Underground Railroad Online Handbook

From the National Park Service and Dickinson College

Author: Matthew Pinsker

(1780) Pennsylvania Gradual Abolition

By

On November 7, 2022

In Baker, Finkelman, Oakes

Citation

1780 Gradual Abolition Act, March 1, 1780, FULL TEXT via Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission

Excerpt

Be it enacted and it is hereby enacted by the Representatives of the Freemen of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met and by the Authority of the same, That all Persons, as well Negroes, and Mulattos, as others, who shall be born within this State, from and after the Passing of this Act, shall not be deemed and considered as Servants for Life or Slaves; and that all Servitude for Life or Slavery of Children in Consequence of the Slavery of their Mothers, in the Case of all Children born within this State from and after the passing of this Act as aforesaid, shall be, an hereby is, utterly taken away, extinguished and for ever abolished.

Pennsylvania’s 1780 Gradual Abolition Act (Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission)

Provided always and be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That every Negroe and Mulatto Child born within this State after the passing of this Act as aforesaid, who would in Case this Act had not been made, have been born a Servant for Years or life or a Slave, shall be deemed to be and shall be, by Virtue of this Act the Servant of such person or his or her Assigns, who would in such Case have been entitled to the Service of such Child until such Child shall attain unto the Age of twenty eight Years, in the manner and on the Conditions whereon Servants bound by Indenture for four Years are or may be retained and holden; and shall be liable to like Correction and punishment, and intitled to like Relief in case he or she be evilly treated by his or her master or Mistress; and to like Freedom dues and other Privileges as Servants bound by Indenture for Four Years are or may be intitled unless the Person to whom the Service of any such Child Shall belong, shall abandon his or her Claim to the same, in which Case the Overseers of the Poor of the City Township or District, respectively where such Child shall be so abandoned, shall by Indenture bind out every Child so abandoned as an Apprentice for a Time not exceeding the Age herein before limited for the Service of such Children.

Related Sources

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(1837) Charles Ball, Narrative

By

On October 1, 2022

In Foner, Newby-Alexander

Repeatedly sold from the Chesapeake to the Deep South, Charles Ball witnessed the beginnings of the internal slave trade

Date(s): recaptured June 1830, published narrative in 1837

Location(s): Maryland; South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Baltimore, Maryland; Philadelphia

Outcome: Freedom

Summary:

painting, man in navy uniform with black tophat reading Flotilla

Charles Ball (National Park Service)

Born into slavery in Maryland around 1781, Charles Ball was sold to a series of different slaveholders and separated from his family. Still, Ball found some independence through being hired out (or rented) as a cook for the US Navy. Ball escaped with the aid of a free Black sailor, only to be recaptured and sold to South Carolina. Ball managed to flee South Carolina and return to Maryland and his family. When the War of 1812 erupted, Ball chose to enlist in the US Navy rather than flee to British lines. But more than a decade later in 1830, slave catchers tracked down the War of 1812 veteran and took him to Georgia. Ball escaped one final time and relocated to Philadelphia, where he dictated his life story to white abolitionist Isaac Fisher, published as Slavery in the United States (1837), which was widely reprinted. But Fisher heavily edited Ball’s story, and some scholars suspect that an abridged version published in 1859 came closer to conveying Ball’s own voice.

Related Sources

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(1838) Frederick Douglass Escape

By

On October 2, 2022

In Blackett, Foner, Miller

Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery in Baltimore to become a leading antislavery writer, orator, and arguably the most famous Black man in the United States

Date(s): escaped 1838

Location(s): Eastern Shore, Maryland; Baltimore, Maryland; New York, New York; New Bedford, Massachusetts

Outcome: Freedom

Summary:

Douglass engraving, cleanshaven, dark hair

Frederick Douglass (House Divided Project)

Frederick Bailey’s (later Douglass) enslaver allowed him to hire his time out in Baltimore. That meant Douglass could find his own work, but had to hand over his wages to enslaver Hugh Auld. Douglass did not relish handing over most or all of his hard-earned pay, but hiring out had its advantages. Mainly, it afforded enslaved people like Douglass opportunities to make connections with free African Americans, and even plot their escapes. After Douglass had had a dispute with Auld over the arrangement, Douglass did exactly that. Many enslaved people borrowed free papers from free African American allies, but Douglass did not fit any of his free friends’ physical descriptions. Instead, Douglass borrowed his friend’s sailors’ protection papers, even though the physical description was not a perfect match to Douglass’s appearance. He also had help from a free Black woman, Anna Murray, whom Douglass would later marry. Douglass escaped by train and sought to minimize the amount of times the sailor’s protection document was closely examined. A train conductor briefly scanned the false document, but did not notice that the physical description did not match Douglass. When Douglass arrived in New York City in early September, he met David Ruggles, the Black abolitionist who spearheaded the city’s vigilance committee. Ruggles advised him not to stay in New York and encouraged him to travel to New Bedford, Massachusetts. There, Douglass took work as a physical laborer, became a regular reader of the antislavery newspaper The Liberator, and a fixture at antislavery gatherings. In New Bedford, Douglass formally changed his name from Frederick Bailey to Frederick Douglass. As Douglass, the freedom seeker went on to publish his Narrative (1845), the first of three autobiographies, become one of the most famous orators in the country, and arguably the most famous freedom seeker in American history.

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(1861) Contrabands at Fort Monroe

By

On March 25, 2022

In Manning

Freedom seekers Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory, and James Townsend reach Union lines at Fort Monroe, Virginia on May 23, where Gen. Benjamin Butler refuses to return them to their Confederate slaveholder. The US War Department supports Butler’s claim that the freedom seekers can be confiscated as “contraband of war,” setting in motion the wartime alliance between enslaved people and the US Army.

Contrabands

1861 political cartoon on “contrabands” (Library of Congress)

(1998) Congress Establishes Network to Freedom

By

On March 18, 2023

In Miller, Pinsker

Congress establishes the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program to preserve and document Underground Railroad sites. Since its founding, the program has identified over 700 sites.

The National Park Service Network To Freedom (NTF) consists of sites, locations with a verifiable connection to the Underground Railroad; programs, with educational and interpretive programming that pertain to the Underground Railroad; and facilities, either research, educational or interpretive centers. There are currently over 700 locations as part of the network in 39 states, plus Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands.

 

[This post is still under construction, more forthcoming in 2023]

(1999) Quilt Code Claims Gain Attention

By

On November 21, 2022

In Bordewich

In 1999, authors Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond Dobard gain widespread attention for their claims to have uncovered the quilt codes of the Underground Railroad despite academic historians vigorously disputing their evidence.  The authors interviewed the descendant of ex-slaves, a South Carolina woman and quilter named Ozella McDaniel Williams, who had died in 1998.  TV host Oprah Winfrey initially promoted the quilt code claims by having Dobard appear on her show in November 1998 before the February 1999 publication of the book:  Hidden in Plain View:  A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad.  Historians such as David Blight and Fergus Bordewich have since challenged these claims, with Blight calling the story “a myth bordering on a hoax,” but popular interest in possible Underground Railroad quilt codes has skyrocketed in subsequent years.

[This post is still under construction, more forthcoming in 2023]

Birney, James

By

On March 26, 2023

In Abolitionist, Antislavery Politician

James Birney (1792-1857) was an abolitionist and two-time presidential candidate of the Liberty Party.

ESSAYS: Sinha

ROLES:  Abolitionist // Antislavery Politician

Birney

James Birney (Library of Congress)

 

 

Phillips, Wendell

By

On June 27, 2023

In Abolitionist, Miller

Wendell Phillips (1811-1884) was a leading abolitionist from Massachusetts

ESSAYS:  Miller

ROLES:  Abolitionist

 

Phillips

Wendell Phillips (House Divided Project)

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