Underground Railroad
Underground railroad was an informal system that helped slaves in the
southern United States escape to the northern United States, Canada, and
other places that prohibited slavery during the mid-1800’s. The system was
neither underground nor a railroad. Americans called it the underground
railroad because of the swift, secret way in which the slaves escaped.
Several thousand people who walked, ran, swam, and sailed to freedom
successfully reached their destinations. Many others did not.
The underground railroad had no formal organization. Some whites and free
blacks provided runaways with food, clothing, directions, and places to hide.
Some enslaved people in the South also helped fugitives escape. In the
North, abolitionists furnished hiding places and helped slaves move from one
refuge to the next.
Americans first coined the term underground railroad around 1830. From then
until 1860, the system helped escaped slaves reach the North. There,
however, they could still be captured and returned to slavery. Therefore,
many fled to Canada and other regions outside the United States, especially
after 1850. That year, Congress passed a strict fugitive slave law. Major
havens for runaways included Boston, Detroit, and southern Ontario, Canada.
The most heavily traveled routes of the underground railroad ran through
Maryland, Delaware, and Kentucky in the South, and Ohio, Indiana, and
Pennsylvania in the North. Such mid-Atlantic cities as Washington, D.C.;
Baltimore; Philadelphia; and New York City were major hubs on the
underground railroad. Escaped slaves in the Deep South sought their
freedom by stowing away on vessels sailing from New Orleans; Mobile,
Alabama; Pensacola, Florida; and Charleston, South Carolina.
A few people became famous for their contributions to the underground
railroad. Levi Coffin and Thomas Garrett, who were members of the Society
of Friends, a religious sect also known as the Quakers, helped at least 5,000
slaves escape. William Still was known as the “father of the underground
railroad.” He sheltered hundreds of fugitives in his Philadelphia home. He
published the underground railroad’s first history in 1872. The most fearless
conductor of the underground railroad was Harriet Tubman. A runaway slave
herself, Tubman returned to the South 19 times and helped about 300
enslaved people escape to freedom.
Harriet Tubman
The underground railroad showed the determination of a small group of
Americans to end slavery. Its success angered many people. It also
contributed to the hostility between North and South that led to the
American Civil War (1861-1865).
Source: http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar574420&st=underground+railroad
http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/books/applications/imaps/maps/g5s_u6/index.html
Click the link above to see the Underground Railroad Interactive map.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/j1.html
Click the Link above to Choose Your Own Adventure on the Underground Railroad
Photos of hiding places
Hiding place: A false-bottomed wagon used to carry freedom seekers (on display at
the Levi Coffin House).
Source: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://northcountryundergroundrailroad.com/Smith-hiding-placeentrance.gif&imgrefurl=http://northcountryundergroundrailroad.com/NCUGRHA_Clinton.HTM&usg=__qgWv6qZVqDQVWOUFT27sjqxWIi4=&h
=320&w=210&sz=32&hl=en&start=4&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=Z1h50MK7XgKDMM:&tbnh=118&tbnw=77&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dunderground
%2Brailroad%2Bhiding%2Bplaces%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=T7CHTeTDAoyssAPIp7jyAQ
A number of homes in St. Lawrence County are believed to have been safe houses for fugitive slaves. One of
the alleged stops is the Hurlburd House in Brasher Falls.
Hurlburd House
A secret space under the Hurlburd house believed to have been a hiding place
Source: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://northcountryundergroundrailroad.com/Hurlburd-House-hidingplace.gif&imgrefurl=http://northcountryundergroundrailroad.com/NCUGRHA_St_Lawrence.htm&usg=__vBujXhiimPAbIo5O0vMd2GoUd0=&h=286&w=214&sz=28&hl=en&start=14&zoom=0&itbs=1&tbnid=sgAi_5uzzq3E4M:&tbnh=115&tbnw=86&prev=/images%3
Fq%3Dunderground%2Brailroad%2Bhiding%2Bplaces%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=T7CHTeTDAoyssAPIp7jyAQ
Explore the Underground Railroad’s
legacy of freedom in the region
The Rankin House in Ripley (Photo by Ken-Yon Hardy)
By Amelia Robinson
Leaps of faith lead an estimated 2,000 runaway slaves to the home John and Jean Rankin shared
with their 13 children on the Ohio River in Ripley.
The slaves knew only to look for a house on a hill with a light in the window.
John Rankin, an American Presbyterian minister and outspoken abolitionist, often stood on that hill Liberty Hill - and used a candle or lantern to signal slaves across the Ohio River. Jean Rankin
cooked for the runaways and sewed them clothes.
An estimated 100,000 slaves sought freedom in the 1800s through a network of supporters and safe
houses known as the Underground Railroad, according to the National Underground Railroad
Freedom Center in Cincinnati.
Outpost dot southern Ohio.
Clermont County alone has 33 abolitionist or Underground Railroad sites.
Some of the slaves who made it to Ohio after arduous journeys from Kentucky, Tennessee and other
slave states went on to Canada.
Many settled in the Dayton area and other parts of the Ohio.
Carl Westmoreland, the Freedom Center’s senior adviser for historic preservation, said while there
were only a few Underground Railroad out-posted in the Miami Valley, it was here where many
former slaves experienced liberation for the very first time and found opportunity for the first time.
“People went there to become free and that was about jobs, education and a future, ” Westmoreland
said of Dayton, Xenia and Wilberforce.
He pointed to the education endeavors in Wilberfore and the stories of celebrated Dayton poet Paul
Laurence Dunbar’s father Joshua Dunbar, an escaped slave and Civil War veteran, andJordan
Anderson.
Anderson’s bodacious 1865 letter to his former slave owner created an online buzz last year. In it, he
rejects his former master’s request to leave Dayton and return to work for him on a Tennessee
plantation.
Road to freedom
Betty Campbell, site manger for Rankin House — a National Historic Landmark owned by the Ohio
Historical Society — passage to freedom was a dangerous undertaking.
“The sad truth is that more people who tried to escape failed than were successful,” Campbell said.
Ohio was a free state, but laws did not prevent slave owner from coming here to recapture people
legally considered property.
Conductors - the network of whites, freed and enslaved blacks and Native Americans - that helped
runways could face fines and jail times.
There were rewards out for both Rankin and John Parker, a former slave and Ripley foundry owner
who used his row boat to sneak into Kentucky under cover of night to help those escaping.
“He was very daring and very bold,” Campbell said of Parker. “By doing that he is risking everything.
He is putting his life on the line.”
Back then, the river was 12 to 14 feet deep and a half as wide as it is today, Campbell said. It froze
every winter.
Campbell said the Rankins and Parker were among many abolitionist in Ripley - a community
founded by Revolutionary War veterans. Many did not believe one person should own another.
Rankin’s sons routinely took runaways north by foot, horseback or buggy to others conductors in Red
Oak, Sardinia, and Decatur. From there they were escorted onward until they found a safe place to
settle.
“It took the help of a lot of different people,” Campbell said.
Source: http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/lifestyles/holiday/explore-the-underground-railroads-legacy-of-freedo/nWCP4/
Click this link to view a short video about the Rankin House :
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/lifestyles/holiday/explore-theunderground-railroads-legacy-of-freedo/nWCP4/
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.understandingslavery.com/resources/Slave_Sale_Poster_manuscript.jpg&imgrefurl=http:/
/www.understandingslavery.com/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_slavery%26view%3Dsearch%26page%3D2%26keyword%3D%26theme%3DSlav
ery%26type%3DArtefact%26Itemid%3D2&usg=__h7FyyMYKdPo02uhj5UFM4QsLp64=&h=973&w=800&sz=193&hl=en&start=8&zoom=1&itbs=1
&tbnid=IRv9x6lxRGWpM:&tbnh=149&tbnw=123&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dslave%2Bauction%2Bposters%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26tbm%3Disch&
ei=OsqHTb-PPIS4sQOo8MyJDA
Click this link to see a short video about a restored house that was part of the
Underground Railroad:
http://www.nbc4i.com/story/21219792/columbus-familys-underground-railroadhistory
Click on this link to visit a webite with a lot of resources about slavery.
Read the article, then click on the interactive links across the top of the
page beginning with “On the Plantation.”
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/underground_railroad/children.
htm