Baltimore. Philadelphia. New York City.
Syracuse. Niagara Falls. St. Catharines,
Ontario.
Most Amtrak riders are familiar with
these station stops as they travel along
the Northeast Corridor, but these and
other destinations were part of a very
di;erent railroad long ago: America’s
Underground Railroad.
Neither a real railroad nor a specific
route to freedom in the Northern states
and Canada, the Underground Railroad
was instead a clandestine, loose network
of abolitionists, former slaves and good
Samaritans who helped slaves fleeing
the South find places to hide during their
perilous journey to freedom in the North.
Many of the safe houses, which included
private homes, cellars, barns, churches
and other buildings, are now national
landmarks open to visitors. In several
states and southern Ontario, heritage
trails comprise routes visitors can follow
to see Underground Railroad stops or
other places of interest. Other landmarks
are under renovation, including the Lott
House, built in the 1700s in Marine Park,
Brooklyn, where slaves often hid until
continuing their journey. Many historians believe that there are additional,
unidentified safe havens for escaping
slaves throughout the Northeast.
Not just another hotel
The Black Moses
Mention the Underground Railroad and
the name of its most famous conductor,
Harriet Tubman, comes to mind. She
personally shepherded slaves—possibly
as many as 3,000 of them—to freedom.
Approximately 40,000 slaves were
thought to have been transported North
during the 10 years before the Civil War.
Born Araminta Ross around 1820,
Tubman took her mother’s first name,
Harriet, as her own. She lived on a large
plantation near Bucktown, Md., where,
like most slaves, she was beaten and
treated badly. In 1849, she fled to Philadelphia, where slaves were free, despite
her husband John Tubman’s refusal to
leave with her and his threats to turn her
in. In Philadelphia, she worked as a cook
to finance her work to help others escape.
She also returned to Maryland to rescue
her sister, Mary Ann Bowley, her family,
and their three brothers.
Abolitionists often pretended fleeing
slaves were their own slaves traveling
with them. Historians note that it wasn’t
unusual for an abolitionist family and
their “slaves” to travel on real trains
between Baltimore and Philadelphia en
route to freedom. Others went from safe
house to safe house, hidden in carts or
carriages or walking in the dead of night
and using the stars as a map to the North.
But traveling to states where slavery
was already outlawed wasn’t enough
after the Fugitive Slave Law was enacted
1850. This controversial legislation mandated that freed slaves could be returned
to their “rightful owners” in the South,
and that individuals helping slaves to
escape could be jailed.
Central New York played a key
role during those years, and many of
the towns along the Erie Canal, from
Syracuse and Rochester all the way to
Bu;alo, kept many of the secrets of
those fleeing to freedom. Syracuse, for
example, was referred to as a “
laboratory of abolitionism, libel and treason”
by Secretary of State Daniel Webster,
and one of the reasons was the so-called
Jerry Rescue that took place there. William “Jerry” Henry was an escaped slave
working as a cooper in Syracuse when
he was arrested in October 1851 under
Historians note that it wasn’t unusual
for an abolitionist family and their
“slaves” to travel on real trains
between Baltimore and Philadelphia
en route to freedom.
