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8 unusual facts about Underground Railroad


Anderson Creek

The various paths, river routes and safe waypoints that escaped slaves and their guides used in their journey northwards towards freedom are collectively known as the Underground Railroad.

Bushrod Johnson

He was raised as a Quaker and, before moving to the South, worked on the Underground Railroad with his uncle.

Cincinnati in the American Civil War

Several locations in the region were alleged to be stops on the Underground Railroad.

Francine DelMonte

DelMonte also introduced legislation to create the Underground Railroad Heritage Commission to provide an opportunity for students and families to learn about the role Niagara Falls played during the Civil War, possibly increasing heritage tourism in Niagara Falls with the construction of a new museum and rail terminal.

Matilda Joslyn Gage

Matilda Gage spent her childhood in a house which was used as a station of the Underground Railroad.

Rial Cheadle

Mrs. Millions reports that Cheadle, first having built a cabin in 1818 or 1820 on the present site of the village of Stockport, Ohio, became a teacher, then engaged himself in "other industries" and eventually became entirely devoted to the work of the Underground Railroad.

Underground railway

The Underground Railroad, a network of clandestine routes by which African slaves in the 19th century United States attempted to escape

URR

Underground Railroad, an informal escape network used by 19th-century black slaves in the US


Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park

In 2004 a large historical marker was erected at the site to mark it as part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Trail, as hundreds of Black Seminoles, many fugitive slaves, escaped from here to freedom in the Bahamas, settling mostly on Andros Island.

Bristolville, Ohio

Their 1855 cabin has been restored as the Mayhew Cabin museum, and is the only site in Nebraska recognized by the National Park Service as a station on the Underground Railroad.

Cleveland Civil War Roundtable

Roundtable contingents went to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1997; Antietam, Maryland, in 1998; Richmond, Virginia, in 1999; Washington, D.C., in 2000; Charleston, South Carolina, in 2001; Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley in 2002; Shiloh, Tennessee, in 2003; Franklin, Tennessee, in 2004; Fredericksburg-Spotsylvania, Virginia, in 2005; and Perryville, Kentucky and the Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2006.

Effingham Capron

Effingham Capron, was a Quaker, who became an ardent abolitionist in the anti-slavery movement of the pre-Civil War period and was the head of the local branch of the Underground Railroad.

Fakelore

Considered by many an authentic artifact of the Underground Railroad, the song "Follow the Drinkin' Gourd" is in fact of uncertain origin and was not published until 1928, sixty-three years after the end of slavery.

Fugitive slave laws

As early as the first decade of the 19th century, individual dissatisfaction with the law of 1793 had taken the form of systematic assistance rendered to African Americans escaping from the South to Canada or New England: the so-called Underground Railroad.

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park is a Maryland state park dedicated to the life and work of abolitionist and Underground Railroad activist Harriet Tubman.

James Miller McKim

McKim was depicted in the The Resurrection of Henry Box Brown at Philadelphia, a lithograph by artist Samuel W. Rowse, which was widely published to help raise funds for the Underground Railroad.

Joseph M. Root

The Joseph Root House in Sandusky may have been a "safe house" on the Underground Railroad, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Joshua Glover

A mob led by Sherman Booth broke into the jail and rescued Glover, who then escaped to Canada via the Underground Railroad.

Littleton Prince

There is no reference to Prince having been a member of any abolitionist organization, or connected with the Underground Railroad.

Llewellyn Park

Other residents over the years included abolitionist James Miller McKim, whose charming house contained secret chambers to hide escaped slaves traversing the Underground Railroad, the Merck family (George W. Merck was raised there), and the Colgate family.

National Millennium Trail

#Underground Railroad Trail - various routes through the eastern United States, Texas, Oklahoma, southern Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean representing the Underground Railroad escape routes for people held in slavery prior to the American Civil War.

Ockham, Surrey

An act of charity in the village assisted one family in the 'Underground Railroad' in the U.S. that resulted from the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

Reed Township, Seneca County, Ohio

Omar Chapel is a historical property in Reed Township which once was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Shadrach Minkins

White and black members of the Boston Vigilance Committee freed and hid him, helping him get to Canada via the Underground Railroad.

Silas Soule

Shortly after the family's arrival at Coal Creek, a few miles south of Lawrence near present day Vinland, Amasa Soule, Silas's father, established his household as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

The Blue Mountains, Ontario

Captain Charles Stuart- Anglo-American abolitionist who helped freed slaves make their way to Ontario via the Underground Railroad

The Planter's Northern Bride

The novel, unlike previous examples of plantation literature, acted as a criticism of Abolitionism in the United States, and how easily anti-slavery organisations such as the Underground Railroad could be manipulated by pro-slavery superiors - a concept previously discussed in an earlier anti-Tom novel, Frank Freeman's Barber Shop by Rev. Baynard Rush Hall (1852).

Timothy Gilbert

He maintained his home as a station of the Underground Railroad, and on the passage of the Fugitive slave laws Gilbert announced in the papers that his door would remain open to runaway slaves.


see also

Alliance, Ohio

Alliance is a town rich with social, industrial and railroad history, with the restored Glamorgan Castle, previous home of the owner of Morgan Engineering, the Haines House, a restored underground railroad home, and the Mabel Hartzell historic home.

Bustill

Joseph Cassey Bustill (1822-1895), African American conductor in the Underground Railroad

Charles Hicks Bustill (1816-1890), American, plasterer, abolitionist and conductor in the Underground Railroad

Daniel Minter

Minter now lives in Portland, Maine, where he continues his creative work and assists with The Underground Railroad, of which he is a board member.

Fitzwater

Fitzwater Station, a restaurant and former stop along the Underground Railroad.

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument

Legislation has been proposed to create Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park to encompass the monument and other properties in Dorchester, Talbot and Caroline counties, as well as Harriet Tubman National Historical Park at several Tubman-related places in Auburn, New York.

Joe Quigg

Quigg, a 6'9 center out of St. Francis Prep in New York City, came to the University of North Carolina through coach Frank McGuire's "underground railroad" of players from New York to Chapel Hill.

Kerry Kennedy

She serves on the leadership council of the Amnesty International Campaign to Stop Violence Against Women and on the Advisory Board of the Albert Schweitzer Institute and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center’s National Advisory Council.

Rensselaer County Historical Society

A variety of film and TV projects including, Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence, Ken Burns' Civil War and Baseball Programs, C-SPAN's Underground Railroad and Uncle Sam productions, and Bill Moyers' The Hudson River, CBS Sunday Morning's Uncle Sam program, and numerous other programs and films.

Stephen and Harriet Myers House

Local historian Paul Stewart and his wife, Mary Liz, after researching Myers and his work, formed the Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region, hosting an annual conference on slavery with speakers from around the world starting in 2001.

The 1850s were difficult times for anti-slavery activists, particularly those involved in running the Underground Railroad, due to the passage of a tougher Fugitive Slave Act which required law enforcement in all states to assist in the recapture of those escaping from slavery, and increased penalties against those who assisted escapees.

Underground to Canada

They make their way through the United States to Canada on the Underground Railroad with the help of Alexander Milton Ross, a Canadian abolitionist.