Category: UGRR Operative Page 8 of 10

Edward Sayres was a seaman convicted for aiding the escape of 77 freedom seekers from Washington, DC aboard the Pearl in 1848.

ESSAYS: Harrold // Sinha

ROLES: UGRR Operative

Elizabeth and Thomas Smallwood were Underground Railroad operatives in the Washington, DC area.

ESSAYS: Harrold

ROLES: UGRR Operative

William Still (1821-1902) was a central figure in the Underground Railroad, both as an antebellum vigilance leader based in Philadelphia and as a historian of the network following the Civil War.  Still was born free in New Jersey to parents who had been enslaved in Maryland.  He came to Philadelphia in the 1840s, securing clerical work with the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.  During the 1850s, Still served as operational leader of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, keeping detailed records which later became the basis for his groundbreaking memoir, The Underground Railroad (1872).  When he died in 1902, the New York Times labeled him, “Father of the Underground Railroad.”

ESSAYS: Barker // Bordewich // Crew // Foner // Harrold // Larson // Newby-Alexander  // Pinsker

ROLES: UGRR Operative

John Thomas was an Underground Railroad activist who assisted freedom seekers from his home near Azalia, Indiana.

ESSAYS: Churchill

ROLES: UGRR Operative

George Thompson was an abolitionist convicted of slave stealing in Missouri in 1841

ESSAYS: Sinha

ROLES: UGRR Operative

James L. Thompson was an Underground Railroad activist in Canton, Indiana.

ESSAYS: Churchill

ROLES: UGRR Operative

Brown Thurston was a Portland, Maine printer who assisted freedom seekers to Canada by coasting vessels and along the Grand Trunk Railroad.

ESSAYS: Grover

ROLES: UGRR Operative

Harriet Tillison was a free Black woman in Kent County, Maryland accused of assisting freedom seekers.

ESSAYS: Larson

ROLES: UGRR Operative

John Todd was an Underground Railroad activist in southern Indiana.

ESSAYS: Bordewich

ROLES: UGRR Operative