1. Unpublished Reminiscences
The materials upon which in large measure this book is based are
reminiscences gathered by correspondence and conversation with more
than a thousand persons, many of whom were old-time abolitionists, while
the remainder included the families and intimate friends of abolitionists
and a number of fugitive slaves. It was discovered by the author after
only a short search for published sources that little was to be gleaned in
the libraries and that information sufficient in amount for an extended
study could be obtained only by what geologists and botanists call fieldwork.
The collection of materials went on as time could be spared for
this purpose until a great mass of letters and notes had been brought
together, and then the work of sorting, arranging and classifying began.
The reminiscences were grouped by states and counties, so as to bring
out as far as possible the coincident and confirmatory character of
evidence relating to the same neighborhood or district; and the value of
the materials appeared in the tracings of underground lines the author
was able to make, county by county and state by state, throughout the
region of the free states from Iowa to Maine. For the purpose of showing
the extent and importance of the underground movement these
unpublished reminiscences have proved to be invaluable.
