University of Virginia Library

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Sources Of the History Of the Underground Railroad

                 

	PAGE
The Underground Road as a subject for research	1
Obscurity of the subject	2
Books dealing with the subject	2
Magazine articles on the Underground Railroad	5
Newspaper articles on the subject	6
Scarcity of contemporaneous documents	7
Reminiscences the chief source	11
The value of reminiscences illustrated	12

CHAPTER II

Origin and Growth of the Underground Road

                           

Conditions under which the Underground Road originated	17
The disappearance of slavery from the Northern states	17
Early provisions for the return of fugitive slaves	19
The fugitive slave clause in the Ordinance of 1787	20
The fugitive slave clause in the United States Constitution	20
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1793	21
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850	22
Desire for freedom among the slaves	25
Knowledge of Canada among the slaves	27
Some local factors in the origin of the underground movement	30
The development of the movement in eastern Pennsylvania, in New Jersey, and in New York	33
The development of the movement in the New England states	36
The development of the movement in the West	37
The naming of the Road	44

CHAPTER III

The Methods of the Underground Railroad

                                     

	PAGE
Penalties for aiding fugitive slaves	47
Social contempt suffered by abolitionists	48
Espionage practised upon abolitionists	50
Rewards for the capture of fugitives and the kidnapping of abolitionists	52
Devices to secure secrecy	54
Service at night	54
Methods of communication	56
Methods of conveyance	59
Zigzag and variable routes	61
Places of concealment	62
Disguises	64
Informality of management	67
Colored a nd white agents	69
City vigilance committees	70
Supplies for fugitives	76
Transportation of fugitives by rail	78
Transportation of fugitives by water	81
Rescue of fugitives under arrest	83

CHAPTER IV

Underground Agents, Station-Keepers, or Conductors

                   

Underground agents, station-keepers, or conductors	87
Their hospitality	87
Their principles	89
Their nationality	90
Their church connections	93
Their party affinities	99
Their local standing	101
Prosecutions of underground operators	101
Defensive League of Freedom proposed	103
Persons of prominence among underground helpers	104

CHAPTER V

Study of the Map of the Underground Railroad System

                               

	PAGE
Geographical extent of underground lines	113
Location and distribution of stations	114
Southern routes	116
Lines of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York	120
Routes of the New England states	128
Lines within the old Northwest Territory	134
Noteworthy features of the general map	139
Complex routes	141
Broken lines and isolated place names	141
River routes	142
Routes by rail	142
Routes by sea	144
Terminal stations	145
Lines of lake travel	147
Canadian ports	148

CHAPTER VI

Abduction of Slaves from the South

                 

Aversion among underground helpers to abduction of slaves	150
Abductions by negroes living along the northern border of the slave states	151
Abductions by Canadian refugees	152
Abductions by white persons in the South	153
Abductions by white persons of the North	154
The Missouri raid of John Brown	162
John Brown's great plan	166
Abductions attempted in response to appeals	168
Devotees of abduction	178

CHAPTER VII

Life of the Colored Refugees in Canada

                                                       

Slavery question in Canada	190
Flight of slaves to Canada	192
Refugees representative of the slave class	195
Misinformation about Canada among slaves	197
Hardships borne by Canadian refugees	198
Efforts toward immediate relief for fugitives	199
Attitude of the Canadian government	201
Conditions favorable to their settlement in Canada	203
Sparseness of population	203
Uncleared lands	204
Encouragement of agricultural colonies among refugees	205
Dawn Settlement	205
Elgin Settlement	207
Refugees' Home Settlement	209
Alleged disadvantages of the colonies	211
Their advantages	212
Refugee settlers in Canadian towns	217
Census of Canadian refugees	220
Occupations of Canadian refugees	223
Progress made by Canadian refugees	224
Domestic life of the refugees	227
School privileges	228
Organizations for self-improvement	230
Churches	231
Rescue of friends from slavery	231
Ownership of property	232
Rights of citizenship	233
Character as citizens	233

CHAPTER VIII

Fugitive Settlers in the Northern States

             

Number of fugitive settlers in the North	235
The Northern states an unsafe refuge for runaway slaves	237
Reclamation of fugitives in the free states	239
Protection of fugitives in the free states	242
Object of the personal liberty laws	245
Effect of the law of 1850 on fugitive settlers	246
Underground operators among fugitives of the free states	251

CHAPTER IX

Prosecutions of Underground Railroad Men

                                         

	PAGE
Enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793	254
Grounds on which the constitutionality of the measure was questioned	254
Denial of trial by jury to the fugitive slave	255
Summary mode of arrest	257
The question of concurrent jurisdiction between the federal and state governments in fugitive slave cases	259
The law of 1793 versus the Ordinance of 1787	261
Power of Congress to legislate concerning the extradition of fugitive slaves denied	263
State officers relieved of the execution of the law by the Prigg decision, 1842	264
Amendment of the law of 1793 by the law of 1850	265
Constitutionality of the law of 1850 questioned	267
First case under the law of 1850	268
Authority of a United States commissioner	269
Penalties imposed for aiding and abetting the escape of fugitives	273
Trial on the charge of treason in the Christiana case, 1854	279
Counsel for fugitive slaves	281
Last case under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850	285
Attempted revision, of the law	285
Destructive attacks upon the measure in Congress	286
Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation	287
Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Acts	288

CHAPTER X

The Underground Railroad in Politics

                                           

Valuation of the Underground Railroad in its political aspect	290
The question of the extradition of fugitive slaves in colonial times	290
Importance of the question in the constitutional conventions	293
Failure of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793	294
Agitation for a more efficient measure	295
Diplomatic negotiations for the extradition of colored refugees from Canada, 1826–1828	299
The fugitive slave a missionary in the cause of freedom	300
Slave-hunting in the free states	302
Preparation for the abolition movement of 1830	303
The Underground Railroad and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850	308
The law in Congress	310
The enforcement of the law of 1850	316
The Underground Road and Uncle Tom's Cabin	321
Political importance of the novel	323
Sumner on the influence of escaped slaves in the North	324
The spirit of nullification in the North	327
The Glover rescue, Wisconsin, 1854	327
The rendition of Burns, Boston, 1854	331
The rescue of Addison White, Mechanicsburg, Ohio, 1857	334
The Oberlin-Wellington rescue, 1858	335
Obstruction of the Fugitive Slave Law by means of the personal liberty acts	337
John Brown's attempt to free the slaves	338

CHAPTER XI

Effect of the Underground Railroad

                       

The Underground Road the means of relieving the South of many despairing slaves	340
Loss sustained by slave-owners through underground channels	340
The United States census reports on fugitive slaves	342
Estimate of the number of slaves escaping into Ohio, 1830–1860	346
Similar estimate for Philadelphia, 1830–1860	346
Drain on the resources of the depot at Lawrence, Kansas, described in a letter of Col. J. Bowles, April 4, 1859	347
Work of the Underground Railroad as compared with that of the American Colonization Society	350
The violation of the Fugitive Slave Law a chief complaint of Southern states at the beginning of the Civil War	351
Refusal of the Canadian government to yield up the fugitive Anderson, 1860	352
Secession of the Southern states begun	353
Conclusion of the fugitive slave controversy	355
General effect and significance of the controversy	356