down accounts and, in
many fewer cases, actual documentation almost entirely from northern states,
is precious but dwindling as oral traditions continue to die out with the
passing of descendants of freedom seekers, safe-house operators and
conductors. Thus, it is vital to record and preserve intact Underground
Railroad stories while they remain with us and to assure that they are not
pushed to back shelves to be forgotten by too much emphasis on the small
fraction of Underground Railroad history and sites which are fortunate enough
to be documented. The
following time line lists some of the important events of the Underground
Railroad and abolitionism. |
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Date |
Event |
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1585 |
First Africans brought to North America and enslaved at St. Augustine, Florida |
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Shortly after this |
Underground Railroad begins when some unknown aids first freedom seeker |
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February 18, 1688 |
Mennonites in North America oppose slavery, aid freedom seekers (Disputed) |
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1754 |
Quakers in North America condemn slavery, require manumission among Quakers |
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1775 |
First abolition society formed in Philadelphia |
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1780 |
Methodist Church in America states that slavery contradicts laws of God and man |
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1780s |
People assisting freedom seekers begin to find one another and cooperate in the beginning of Underground Railroad networks |
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1780 to 1786 |
Nine northern states abolish slavery and/or legislate emancipation |
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March 1, 1781 |
Articles
of Confederation, the first United States constitution, sidesteps the issue
of slavery |
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1784 |
A
motion put forth by a congressional committee headed by Thomas Jefferson to
abolish slavery fails by a single vote in the United States in Congress
Assembled, the nationÕs first government |
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November 20, 1786 |
George
Washington writes of his acting as a slave catcher |
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1787 |
Rev. Absalom Jones, Rev. Richard Allen form Independent Free African Society |
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July 13, 1787 |
Northwest Ordinance bans slavery in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin |
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1787 |
Presbyterian Church of America condemns slavery, begins promoting abolition |
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June 21, 1788 |
United States Constitution ratified, fails to deal with slavery |
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November, 1788 |
George Washington, an enslaver from Virginia, elected president |
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1789 |
Baptist Church of Virginia condemns slavery, urges abolition |
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November, 1796 |
John Adams, only abolitionist among main Founders, elected president |
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1808 |
United States outlaws further importation of slaves |
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June 14, 1811 |
Harriet Beecher Stowe, future author of Uncle Toms Cabin, born in Connecticut |
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1816 |
African Methodist Episcopal Church founded, opposes slavery, aids fugitives |
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February, 1818 |
Frederick
Douglass, national hero, born enslaved on the Maryland eastern shore |
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Probably 1822 |
Harriet
Tubman, national heroine, born enslaved on the Maryland eastern shore |
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1827 |
John
Russworm and Samuel Cornish, black journalists, publish Freedom's Journal |
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1828 |
Russworm
and Cornish publish The Rights of All, first black abolitionist periodical |
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1830 |
James
and Lucretia Mott form Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society |
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January 1, 1831 |
William
Lloyd Garrison, 26, publishes first issue of his anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator.
Continues publication until Thirteenth Amendment is passed in 1865. |
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1831 |
First known reference to the Underground Railroad when the enslaver of Tice Davids remarks that Davids "must have gone on some underground road" when the enslaver could not find Davids after pursuing him across the Ohio River at Maysville, Kentucky. |
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August 21, 1831 |
Nat
Turner Rebellion in North Carolina alarms South, emboldens abolitionists |
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1831 |
William
Lloyd Garrison, others, form New England Anti-Slavery Society |
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1831 |
Arthur
and Lewis Tappan form the National Anti-Slavery Society in New York |
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1830s |
Vigilance
committees formed in northern cities to prevent return of fugitive slaves |
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1830s |
Network
aiding freedom seekers first takes on the name Underground Railroad |
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June 17, 1833 |
Detroit
Riots rescue Lucie and Thornton Blackburn from jail and slave catchers |
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August 1, 1833 |
Great
Britain abolishes slavery throughout its worldwide Commonwealth. Canada
becomes magnet for United States freedom seekers |
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1830s, 1840s |
Some
other European powers abolish slavery at home and in their colonies |
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November 19, 1842 |
First known appearance in print of the term Underground Railroad when Thomas Smallwood uses the phrase "our new underground railroad" in his November 19, 1842, letter to the editor of The Tocsin of Liberty. |
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1849 |
Harriet
Tubman escapes enslavement |
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Beginning in 1850s |
Philadelphia
businessman and safe-house operator William Still begins recording accounts
of freedom seekers whom he assists |
|
1850-1859 |
Harriet
Tubman makes at least nine successful rescues of Maryland freedom seekers.
"Never lost a passenger." |
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September 18, 1850 |
Fugitive
Slave Act passed requiring US citizens to aid in capturing freedom seekers |
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April 1, 1852 |
Uncle Tom's
Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe published, sells a record 500,000 copies
in months, same number abroad in two years. First international best-seller. |
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September 11, 1851 |
Blacks
in Christiana, Pennsylvania, run off slave catchers, kill leader, alarm South |
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1831 to 1865 |
Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad Company sued for aiding freedom seekers |
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March 6, 1857 |
Dred
Scott decision, authored by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, strips
blacks free and enslaved of citizenship |
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October 16, 1859 |
Abolitionist
John Brown seizes federal armory at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia |
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December 2, 1859 |
John
Brown hanged in Charlestown, West Virginia (then Virginia) |
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By 1860 |
Of
the 33 states, 18 no longer permit slavery |
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March, 1861 |
Abraham
Lincoln inaugurated as 16th president. Southern states begin seceding |
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April 12, 1861 |
Fort
Sumter fired on, Civil War begins |
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January 1, 1863 |
Emancipation
Proclamation promulgated abolishing slavery in Confederate states |
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July, 1863 |
Working
as a Union scout, Harriet Tubman in a single week frees more than 750
enslaved people along Combahee River in South Carolina |
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May 26, 1865 |
Civil
War ends |
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December 6, 1865 |
Thirteenth
Amendment outlaws slavery, with Mississippi the only dissenting state |
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1872 |
William
Still authors
The Underground Railroad recounting 190 accounts of over 900 freedom
seekers he had aided |
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1876 |
Reconstruction ends when northern members of Congress swing deals with southern members to gain vote for northern interests. Eighty-eight years of Jim Crow pseudo-slavery, racial discrimination, lynchings and persecution ensue |
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February 20, 1895 |
Frederick
Douglass dies |
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July 1, 1896 |
Harriet
Beecher Stowe dies |
|
1898 |
Wilbur
Siebert authors The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom, the first
extensive cataloguing of Underground Railroad safe-houses, routes and people |
|
March 10, 1913 |
Harriet
Tubman, national heroine, last living major figure of the Underground
Railroad, dies at her home in Auburn, New York |
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1961 |
Larry
Gara authors The
Liberty Line: The Legend of the Underground Railroad, which recasts the
Underground Railroad more into the experience of the freedom seeker |
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July 2, 1964 |
Civil Rights Act becomes law, outlawing major forms of discrimination against African-Americans and women, unequal voter registration requirements, racial segregation in schools, the workplace, public accommodations and facilities serving the general public |
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August 6, 1965 |
Voting Rights Act becomes law outlawing discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans |
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May 4 to July 6, 1996 |
Anthony
Cohen walks Maryland-to-Canada route of his freedom seeker ancestor. October,
1996, Smithsonian
article on walk sparks Underground Railroad interest. |
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1998 |
Congress
authorizes creation of National Park Service Network to Freedom, program,
first of three federal Underground Railroad programs as of 2012 |
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August, 2004 |
The
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, a $110,000,000 museum on the
Underground Railroad, opens in Cincinnati |
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September 17, 2004 |
Friends
of the Underground Railroad, Inc., a private international organization
promoting Underground Railroad history and restoration, is incorporated |
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2006 |
Friends of the Underground Railroad collapses from board dissention and failure to hold board meetings |
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January, 2006 |
Bethesda,
Maryland, cabin where Josiah Henson was enslaved and which lent itself to the
title of Uncle
Toms Cabin saved from developers by public purchase |
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July 15, 2006 |
Underground
Railroad Free Press, first independent news outlet, first publishes |
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2007 |
The
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center launches extensive nationwide
education programs for students, teachers and the general public |
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July 15, 2007 |
Results
of the first-ever survey of the international Underground Railroad community
conducted by Underground
Railroad Free Press are published |
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2008 |
Congress
authorizes funding for the National Museum of African-American History and
Culture to include the federal government's second Underground Railroad
program within the Smithsonian Institution |
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January 15, 2008 |
Underground
Railroad Free Press announces annual prizes for contemporary Underground
Railroad leadership, preservation and advancement of knowledge |
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September 15, 2008 |
First
Underground
Railroad Free Press Prizes awarded. Click here to see each year's winners. |
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January 10, 2012 |
Free Press launches Underground Railroad Free Press Books, the first publisher specializing in the publication of books on the Underground Railroad and related topics |
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Where to Visit Underground Railroad Sites
Click here to go to
the MapMuse national map of Underground Railroad safe-houses and routes. |
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Thank
you for subscribing to Underground Railroad Free Press. You will begin receiving Underground
Railroad Free Press with the current issue. |
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Present and Past Issues of Underground Railroad Free Press
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2013 July [forthcoming] 2012 September [announcing the 2012 Free Press Prize winners] 2011 September [announcing the 2011 Free Press
Prize winners] 2010 September [announcing the 2010 Free Press Prize
winners] |
2009 September [announcing the 2009 Free Press
Prize winners] 2008 November [Special issue on the election of
an African-American as president] September [announcing the 2008 Free Press
Prize winners] 2007 2006 July [Inaugural issue] |
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The Annual Free Press
Underground Railroad Surveys Read or Download the Report of an Underground Railroad Survey To
the best of our knowledge, the Underground Railroad Free Press 2007
Underground Railroad Survey was the first survey administered to the
international Underground Railroad community. We are pleased to commission
these annual surveys and provide them at no cost to all interested. You are
welcome to download a survey report and distribute it as you like, and we
hope that you find these surveys and reports of good use in your Underground
Railroad work. We would be pleased to answer any questions you might have
about a Free
Press Underground Railroad survey or report and we welcome suggestions
about future surveys. We can be reached at 301.874.0235 or
publisher@urrFreePress.com. Click
below to view or download an Underground Railroad survey report. If your
browser does not display more than the report cover online, right click to
download the full report. 2013 Free Press Underground Railroad Survey Report [Due
in July] 2012 Free Press Underground Railroad Survey Report 2011 Free Press Underground Railroad Survey Report 2010 Free Press Underground Railroad Survey Report 2009 Free Press Underground Railroad Survey Report 2008 Free Press Underground Railroad Survey Report 2007 Free Press Underground Railroad Survey Report |
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Datebook
To have events of your organization listed on
Datebook, email the name of the sponsoring organization, event description,
venue, dates and contact information to us at datebook@urrFreePress.com. |
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Who |
What |
Where |
When In 2013 |
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Many states and private organizations nationwide |
100th anniversary observances of the
March 10, 1913 passing of Harriet Tubman |
Nationwide |
Beginning March 10 and throughout the year |
|
Underground Railroad Free Press |
Free Press readers and others invited to
participate in the annual Free Press Survey of the Contemporary Underground Railroad
community. |
Invitations emailed to all subscribers. Survey
available at SurveyMonkey.com for about one month. |
Spring 2013 |
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National Park Service Network to Freedom program nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/annual-conference.htm 402.661.1588 |
Annual conference "The War for Freedom: The Underground Railroad During the Civil War" |
Double Tree Hotel Little Rock, Arkansas |
June 19-23 |
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Underground Railroad Free Press |
The nomination period closes for the 2013 Free Press
Prizes |
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June 30 |
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Underground Railroad Free Press |
Results of the 2013 Free Press Survey of the
Contemporary Underground Railroad community announced |
Article in the July issue of Free Press. Survey report viewable and
downloadable at the Free Press website. |
July 15 |
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Underground Railroad Free Press |
Winners of the 2013 Free Press Prizes announced |
September issue of Free Press, on the Free Press website and in the
North American press |
September 15 |
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The Underground Railroad Free Press Prizes
The prizes are the most esteemed honor bestowed in
the Underground Railroad community. The purpose of the Underground Railroad Free Press prizes
is to recognize and honor the most outstanding contributions to contemporary
Underground Railroad work in leadership, preservation and advancement of
knowledge. The prizes also promote awareness and appreciation of contemporary
Underground Railroad work to the general public, elected and other officials,
governments and key decision-makers by publicizing prizes and winners. As the
prizes recognize that the Underground Railroad was an international
enterprise, prize eligibility is extended to individual and organizational
nominees from any nation. Click here to view or download prize procedures. Click here for the Underground
Railroad Free Press Panel of Judges. The Underground Railroad Free Press Prize for
Leadership
Click here to download a leadership nomination form. The Underground Railroad Free Press Prize for
Preservation
Click here to download a preservation nomination form. The Underground Railroad Free Press Prize for the
Advancement of Knowledge
> Click here to download an advancement of knowledge
nomination form. |
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The 2012 Winners of the
Underground Railroad Free Press Prizes |
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Preservation
Prize Caroline
Miller For discovering the intact slave pen that became the
National Underground Railroad Freedom CenterÕs and the Underground Railroad
community's signature artifact, and for decades of
preserving local Underground Railroad lore and sites in Kentucky and Ohio |
Leadership
Prize Vivian
and Donald Papson For founding the North Country Underground Railroad Historical
Association and in 2011 the much-visited North Star Underground Railroad
Museum, and for their years of work in re-illuminating the Underground
Railroad |
Hortense
Simmons Advancement Carol Mull For founding the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission,
authoring The
Underground Railroad in Michigan, and laying out a new 500-mile
Underground Railroad bicycle route |
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The 2011 Winners of the
Underground Railroad Free Press Prizes |
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