University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER V

STUDY OF THE MAP OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
SYSTEM

There are many features of the Underground Railroad
that can best be understood by means of a geographical
representation of the system. Such a representation it has
been possible to make by piecing together the scraps of
information in regard to various routes and parts of routes
gathered from the reminiscences of a large number of abolitionists.
The more or less limited area in which each
agent operated was the field within which he was not only
willing, but was usually anxious, to confine his knowledge
of underground activities. Ignorance of one's accomplices
beyond a few adjoining stations was naturally felt to be a
safeguard. The local character of the information resulting
from such precautions places the investigator under the
necessity of patiently studying his materials for what may
be called the cumulative evidence in regard to the geography
of the system. It is because the evidence gathered has been
cumulative and corroborative that a general map can be prepared.
But a map thus constructed cannot, of course, be
considered complete, for it cannot be supposed that after the
lapse of a generation representatives of all the important
lines and branches could be discovered. Nevertheless, however
much the map may fall short of showing the system in
its completeness, it will be found to help the reader materially
in his attempt to realize the extent and importance of this
movement.

The underground system, in accordance with the statement
of James Freeman Clarke, is commonly understood to have
extended from Kentucky and Virginia across Ohio, and from
Maryland through Pennsylvania, New York and New England

to Canada.[1] But this description is inadequate, for it
fails to include the states west of Ohio. Henry Wilson
extends the field westward by asserting that the "territory
embraced by the Middle States and all the Western States
east of the Mississippi . . . was dotted over with 'stations,'"
and "covered with a network of imaginary routes, not found
. . . in the railway guides or on the railway maps;"[2] and
in another place he quotes the Rev. Asa Turner, a home
missionary, who went to Illinois in 1830, who says: "Lines
were formed through Iowa and Illinois, and passengers were
carried from station to station . . . till they reached the
Canada line."[3] The association of Kansas with the two
states just named as a channel for the escape of runaways
from the southwestern slave section, is made by Mr. Richard
J. Hinton.[4] The addition of one other state, New Jersey, is
necessary to complete the list of Northern states involved in
the Underground Railroad system.[5] This region, which forms
nearly one quarter of the present area of the Union, constituted
the irregular zone of free soil intervening between
Southern slavery and Canadian liberty.

The conditions that determined the number and distribution
of stations throughout this region are clearly discernible
even in the incomplete data with which we are forced to be
content. It is safe to assert that in Ohio the conditions
favorable to the development of a large number of stations,
and the dissemination of these throughout the state, existed
in a measure and combination not reproduced in the case of
any other state. Ohio's geographical boundary gave it a long
line of contact with slave territory. It bordered Kentucky
with about one hundred and sixty miles of river frontage;
and Virginia with perhaps two hundred and twenty-five miles
or more, and crossings were made at almost any point. The
character of the early settlements of Ohio is a factor that must
not be overlooked. The northern and eastern parts of the

state were dotted over with many little communities where
New England ideas prevailed; the southern and southwestern
parts came in time to be well sprinkled with the homes of
Quakers, Covenanters and anti-slavery Southerners and some
negroes; the central and southeastern portions contained a
number of Quaker settlements. The remote position and
sparse settlement of the northwestern section of the state
probably explain the failure to find many traces of routes in
that region. Family ties, church fellowship, an aggressive
anti-slavery leadership,—journalistic and political,—the leavening
influence of institutions like Oberlin College, Western
Reserve College and Geneva College, all contributed to propagate
a sentiment that was ready to support the fleeing slave;
and thus Ohio became netted over with a large number of
interlacing lines of escape for fugitive slaves. The western
portions of Pennsylvania and New York, and the eastern portion
of Indiana shared with Ohio these favorable conditions,
and one is not surprised to find many stations in these regions.
The same is true of northern and west-central Illinois, where
many persons of New England descent settled. The few
lines known in southwestern Illinois were developed by a few
Covenanter communities. The geographical position of the
most southern portions of Illinois and Indiana determined the
character of the population settling there, and thus rendered
underground enterprises in those regions more than ordinarily
dangerous.
There may have been stations scattered through
those parts, but if so, one can scarcely hope now to discover
them. The great number of routes in southeastern Pennsylvania,
and the stream of slave emigration flowing through
New Jersey to New York are to be attributed largely to the
untiring activity of a host of Quakers, assisted by some
negroes. The coöperation of some zealous station-keepers
in the neighboring slave territory seems to account partly for
the multitude of stations that appear upon the map between
the lower Susquehanna and Delaware rivers. Whether there
was any underground work done in the central and northern
parts of Pennsylvania is not known; the indications are that
there was not much; the stations said to have existed at
Milroy, Altoona, Work's Place and Smicksburg probably
connected with lines running in a northwesterly direction to
Lake Erie. This is known to have been true of the stations
at Greensburg, Indiana, Clearfield and intermediate points,
which were linked in with stations leading to Meadville and
Erie. The remoteness of New York and of the New England
states from the slaveholding section explains the comparatively
small number of stations found in those states. Iowa,
which bordered on slave territory, had only a small number
of stations, for it was a new region, not long open to occupation;
and only the southern part of the state was in the direct
line of travel, which here was mostly eastward. There were
a few places of deportation in southeastern Wisconsin for
fugitives that had avoided Chicago, and followed the lakeshore
or the Illinois River farther northward. A rather narrow
strip of Michigan, adjoining Indiana and Ohio, was
dotted with stations.

There were friends of the discontented slave in the South
as well as in the North, although it cannot be said, upon the
basis of the small amount of evidence at hand, that these
were sufficient in number or so situated as to maintain regular
lines of escape northward. Doubtless many acts of kindness
to slaves were performed by individual Southerners, but
those were not, in most of the cases, known as the acts of
persons coöperating to help the slave from point to point until
freedom and safety should be reached. That there were
regular helpers in the South engaged in concerted action,
Samuel J. May, a station-keeper of wide information concerning
the Road, freely asserts. In 1869 he wrote, "There
have always been scattered throughout the slaveholding
states individuals who have abhorred slavery, and have
pitied the victims of our American despotism. These persons
have known, or have taken pains to find out, others at
convenient distances northward from their abodes who sympathized
with them in commiserating the slaves. These
sympathizers have known or heard of others of like mind
still farther north, who again have had acquaintances in the
free states that they knew would help the fugitive on his
way to liberty. Thus lines of friends at longer or shorter
distances were formed from many parts of the South to the

very borders of Canada. . . . "[6] It is not easy to substantiate
this statement; and all that will be attempted here is
the presentation of such examples as have been found of underground
work on the part of persons living south of Mason
and Dixon's line. Mr. Stephen B. Weeks is authority for
the statement that "Vestal Coffin organized the Underground
Railroad near the present Guilford College in 1819," and
that "Addison Coffin, his son, entered its service as a conductor
in early youth. . . ."[7] Levi Coffin, Vestal's cousin,
helped many slaves from this region to reach the North
before he moved to Indiana in 1826.[8] In Delaware there
seems to have been a well-defined route upon which the
houses of John Hunn, of Middletown,[9] Ezekiel Hunn, of
Camden, and Thomas Garrett, of Wilmington,[10] were important
stations. John Hunn speaks of himself as having been
"superintendent of the Underground Railroad from Wilmington
down the Peninsula."[11] Maryland also had its line
—perhaps its lines—of Road. One route ran overland
from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia. Mr. W. B. Williams,
of Charlotte, Michigan, throws some light on this
route. He says, "My uncle, Jacob Bigelow, was for several
years previous to the war a resident of Washington, D.C.
He was an abolitionist, and general manager of the Underground
Railway from Washington to Philadelphia. . . ."[12]
Mr. Robert Purvis tells of two market-women that were
agents of the Underground Road in Baltimore, forwarding
fugitives to the Vigilance Committee with which he was
connected in Philadelphia.[13] The Quaker City was also a
central station for points still farther south. Vessels engaged
in the lumber trade plying between Newberne, North
Carolina, and Philadelphia, were often supplied with slave
passengers by the son of a slaveholder living at Newberne.[14]
A slave at Petersburg, Virginia, was agent for that section
of country, directing fugitives to William Still in Philadelphia.[15]
Eliza Bains, a slave-woman of Portsmouth, Virginia,
sent numbers of her people to Boston and New Bedford by
boat.[16] Frederick Douglass declared that his connection
with the Underground Railroad began long before he left the
South.[17] Harriet Tubman, the abductor, made use of stations
at Camden, Dover, Blackbird, Middleton and New Castle in
the State of Delaware on her way to Wilmington and Philadelphia.[18]
The testimony of these various witnesses seems to
show that underground routes existed in the South, but it
is not sufficient in amount to enable one to trace extended
courses of travel through the slaveholding states.

It is apparent from the map that the numerous tributaries
of the Ohio and the great valleys of the Appalachian range
afforded many tempting paths of escape. These natural
routes from slavery have been recognized and defined by a
recent writer.[19] "One," he says, "was that of the coast south
of the Potomac, whose almost continuous line of swamps
from the vicinity of Norfolk, Va., to the northern border of
Florida afforded a refuge for many who could not escape and
became 'marooned' in their depths, while giving facility to
the more enduring to work their way out to the north star
land. The great Appalachian range and its abutting mountains
were long a rugged, lonely, but comparatively safe
route to freedom. It was used, too, for many years. Doubtless
a knowledge of that fact, for John Brown was always
an active railroad man, had very much to do, strategically
considered, with the Captain's decision to begin operations
therein. Harriet Tubman . . . was a constant user of the
Appalachian route in her efforts to aid escaping slaves.[20]

. . . Underground Railroad operations culminating chiefly
at Cleveland, Sandusky, and Detroit, led by broad and defined
routes through Ohio to the border of Kentucky. Through
that State, into the heart of the Cumberland Mountains,
northern Georgia, east Tennessee, and northern Alabama,
the limestone caves of the region served a useful purpose.
. . . The Ohio-Kentucky routes probably served more fugitives
than others in the North. The valley of the Mississippi
was the most westerly channel, until Kansas opened a
bolder way of escape from the southwest slave section."
These were the main channels of flight from the slave states;
but it must be remembered that escapes were continually
taking place along the entire frontier between the two
sections of the Union, the drift of travel being constantly
towards those points where the homes of abolitionists or
where negro settlements indicated initial stations on lines
running north to freedom. The border counties of the slave
states were thus subject to a steady loss of their dissatisfied
bondmen. This condition is well represented in the case of
several counties of Maryland, concerning which Mr. Smedley
obtained information. He says, "The counties of Frederick,
Carroll, Washington, Hartford and Baltimore, Md.,
emptied their fugitives into York and Adams counties across
the line in Pennsylvania. The latter two counties had settlements
of Friends and abolitionists. The slaves learned
who their friends were in that part of the Free State; and it
was as natural for those aspiring to liberty to move in that
direction as for the waters of brooks to move toward larger
streams."[21]

Along the southern margin of the free states began those
well-defined trails or channels that have lent themselves to

representation upon the large map given herewith. In dealing
with the tracings shown upon this map it will be best to
consider the territory as divided into three regions, the first
comprising the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New
York; the second, the New England states; and the third,
the five states created out of the Northwest Territory. This
arrangement will, perhaps, admit of the introduction of some
system into the discussion of what might otherwise prove a
complicated subject.

In point of time underground work seems to have developed
first in eastern Pennsylvania.[22] Regular routes of travel
began to be formed in the vicinity of Philadelphia about the
middle of the first decade of the present century. It is said
that "some cases of kidnapping and shooting of fugitives
who attempted to escape occurred in Columbia, Pa., in 1804.
This incited the people of that town, who were chiefly
Friends or their descendants, to throw around the colored
people the arm of protection, and even to assist those who
were endeavoring to escape from slavery. . . . This gave
origin to that organized system of rendering aid to fugitives
which was afterward known as the 'Underground Railroad.'"
Thus begun, the service rapidly extended, being greatly
favored by the character of the population in southeastern
Pennsylvania, which was largely Quaker, with here and
there some important settlements of manumitted slaves. It
was on account of the large number of runaways early resorting
to Columbia that it became necessary to have an understanding
with regard to places of entertainment for them
along lines leading to the Eastern states and to Canada,
whither most of the fugitives were bound.[23] There seems to
have been scarcely any limitation upon the number of persons
in Lancaster, Chester and Delaware counties willing to
assume agencies for the forwarding of slaves; hence this
region became the field through which more routes were developed

in proportion to its extent than any other area in
the Northern states. It will be necessary to make use of a
special map of the region in order to follow out the principal
channels of escape and to discover the centres from which
the Canada routes sprung.[24] West of the Susquehanna River
Gettysburg and York were the stations chiefly sought by
slaves escaping from the border counties of Maryland.
Along the western shore of the Chesapeake runaways passed
northward to Havre de Grace, where they usually crossed the
Susquehanna, and with others from the Eastern Shore found
their way to established stations in the southern part of Lancaster
and Chester counties in Pennsylvania. From the
territory adjacent to the Delaware the movement was to
Wilmington, and thence north through Chester and Delaware
counties. The routes developed in the three regions
just indicated formed three systems of underground travel,
the first of which may be called the western, the second, the
middle, and the third, the eastern system. These systems
comprised, besides the main roads indicated in heavy lines
upon the map, numerous side-tracks and branches shown by
the light lines. Their common goal was Phœnixville, the
home of Elijah F. Pennypacker, and from here fugitives
were sent to Philadelphia, Norristown, Quakertown, Reading
and other stations as occasion required. While Phœnixville
may be regarded as the central station for the three systems
mentioned, it did not receive all the negroes escaping through
this section, and Smedley says that "Hundreds were sent to
the many branch stations along interlacing routes, and hundreds
of others were sent from Wilmington, Columbia, and
stations westward direct to the New England States and
Canada. Many of these passed through the hands of the
Vigilance Committee connected with the anti-slavery office
in Philadelphia,"[25] From this point one outlet led overland
across New Jersey to Jersey City and New York; another
outlet from Philadelphia, was the Reading Railroad, which
also carried refugees from various stations along its course.
How many steam railway extensions may have been connected
with the underground tracks of southeastern Pennsylvania
cannot be discovered. One such extension was the
Northern Central Railroad from Harrisburg across the state
to Elmira New York.[26] Another trans-state route in eastern
Pennsylvania appears to have had its origin at or near Sadsbury,
Chester County, and to have run overland to Binghamton
New York.[27] The intermediate stations along this
pathway are not known, although some disconnected places
of resort in northeastern Pennsylvania[28] may have constituted
a section of it. Lines of northern travel for fugitives
also passed through Bucks County but Dr. Edward H.
Magill, formerly President of Swarthmore College, thinks
these were "less clearly marked" than those running through
Chester and Lancaster counties. He finds that friends of
the slave in the middle section of Bucks County generally
forwarded the negroes to Quakertown or even as far north,
by stage or private conveyance, as Stroudsburg. From this
point they sometimes went to Montrose or Friendsville, in
Susquehanna County, near the southern boundary of the
State of New York,[29] whence, together with fugitives from
Wilkesbarre, and, perhaps, the Lehigh Valley they were sent
on to Gerrit Smith, at Peterboro in central New York, and
thence to Canada.[30]

At the other end of Pennsylvania several routes and sections
of routes have been discovered. The most important
of these seem to have been the roads resulting from the convergence
of at least three well-defined lines of escape at
Uniontown in southwestern Pennsylvania from the neighboring

counties of Virginia and Maryland. A map drawn by
Mr. Amos M. Jolliffe, of Uniontown, shows that there were
two courses leading northward from his neighborhood, both
of which terminated at Pittsburg.[31] From this point fugitives
seem to have been sent to Cleveland by rail, or to have been
directed to follow the Alleghany or the Ohio and its tributaries
north. Investigation proves that friends were not lacking
at convenient points to help them along to the main terminals
for this region, namely, Erie and Buffalo, or across the
border of the state to the much-used routes of the Western
Reserve.[32] East of the Alleghany River significant traces of
underground work are found running in a northeasterly direction
from Greensburg through Indiana County to Clearfield,[33]
a distance of seventy-five miles, and from Cumberland,
Maryland, through Bedford and Pleasantville to Altoona,[34]
about the same distance. These fragmentary routes may
have had connections with some of the fragmentary lines of
western New York. From Clearfield an important branch is
known to have run northwest to Shippenville and Franklin,
and so to Erie, a place of deportation on the lake of the same
name.[35]

New Jersey was intimately associated with Philadelphia
and the adjoining section in the underground system, and
afforded at least three important outlets for runaways from
the territory west of the Delaware River. Our knowledge of
these outlets is derived solely from the testimony of the Rev.
Thomas Clement Oliver, who, like his father, travelled the
New Jersey routes many times as a guide or conductor.[36]
Probably the most important of these routes was that leading

from Philadelphia to Jersey City and New York. From
Philadelphia the runaways were taken across the Delaware
River to Camden, where Mr. Oliver lived, thence they were
conveyed northeast following the course of the river to Burlington,
and thence in the same direction to Bordentown. In
Burlington, sometimes called Station A, a short stop was
made for the purpose of changing horses after the rapid drive
of twenty miles from Philadelphia. The Bordentown station
was denominated Station B east. Here the road took a more
northerly direction to Princeton, where horses were again
changed and the journey continued to New Brunswick.
Just east of New Brunswick the conductors sometimes met
with opposition in attempting to cross the Raritan River on
their way to Jersey City. To avoid such interruption the
conductors arranged with Cornelius Cornell, who lived on
the outskirts of New Brunswick, and, presumably, near the
river, to notify them when there were slave-catchers or spies
at the regular crossing. On receiving such information they
took a by-road leading to Perth Amboy, whence their protégés
could be safely forwarded to New York City. When the
way was clear at the Raritan the company pursued its course
to Rahway; here another relay of horses was obtained and
the journey continued to Jersey City, where, under the care
of John Everett, a Quaker, or his servants, they were taken
to the Forty-second Street railroad station, now known as
the Grand Central, provided with tickets, and placed on a
through train for Syracuse, New York. The second route
had its origin on the Delaware River forty miles below Philadelphia,
at or near Salem. This line, like the others to be
mentioned later, seems to have been tributary to the Philadelphia
route traced above. Nevertheless, it had an independent
course for sixty miles before it connected with the more
northern route at Bordentown. This distance of sixty miles
was ordinarily travelled in three stages, the first ending at
Woodbury, twenty-five miles north of Salem, although the
trip by wagon is said to have added ten miles to the estimated
distance between the two places; the second stage ended at
Evesham Mount; and the third, at Bordentown. The third
route was called, from its initial station, the Greenwich line.
This station is vividly described as having been made up of a
circle of Quaker residences enclosing a swampy place that
swarmed with blacks. One may surmise that it made a
model station. Slaves were transported at night across the
Delaware River from the vicinity of Dover, in boats marked
by a yellow light hung below a blue one, and were met some
distance out from the Jersey shore by boats showing the same
lights. Landed at Greenwich, the fugitives were conducted
north twenty-five miles to Swedesboro, and thence about the
same distance to Evesham Mount. From this point they
were taken to Mount Holly, and so into the northern or
Philadelphia route. Still another branch of this Philadelphia
line is known. It constitutes the fourth road, and
is described by Mr. Robert Purvis[37] as an extension of a route
through Bucks County, Pennsylvania, that entered Trenton,
New Jersey, from Newtown, and ran directly to New Brunswick
and so on to New York.

Mr. Eber M. Pettit, for many years a conductor of the
Underground Railroad in western New York,[38] asserts that
the Road had four main lines across his state, and scores of
laterals,[39] but he nowhere attempts to identify these lines for
the benefit of those less well informed than himself. Concerning
what may be supposed to have been one of the lines,
he speaks as follows: "The first well-established line of the
U. G. R. R. had its southern terminus in Washington, D.C.,
and extended in a pretty direct route to Albany, N.Y., thence
radiating in all directions to all the New England states,
and to many parts of this state. . . . The General Superintendent
resided in Albany. . . . He was once an active
member of one of the churches in Fredonia. Mr. T., his
agent in Washington City, was a very active and efficient
man; the Superintendent at Albany was in daily communication
by mail with him and other subordinate agents at all
points along the line."[40] Frederick Douglass, who was
familiar with this Albany route during the period of his
residence in Rochester, describes it as running through Philadelphia,

New York, Albany, Rochester, and thence to Canada;
and he gives the name of the person at each station
that was most closely associated in his mind with the work
of the station. Thus, he says that the "fugitives were
received in Philadelphia by William Still, by him sent to
New York, where they were cared for by Mr. David Ruggles,
and afterwards by Mr. Gibbs, . . . thence to Stephen Myers
at Albany; thence to J. W. Loguen, Syracuse; thence to
Frederick Douglass, Rochester; and thence to Hiram
Wilson, St. Catherines, Canada West."[41] Not all the negroes
travelling by this route went as far as Rochester;
some were turned north at Syracuse to the port of Oswego,
where they took boat for Canada.[42] The Rev. Charles B. Ray,
a member of the Vigilance Committee of New York City,
and editor of The Colored American, has left some testimony
which corroborates that just given. He knew of a regular
route stretching from Washington, by way of Baltimore and
Philadelphia, to New York, thence following the Hudson to
Albany and Troy, whence a branch ran westward to Utica,
Syracuse and Oswego, with an extension from Syracuse to
Niagara Falls. New York was a kind of receiving point
from which fugitives were assisted to Albany and Troy, or,
as sometimes happened, to Boston and New Bedford, or,
when considerations of safety warranted it, were permitted
to pass to Long Island.[43] The lines that are said to have
radiated from Albany are mentioned neither by Mr. Douglass
nor by Mr. Ray, but we know from other witnesses
that some of the fugitives sent to Troy found their way to
places of refuge north and east. Mr. Martin I. Townsend, of
Troy, writes that fugitives arriving at that city were supplied
with money and forwarded either to Suspension Bridge, on
the Niagara River, or by way of Vermont and Lake Champlain
to Rouses Point.[44] It seems probable that another
branch of the secret thoroughfare followed the valley of the
Hudson from Troy to the farm of John Brown, near North
Elba among the Adirondacks. Mr. Richard H. Dana visited
this frontier home of Brown one summer, and was informed
by his guide that the country about there belonged to Gerrit
Smith; that it was settled for the most part by families of
fugitive slaves, who were engaged in farming; and that
Brown held the position of a sort of ruler among them. The
view was therefore credited that this neighborhood was one
of the termini of the Underground Railroad."[45]

Gerrit Smith, the friend and counsellor of Brown, lived at
Peterboro, in central New York, where his house was an
important station for runaway slaves. His open invitation
to fugitives to come to Peterboro gave the post he maintained
great publicity, and many negroes resorted thither.
From Peterboro they were sent in Mr. Smith's wagon to
Oswego.[46] A little to the east and north of this place of deportation
there were what may perhaps be called emergency
stations at or near Mexico, New Haven, Port Ontario[47] and
Cape Vincent.[48] From the place last named, and perhaps also
from Port Ontario, fugitives took boat for Kingston.[49] A
route that came into operation much later than that with

which the Peterboro station was connected was the Elmira
route. In 1844, John W. Jones, an escaped slave from
Virginia, settled in Elmira, and began, together with Mr.
Jervis Langdon, a prominent citizen of the town, to receive
fugitives. A few years later the Northern Central Railroad
was constructed, and supplied a means of travel through
western New York to Niagara Falls. Underground passengers
forwarded by rail from Philadelphia, Harrisburg and
Williamsport were sent on via the Northern Central to
Canada.[50] In the counties of New York west and south of
the Elmira route the map shows some disconnected stations
and sections of Road. Not enough is known about these to
suggest with certainty their connections. It is, however,
evident that their trend is toward the short arm of the Province
of Ontario, which is separated from the United States
only by the Niagara River, with crossings favorable for fugitives
at Buffalo, Black Rock, Suspension Bridge and Lewiston.
In the angle of southwestern New York there were two
routes, the objective point of which was Buffalo. One of
these, by way of Westfield and Fredonia, hugged closely the
shore of Lake Erie;[51] the other, issuing by way of the Alleghany
River from Franklin, Pennsylvania, ran through
Jamestown and Ellington to Leon, where it branched, one
division going to Fredonia and so on northward, whilst the
other seems to have followed a more direct course to Buffalo.[52]

Notwithstanding the unfavorable position for this work of
the New England states, a considerable number of fugitive
slaves found their way through these states to Canada. A
part of them came through Pennsylvania and New York.
Smedley states, as already noted, that hundreds were sent
from Wilmington, Columbia, and other points to the New

England states and Canada.[53] Another part came by boat
from Southern ports to the shores of New England, landing
at various places, chief among which seem to have been New
Haven, New Bedford, Boston and Portland. Such was the
number of arrivals and consequent demand for transportation
to a place of safety, that these four places became the beginnings
of routes, which it has been possible to trace on the
map with more or less completeness.

The first of these may be called the Connecticut valley
route. President E. B. Andrews, of Brown University,
whose father was an active friend of slaves at Montague in
western Massachusetts, describes this route as running from
New York, New Haven, or New London up the Connecticut
River valley to Canada.[54] This is corroborated by some
writer in the History of Springfield, Massachusetts, where it is
noted that there was a steady movement of parties of runaways
up the valley on their way to the adjacent provinces.[55]
Mr. Erastus F. Gunn, of Montague, Massachusetts, writes
that the travel along this route was largely confined to the
west side of the river, and was through Springfield, Northampton
and Greenfield into the State of Vermont.[56] Fugitives
disembarking at New Haven[57] went north through
Kensington, New Britain and Farmington, and probably by
way of Bloomfield or Hartford to Springfield. Sometimes
they came up the river by steamboat to Hartford, the head of
navigation, and continued their journey overland.[58] A trail
probably much less used than the routes just mentioned,
seems to have connected the southwestern part of Connecticut
with the valley route.[59] In Massachusetts there were

ramifications from the valley route,[60] which may have terminated
among the hills in the western part of the state, for all
that one can now discover.

A line of Road originating at New Bedford in southeastern
Massachusetts is mentioned in connection with the line up
the Connecticut valley by the Hon. M. M. Fisher, of Medway,
Massachusetts, as one of the more common routes.[61]
Mrs. Elizabeth Buffum Chace says that slaves landing on
Cape Cod went to New Bedford, whence under the guidance
of some abolitionist they were conveyed to the home of
Nathaniel P. Borden at Fall River. Between this station
and the one kept by Mr. and Mrs. Chace at Valley Falls,
Robert Adams acted as conductor; and from Valley Falls
Mr. Chace was in the habit of accompanying passengers a
short distance over the Providence and Worcester Railroad
until he had placed them in the care of some trusted employee
of that road to be transferred at Worcester to the Vermont
Railroad.[62] The Rev. Joshua Young was receiving
agent at Burlington, Vermont, and testifies that during his
residence there he and his friend and parishioner, L. H.
Bigelow, did "considerable business."[63] South of Burlington
there was a series of stations not connected with the Vermont
Central Railroad extension of the New Bedford route.
The names of these stations have been obtained from Mr.
Rowland E. Robinson, whose father's house was a refuge for
fugitives at Ferrisburg, Vermont, and from the Hon. Joseph
Poland, the editor of the first anti-slavery newspaper in his
state, who was himself an agent of the Underground Road at
Montpelier. The names are those of nine towns, which form
a line roughly parallel to the west boundary of the state,
namely, North Ferrisburg, Ferrisburg, Vergennes, Middlebury,
Brandon, Rutland, Wallingford, Manchester and

CAVES IN SALEM TOWNSHIP, WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.

The cave on the left was a rendezvous for fugitives.

HOUSE OP MRS. ELIZABETH BUFFUM CHACE,
A STATION OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, VALLEY FALLS, RHODE ISLAND.

Bennington.[64] They constituted what may be called the west
Vermont route, Bennington being at the southern extremity,
where escaped slaves were received from Troy, New York.[65]
The terminal at the northern end of this route was St.
Albans, whence runaways could be hastened across the
Canadian frontier. The valley of the lower Connecticut
seems to have yielded a sufficient supply of fugitive slaves to
sustain a vigorous line of Road in eastern Vermont. It was
over this line the travellers came that were placed in hiding
in the office of Editor Poland at Montpelier, having made
their way northward with the aid of friends at Brattleboro,
Chester, Woodstock, Randolph and intermediate points. At
Montpelier the single path divided into three branches, one
extending westward and uniting with the west Vermont
route at Burlington, another running northward into the
Queen's dominions by way of Morristown and other stations,
and the third zigzagging to New Port, where a pass through
the mountains admitted the zealous pilgrims to the coveted
possession of their own liberty.[66]

Having thus sketched in the Vermont lines of Underground
Railroad, it is necessary for us to return to the consideration
of the New Bedford route, which had some accessory lines
near its source. One of these had stations at Newport and
Providence, managed by Quakers—Jethro and Anne Mitchell
with others in the former, and Daniel Mitchell in the latter.[67]
Another was a short line through Windham County, in the
northeastern part of Connecticut, to Uxbridge, where it joined
the main line.[68] The Rev. Samuel J. May, who was a resident
of Brooklyn, Connecticut, in the early thirties, had fugitives
addressed to his care at that time, and he helped them on to
Effingham L. Capron while he lived in Uxbridge, and afterwards

when he settled in Worcester.[69] From Boston[70] westward
there were at least two paths to reach the New Bedford
road, one of these was by way of Newton to Worcester, and
the other through Concord to Leominster. Mr. William I.
Bowditch generally passed on the fugitives received at his
house to Mr. William Jackson, of Newton, thence they were
sent by rail to Worcester.[71] Colonel T. W. Higginson writes
that fugitives were sometimes sent from Boston to Worcester,[72]
while he lived in the latter place, and that he has himself
driven them at midnight to the farm of the veteran abolitionists,
Stephen and Abby Kelley Foster, in the suburbs of the
city.[73] All along the short route, from Boston to Leominster
and Fitchburg, stations were systematically arranged, according
to the statement of Mrs. Mary E. Crocker,[74] who was one
of the helpers at Leominster.[75] This was the route taken by
Shadrach, after his rescue in Boston.[76]

Boston was the starting-point of longer lines running north
along the coast; one, so far as can now be made out, turning
and passing obliquely across New Hampshire; the other following
the shore into Maine. Mr. Simeon Dodge, of Marblehead,
Massachusetts, who had intimate knowledge of the first
of these courses, gives, in an illustrative case, the names of
Marblehead, Salem and Georgetown as stations;[77] and Mr. G.
W. Putnam, of Lynn, gives the names of persons harboring

slaves at two of these places.[78] A report of the Danvers Historical
Society is authority for the statement that Mr. Dodge,
together with some of the abolitionists of Salem, maintained
a secret thoroughfare to Canada,[79] which passed through Danvers,
and on through Concord, New Hampshire.[80] From Concord
fugitives were sent north to Canterbury and Meredith
Ridge[81] in two known instances, and more frequently, it appears,
to Canaan and Lyme. James Furber, who lived in
Canaan for several years, is said to have made trips to Lyme
about once a fortnight with refugees received by him.[82] From
Lyme they may have gone north by way of the Connecticut
valley. At Salem the coast route parted company with the
New Hampshire route, and ran on through Ipswich, Newburyport
and Exeter[83] to Eliot, Maine, and perhaps farther.

Slaves sometimes reached Portland, Maine, travelling as
stowaways on vessels from Southern ports. Consequently
Portland became the centre of several hidden routes to Canada.
Mr. S. T. Pickard, who lived in the family of Mrs.
Oliver Dennett in Portland, says that Mrs. Dennett harbored
runaway slaves, as did also Nathan Winslow and General
Samuel Fessenden. The fugitives that came to Portland, he
says, were on their way to New Brunswick and Lower Canada,
and some were shipped directly to England.[84] Mr. Brown
Thurston, the veteran abolitionist of Portland, is authority for
the statement that routes extended from Portland to the provinces,
by water to St. John, New Brunswick, and by rail to
Montreal,[85] the road used being the Grand Trunk.[86] An important
overland route also had its origin at Portland. Its
two branches encircled Sebago Lake, united at Bridgton,
and formed a single pathway to the northwest, and did not

separate again until the eastern border of Vermont was
reached. There, at Lunenburg, one branch took its course
up the Connecticut valley to Stratford, and thence, probably,
ran to Stanstead, Quebec; while the other, passing more to
the westward, joined the easternmost of the branches from
Montpelier, Vermont, at Barton, and so entered Canada.[87]
Besides, there were at least two subsidiary routes, which were
probably feeders of the "through line" just described. One
of them ran to South Paris and Lovell;[88] the other, according
to ex-President O. B. Cheney, of Bates College, who was
privy to its operations, ran to Effingham, North Parsonsfield
and Porter.[89] Both Lovell and Porter are within a few miles
of several of the stations that form a part of the Maine
section of this line, and could witnesses be found it is likely
that their testimony would sustain the view that external
evidence suggests.

In the free states included between the Ohio and the Mississippi
rivers the number of underground trails was much
greater than in the states farther east. Bordering on the
slave states, Missouri, Kentucky and Virginia, with a length
of frontier greatly increased by the sinuosities of the rivers,
the states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois were the most favorably
situated of all the Northern states to receive fugitive
slaves. Not only the bounding rivers themselves, but also
their numerous tributaries, became channels of escape into
free territory, and connected directly with many lines of
Underground Railroad. These lines of Road are shown on
the map as starting from the Ohio or the Mississippi, but they
cannot be supposed to have abruptly originated there, for in
some instances there were points south of these streams that
formed an essential part of the system. It is impossible to
bring together here the numerous bits of testimony through
the correlation of which the multitude of lines within the old
Northwest Territory has been traced. Only a general survey,
therefore, of the Underground Railroad system in the Western
states will be undertaken, while several smaller maps of limited

areas will give the details of the multiple and complex routes
found therein.

Concerning the number of paths there were in Ohio it is
almost impossible to obtain a definite and correct idea. The
location of the state was favorable to the development of new
lines with the steady increase in the number of slaves fleeing
across its southern borders; and, in the process of development,
it was natural that the various branches should intertwine
and form a great network. To disentangle the strands of
this web and say how many there were is a thing not easy to
accomplish, although an anonymous writer in 1842 seems to
have found little or no difficulty in arriving at a definite
conclusion. His estimate appeared in the Experiment of
December 7, and is as follows: "It is evident from the
statements of the abolitionists themselves, that there exist
some eighteen or nineteen thoroughly organized thoroughfares
through the State of Ohio for the transportation of runaway
and stolen slaves, one of which passes through Fitchville,
and which to my certain knowledge has done a 'land office
business.'"[90] If the number of important initial stations fringing
the southern and eastern boundaries of Ohio be counted
as the points of origin of separate routes, it would be correct
to say that there were not less than twenty-two or twenty-three
routes in Ohio, but in a count thus made one would
fail to note the instances in which, as in the case of Cincinnati,
several lines sprang from one locality.

In the remaining portion of the Northwest Territory, the
number of lines was relatively not so great; and extended
areas, as in the western and northern parts of Indiana or the
southeastern part of Illinois, contained few or no lines so far
as can now be discovered. In western and northern Illinois
the conditions were more favorable, and the multiplicity of
routes is such that on account of the fusion, division and subdivision
of roads it is impossible to say how many lines crossed
the state. In Michigan the case is not so complicated, and
one can trace with some clearness six or seven paths leading
to Detroit. Iowa, not a part, however, of the old Northwest
Territory, was traversed by lines terminating in Illinois, and

therefore deserves consideration here. In the southeastern
part of the state there were several short routes with initial
stations at Croton, Bloomfield, Lancaster and Cincinnati,
all of which had terminals no doubt along the Mississippi,
though it has been possible to complete but two of the
routes. In southwestern Iowa, Percival and the three roads
[ILLUSTRATION]

Underground Lines Of Morgan County, Ohio.
Drawn by Thomas Williams.

branching from it
are said to have
supplied means of
egress for slaves
from Missouri and
Nebraska through
three tiers of counties
ranging across
the state in lines
parallel with the
north boundary of
Missouri. John
Brown took the
northernmost of
these parallel roads
in the winter of
1858 and 1859,
when he led a
company of twelve
fugitives from Missouri
through Kansas
to Percival on
their way to Chicago
and Detroit.
Of the local
maps, the first represents
the lines passing through a portion of Morgan County,
in the southeastern part of Ohio. It was drawn by Mr. Thomas
Williams, whose services in behalf of runaways made him familiar
with the location of operators in the western part of his
county.[91] The area represented is twenty-five miles in length
and sixteen in width at the widest part, and contains nineteen
stations including the towns through which routes passed.
The irregular distribution of these stations, and the way in
which trips could be varied from one to another to suit the convenience
of conductors or to elude pursuers is apparent. The
fugitives that travelled over these routes crossed the Ohio
River in the vicinity of Parkersburg and Point Pleasant, in
what is now West Virginia, and proceeded north twenty or
thirty miles by the help of abolitionists before reaching
Morgan County. The southern part of this county was
traversed by two parallel lines, one of which branched at Rosseau
and ran on in parallels to the northern part of the county
whence after sharp deflection to the west the branches converged
at Deavertown; the other issued from its first station
in three divergent lines, which rapidly converged at Pennsville
and were united by a single course to the first route.
In case of emergency a guide used his knowledge and discretion
as to whether he should "cut across lots," skip stations,
travel by the "longest way around," or go back on his track.
The houses noted on the map as being off the regular routes
appear to have been emergency stations and hence not so
frequently used.

A special map of exceeding interest and importance is that
drawn by Mr. Lewis Falley, of La Fayette, Indiana, showing
the underground lines of Indiana and Michigan about 1848.
Mr. Falley's acquaintance with the Road came about through
the work of his father in the interest of fugitives in La Fayette
after 1841. Subsequently Mr. Falley learned of the
lines traversing his state through an itinerant preacher who
sometimes stopped as a guest at his father's house. When
Mr. Falley's map was received in March, 1896, the author
himself had already plotted from other testimony a number
of routes in southern and eastern Indiana and in Michigan,
and a comparison of maps was made. On Mr. Falley's map
three main roads appear, the eastern, middle and western
routes. The first of these ran parallel, roughly speaking,

with the eastern boundary line of the state only a few miles
from it, and took its rise from two lesser paths, which converged
[ILLUSTRATION]

Routes Through Indiana And Michigan
In 1848.
As traced by Lewis Falley.

at Richmond from
either side of the state
line. The second or middle
route sprang from
three branches that
crossed the Ohio at Madison,
New Albany, and the
neighborhood of Leavenworth,
passed north
through Indianapolis and
Logansport, and entered
Michigan a few miles east
of Lake Michigan. The
third or western route
followed up the Wabash
River to La Fayette,
where it crossed the
river, proceeded to Rensselaer,
and thence northeasterly
to the Michigan
line, making its entrance
to Michigan at the point
where the middle route
entered that state. From
the two crossing-places on the Michigan border the northern
extensions of the Indiana routes found their way to Battle
Creek, from which station one trail led directly east to
Detroit, and the other, by a more northerly course, to Port
Huron. In southern Indiana the eastern route was connected
with the middle route by a branch between Greensburg
and Indianapolis, and the middle with the western by
two branches, one between Salem and Evansville, and the
other between Brownstown and Bloomingdale.

In the general map prepared by the author, the southern
route through Michigan to Detroit, and the eastern, middle,
and a portion of the western routes in Indiana on the map of
Mr. Falley are duplicated with more or less completeness.

The initial stations along the Ohio River correspond in the
two maps almost exactly, and many of the way-stations seen
on the one map are to be found on the other. It is not to
be expected that the two maps would agree in all particulars,
and some stations occur on each that are not to be found on
the other. Such differences are due to the development of
new or the obliteration of old
[ILLUSTRATION]

Simple Route Through Livingston
And La Salle Counties,
Illinois.
Drawn by William B. Fyffe.

lines and the insufficient knowledge
of the draughtsmen. It is
not known that a map similar to
Mr. Falley's has been devised for
any other state or states among
the many through which well-defined
underground routes extended.

From a drawing made by Mr.
W. B. Fyffe, an old-time station-agent
of Ottawa, Illinois, the
accompanying chart of a line of
escape through Livingston and
La Salle counties in Illinois is
reproduced. The portion of the
trail represented is about forty
miles in length, and is remarkable
for the directness of its course
and the absence of interlacing
lines. At Ottawa, the northernmost
station shown, the trail
loses these two characteristics,
for it makes there a sharp turn
on its way to the terminus, Chicago,
and at Ottawa also it makes
a junction with several other lines from the western part
of the state.[92]

A number of noteworthy features appear on the general
map. The first deserving mention is the direction or trend
of the underground lines. The region traversed by these
lines may be described as an irregular crescent, the concavity

of which is in part filled by a portion of Ontario, Canada,
which by reason of its proximity became the goal of the great
majority of runaways. In the New England states the direction
of the underground paths was, with perhaps an exception
or two, from southeast to northwest, their objective point being

[ILLUSTRATION]

Network of Routes Through Greene, Warren and Clinton
Counties, Ohio.

Drawn by Joel P. Davis.    Added branches.

Montreal. The main lines of Pennsylvania and New York
ran north until they reached the middle part of the latter
state, and then veered off almost directly west to Canada.
West of Pennsylvania the trend of the routes was in general
to northeast, being in Ohio and Indiana to the shores of Lake
Erie, and in Illinois and Iowa to the southern extremity of
Lake Michigan. Through central Iowa, northern Illinois
and southern Michigan, the course of the routes was almost
directly east.

It is not surprising that the regions through which the
simplest and most direct routes passed should have been those
at the two extremities of the great irregular crescent of free
soil, where the number of routes was few and the activity of
the stations limited. In the states that formed the middle
portion of the crescent, it was natural that multiple and intricate
trails should have been developed. The fact that slave-owners
and their agents often sallied into this region in search
of missing chattels was a consideration given due weight by
the shrewd operators, who early learned that one of their best
safeguards lay in complex routes, made by several lines radiating
from one centre, or branch connections between routes, by
paths that zigzagged from station to station. These features
were characteristic, and serve to show that the safety of fugitives
was never sacrificed by the abolitionists to any thoughtless
desire for rapid transit. From Cincinnati, Ohio, not less
than four branches of the Road radiated. One of these led
to Fountain City, Indiana, where it was joined by two other
important lines. From this point four lines diverged to the
north. At Oberlin as many as five lines converged from the
south. Quincy, Illinois, was the starting-point of four or five
lines, and Knoxville, Ottawa and Chicago in the same state
each received fugitives from several routes. The region in
which the devices of multiple routes and cross lines were
most highly developed is, as far as known, in southeastern
Pennsylvania.

Some broken lines and isolated place-names occur upon the
map. For example, in Iowa, branches of the system have been
traced to Quincy, Indianola, North English and Ottumwa,
but beyond these points the connections cannot be made.
Examples of such incomplete sections will be found also in
northern and central Illinois, in central Indiana, in western
New York, in central and eastern Pennsylvania and in other
states. It is not to be supposed that the routes represented
by these fragmentary lines terminated abruptly without reaching

a haven of safety, hut only that the witnesses whose testimony
is essential to complete the lines have not been discovered.
In the case of the isolated place-names, a few of which occur
in the New England states, in New York, Pennsylvania,
Indiana and Illinois, the evidence at hand seemed to designate
them as stations, without indicating in any definite way
the neighboring stations with which they were probably allied.

On the general map may be noticed a few long stretches of
Road that had apparently no way-stations. Such lines are
usually identical with certain rivers, or canals, or railway systems.
It has already been seen that the Connecticut River
served to guide fugitives north on their way to Canada.[93]
The Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio, Alleghany, and Hudson rivers
united stations more or less widely separated.[94] The tow-paths
of some of our western canals formed convenient highways
to liberty for a considerable number of self-reliant fugitives,
and were considered safer than public roads. A letter from
E. C. H. Cavins, of Bloomfield, Indiana,[95] states that the
Wabash and Erie Canal became a thoroughfare for slaves,
who followed it from the vicinity of Evansville, Indiana, until
they reached Ohio, probably in some instances going as far
as Toledo, though usually, as the writer believes, striking
off on one or another of several established lines of Underground
Road in central and northern Indiana. James Bayliss,[96]
of Massillon, in northeastern Ohio, states that fugitives
sometimes came up the tow-path of the canal to Massillon,
knowing that the canal led to Cleveland, whence a boat could
be taken for Canada.[97]

The identity of a few of the tracings with steam railway
lines signifies, of course, transportation by rail when the situation
admitted of it. Sometimes, when there was not the
usual eagerness of pursuit, and when the intelligence or the

Caucasian cast of features of the fugitive warranted it,
the traveller was provided with the necessary ticket and instructions,
and put aboard the cars for his destination. The
Providence and Worcester and the Vermont Central railroads
furnished quick transportation from New Bedford,
Massachusetts, to Canada.[98] In southeastern Pennsylvania
the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad carried many slaves
on their way to freedom, and according to Smedley, "All
who took the trains at the Reading Railroad stations went
directly through to Canada."[99] E. F. Pennypacker often forwarded
negroes from Schuylkill to Philadelphia over this
road, and William Still sent them on their northward journey.[100]
Fugitives arriving at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, sometimes
took passage over the Northern Central Railroad to
Elmira, New York. Mr. Jervis Langdon and John W.
Jones, of Elmira, took care that underground passengers secured
transportation from Elmira to their destination. The
fugitives were always put in the baggage-car at four o'clock
in the morning,[101] and went through without change to the
Niagara River. The old Mad River Railroad bore many
dark-skinned passengers from Urbana, if not also from Cincinnati
and Dayton, Ohio, to Lake Erie.[102] In eastern Ohio
the Cleveland and Western Railroad, from Alliance to Cleveland,
was much patronized during several years by instructed
runaways. Mr. I. Newton Peirce, then living in Alliance,
had "an understanding with all the passenger-train conductors
on the C. and W. R. R." that colored persons provided
with tickets bearing the initials I. N. P. were to be admitted
to the trains without question, unless slave-catchers were
thought to be aboard the cars.[103] Indiana and Michigan are
known to have had their steam railway lines in the secret
service system: in the former state the Louisville, New
Albany and Chicago Railroad was utilized by operators at
Crawfordsville;[104] in the latter the Michigan Central supplied
a convenient outlet to Detroit from stations along its
course.[105] The Chicago and Rock Island Railroad from Peru,
Lasalle County, Illinois, to Chicago was incorporated in the
service, so also was the Illinois Central from Cairo and Centralia
to the same terminus. The Chicago, Burlington and
Quincy Railroad sometimes conveyed fugitives from Quincy
on the Mississippi River to Chicago. Two men of prominence
connected with this road, who secured transportation
over its rails for many Canada-bound passengers, were Dr. C.
V. Dyer, of Chicago, and Colonel Berrien, chief engineer of
the road.[106]

Along the portion of the Atlantic coast shown on the map
will be seen long lines connecting Southern with Northern
ports. These represent routes to liberty by sea. It is reported
by a station-keeper of Valley Falls, Rhode Island,
that "Slaves in Virginia would secure passage either secretly
or with the consent of the captains, in small trading vessels,
at Norfolk or Portsmouth, and thus be brought into some
port in New England, where their fate depended on circumstances;"[107]
and the reporter gives several instances coming
within her knowledge of fugitives that escaped from Virginia
to Massachusetts as stowaways on vessels.[108] Boats engaged
in the lumber trade sometimes brought refugees from Newberne,
North Carolina, to Philadelphia.[109] Captain Austin
Bearse, who was active in the rescue of stowaways from
vessels arriving in Boston harbor from the South, cites two
instances in which fugitives came by sea from Wilmington,

North Carolina, and another from Jacksonville, Florida.[110]
William Still gives a number of cases of escape by boat from
Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia, and Wilmington, North
Carolina, to the Vigilance Committee at Philadelphia.[111] Negroes
arriving in New York City and coming within the
horizon of Isaac T. Hopper's knowledge were often sent by
water to Providence and Boston.[112]

Of the terminal stations or places of deportation along our
northeastern boundary, there are not less than twenty-four,
and probably many more. Three of them, Boston, Portland
and St. Albans, were located in the New England states.
Fugitives were probably less often sent directly to English
soil from Boston than from the two other points, and in the
few instances of which we have any hint, with perhaps one
exception, the passengers so sent were put aboard vessels
sailing for England. The boats running between Portland
and the Canadian provinces were freely made use of to help
slaves to their freedom, especially as the emigrants were often
provided with passes. Sailing-vessels also furnished free
passage, and carried the majority of the passengers that went
from Portland.[113] St. Albans was the terminal of the Vermont
line. Many fugitives were received and cared for here, and
were sent on by private conveyance across the Canada border
before the Vermont Central Railroad was built. Afterwards
they were sent by rail, through the intervention of the Hon.
Lawrence Brainerd, of St. Albans, who was one of the projectors
of the steam railroad and largely interested in it
financially.[114]

Along the northern boundary of New York and Pennsylvania
there seem to have been not less than ten resorts
facing the Canadian frontier. These were Ogdensburg,[115] Cape

Vincent, Port Ontario, Oswego, some port near Rochester,
Lewiston, Suspension Bridge, Black Rock, Buffalo, Dunkirk
Harbor and Erie. Doubtless the most important of these crossing-places
were the four along the Niagara River, for here
the most travelled of the routes in New York terminated. The
harbors along Lake Ontario and the one on the St. Lawrence
River appear to have been the terminals of side-tracks and
branches rather than of main lines of Road.

Ohio may lay claim to eight terminal stations, all comparatively
important. The best-known of these appear to have
been Ashtabula Harbor, Painesville, Cleveland, Sandusky
and Toledo, although the other three, Huron, Lorain and
Conneaut, may be supposed, from their locations, to have
done a thriving business. It is impossible to get now a measure
of the efficiency of these various ports, for the period during
which they were resorted to was a long one, anid operators
were obliged to work more or less independently, and obtained
no adequate idea of the number emigrating from any
one point. Custom-house methods were not followed in keeping
account of the negroes exported across the Canada frontier.
All that can be said in comparing these various ports
is that Ashtabula Harbor, Cleveland and Sandusky, each
seems to have been the terminus for four or five lines of Road,
while perhaps only two or three lines ended at Toledo and
Painesville, and one each at Huron, Lorain and Conneaut.
Concerning the port at Huron we have a few observations,
made by Mr. L. S. Stow, who lived a few miles from Lake
Erie on the course of the Milan canal, and near one of the
managers of the terminal, on whose premises fugitives often
awaited the appearance of a Canada-bound boat. He says:
"We used to see, occasionally, the fugitives, who ventured
out for exercise while waiting for an opportunity to get on
one of the vessels frequently passing down the canal and
river from Milan, during the season of navigation. Many of
these vessels passed through the Welland Canal on their way
to the lower Lakes, and after leaving the harbor at Huron the
fugitives were safe from the pursuit of their masters unless
the vessels were compelled by stress of weather to return to
harbor."[116]

THE DETROIT RIVER, AT DETROIT, MICHIGAN, IN 1850,
THE FAVORITE PLACE FOR FUGITIVES TO CROSS INTO CANADA.

(From an engraving in possession of C. M. Burton, Esq., of Detroit.)

HARBOR, ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO, IN 1860,
A PLACE OF DEPORTATION FOR FUGITIVES ON LAKE ERIE.

(From a photograph in possession of J. D. Hulbert, Esq., of Harbor, Ohio.)

Hundreds, nay, thousands of fugitives found crossing-places
along the Detroit River, especially at the city of Detroit.
The numerous routes of Indiana together with several of the
chief routes of western Ohio poured their passengers into
Detroit, thence to be transported by ferries and row-boats to
the tongue of land pressing its shore-line for thirty miles from
Lake Erie to Lake St. Clair upon the very borders of Michigan.
The movement of slaves to this region was a fact of
which Southerners early became apprised, and their efforts
to recover their servants as these were about to enter the
Canaan already within sight were occasionally successful,
although the majority of the people of Detroit[117] and of the
surrounding districts rejoiced to see the slave-catchers outwitted.

The places of deportation remaining to be mentioned are
four, along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, namely,
Milwaukee, Racine, South Port and Chicago. Of these the
last-named was, doubtless, the most important, since through
it chiefly were drained off the fugitives that came from Missouri
over the routes of Iowa and Illinois. A single operator
of Chicago, Mr. Philo Carpenter, is said to have guided not
less than two hundred negroes to Canada-bound vessels.[118]

The lines of boat-service to the Canadian termini require
a few words of comment. The longest line of travel on the
lakes was that connecting the ports of Wisconsin and Illinois
with Detroit or Amherstburg,[119] and was only approached in
length by the route from Chicago to Collingwood, Ontario.[120]
Five hundred miles would be a minimum statement of the
distance refugees were carried by the boats of abolitionist
captains from these westernmost ports to their havens of refuge.
On Lake Erie the routes were, of course, much shorter, and
ran up and down the lake, as well as across it. Important
routes joined Toledo, Sandusky and Cleveland to Amherstburg
and Detroit at one end of the lake, and Dunkirk, Ashtabula
Harbor, Painesville and Cleveland with Buffalo and

Black Rock at the other end of the lake. Certain boats running
on these routes came to be known as abolition boats, with
ample accommodations for underground passengers. Thus,
we are told, such passengers "depended on a vessel named
the Arrow, which for many years plied between Sandusky
and Detroit, but always touched first at Maiden, Canada,
where the fugitives were landed."[121] Frequent use was also
made of scows, sail-boats and sharpies, with which refugees
could be "set across" the lake, and landed at almost any
point along the shore. Small vessels, a part of whose
"freight" had been received from the Underground Railroad,
were often despatched to Port Burwell in the night
from the warehouse of Hubbard and Company, forwarding and
commission merchants of Ashtabula Harbor.[122] Similar enterprises
were carried on at various other points along the lake.[123]
So far as known, Lake Ontario had only a few comparatively
insignificant routes: at the upper end of the lake were two,
one joining Rochester and St. Catherines, the other, St. Catherines
and Toronto; at the lower end of the lake, Oswego,
Port Ontario and Cape Vincent seem to have been connected
by lines with Kingston.

It is impossible to tell how many cities, towns and villages
in Canada became terminals of the underground system.
Outside of the interlake region of Ontario it is safe to name
Kingston, Prescott, Montreal, Stanstead and St. John, New
Brunswick. Within that region the terminals were numerous,
being scattered from the southern shore of Georgian Bay to
Lake Erie, and from the Detroit and Huron rivers to the

Niagara. Owen Sound, Collingwood and Oro were the
northernmost resorts, so far as now known. Toronto,
Queen's Bush, Wellesley, Galt and Hamilton occupied territory
south of these, and farther south still, in the marginal
strip fronting directly on Lake Erie, there were not less than
twenty more places of refuge. The most important of these
were naturally those situated at either end of the strip, and
along the shore-line, namely, Windsor, Sandwich and Amherstburg,
New Canaan, Colchester and Kingsville, Gosfield
and Buxton, Port Stanley, Port Burwell and Port Royal,
Long Point, Fort Erie and St. Catherines. In the valley of
the Thames also many refugees settled, especially at Chatham,
Dresden and Dawn, and at Sydenham, London and
Wilberforce. The names of two additional towns, Sarnia on
the Huron River and Brantford on the Grand, complete the
list of the known Canadian terminals. This enumeration of
centres cannot be supposed to be exhaustive. A full record
would take into account the localities in the outlying country
districts as well as those adjoining or forming a part of the
hamlets, towns and cities of the whites, whither the blacks
had penetrated. The untrodden wilds of Canada, as well as
her populous places, seemed hospitable to a people for whom
the hardships of the new life were fully compensated by the
consciousness of their possession of the rights of freemen,
rights vouchsafed them by a government that exemplified the
proud boast of the poet Cowper:—