Banner image: Video thumbnail for documentary short film, “1854 St. Louis Stampedes,” YouTube (House Divided Project)
On this page, we are collecting freely available videos produced by various types of public historians and featuring wherever possible the escapes which have been documented in this Underground Railroad handbook or at historic sites across the NPS Network to Freedom. To submit your own work for this gallery, please contact Matthew Pinsker, editor, at hdivided@dickinson.edu
National
Eric Foner on the Underground Railroad (History channel, 2015)
Richard Blackett on the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law (NPS / House Divided, 2018)
Northwest
(1842) QUINCY, IL: Dr. Richard Eells House (PBS)
Abolitionist Dr. Richard Eells sheltered a Missouri freedom seeker named Charley at his home in 1842, but authorities recaptured Charley and fined Eells.
(1849) LEWIS COUNTY, MO: 1849 Canton Stampede (NPS / House Divided)
(1853) PALMYRA, MO: 1853 Palmyra Stampede (NPS / House Divided)
(1854) MILWAUKEE, WI: Joshua Glover (PBS)
The dramatic rescue of Missouri freedom seeker Joshua Glover from federal custody highlighted Northern states’ resistance to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, especially after state courts rallied to the defense of Glover’s rescuers.
(1854) ST. LOUIS, MO: 1854 St. Louis Stampedes (NPS / House Divided)
(1855) ST. LOUIS, MO: 1855 Mary Meachum (NPS / House Divided)
(1859) LAWRENCE, KS: 1859 Doy Rescue (NPS / House Divided)
(1861) CHICAGO, IL: 1861 Harris Family Arrest (NPS / House Divided)
(1862) HERMANN, MO: 1862 Loutre Island Stampede (NPS / House Divided)
Southwest
(1862) CORINTH, MS: Corinth Contraband Camp (NPS)
After US forces seized Corinth, Mississippi in early 1862, freedom seekers experienced the transition from slavery to freedom at the contraband camp established at Corinth.
Deep South
(1738) ST. AUGUSTINE, FL: Story Time: “Fort Mose” (NPS)
In 1738, Florida’s Spanish governor Don Manuel de Montiano granted unconditional freedom to any enslaved people escaping neighboring British colonies willing to convert to Catholicism, and sanctioned the establishment of a free Black settlement at Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (Fort Mose).
(1849) SAVANNAH, GA: William and Ellen Craft (SCAD)
Freedom seekers William and Ellen Craft escaped from Macon, Georgia, traveling disguised by train from Savannah to Philadelphia.
Coastal
(1861) FORT MONROE, VA: Freedom’s Fortress (NPS)
On May 23, 1861, freedom seekers Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory, and James Townsend reached Union lines and US general Benjamin Butler refused to return them to their Confederate slaveholder. The US War Department endorsed Butler’s claim that the freedom seekers could be confiscated as “contraband of war.”
(1861) MITCHELVILLE, SC: Why Mitchelville Matters to Me (NPS)
After US forces occupied sections of coastal South Carolina in late 1861, freedom seekers who reached US lines worked for wages at freedpeople’s colonies like Mitchelville. Journalists and missionaries reported breathlessly on the free labor experiments as evidence of freedpeople’s ability to work for themselves.
(1862) MANTEO, NC: Freedmen’s Colony Program (NPS)
After US forces launched an amphibious expedition seizing stretches of coastal North Carolina in early 1862, growing numbers of freedom seekers reached safety behind US lines at Roanoke Island and other contraband camps.
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Capital Region
Middle Atlantic
(1847) CARLISLE, PA: Old Cumberland County Courthouse (House Divided)
In 1847, Black vigilance leaders in Carlisle rescued two freedom seekers from the county courthouse, fatally injuring a slaveholder in the process. Prosecutors attempted to pin the resistance on Dickinson College professor John McClintock, who was acquitted, but did convict 11 African Americans, who were sentenced to the state penitentiary before their convictions were overturned.
WILMINGTON, DE: Thomas Garrett Home (NPS)
(1851) YORK, PA: William C. Goodridge Freedom Center & Underground Railroad Museum (Explore York)
From his York home, Black businessman and abolitionist William C. Goodridge assisted freedom seekers escaping through southern Pennsylvania. Goodridge used his rail line to assist the escape of activists fleeing Christiana in 1851 and later John Brown’s abortive Harpers Ferry Raid in 1859.
Ohio Valley
(1835) RIPLEY, OH: John Rankin (PBS)
A Presbyterian minister, John Rankin sheltered freedom seekers in his home and founded the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society in 1835. Rankin’s Underground Railroad activities inspired portions of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
(1839) FOUNTAIN CITY, IN: Hoosier Heroes of the Underground Railroad (Journey Indiana)
Quakers born in North Carolina, Levi and Catharine Coffin relocated to Indiana and became pivotal activists in the Underground Railroad from their home, built in 1839.
(1859) HARPERS FERRY, WV: The Raid on Harpers Ferry (Smithsonian)
From October 16-18, 1859, abolitionist John Brown and followers led a failed raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, hoping to start a slave insurrection.
(1864) NICHOLASVILLE, KY: Camp Nelson National Monument (American Battlefield Trust)
Enslaved men enlisting in the U.S. Colored Troops and their families gathered in Camp Nelson, where a US general’s controversial order to expel Black women and children led to over 100 civilian deaths in November 1864.
SPIEGEL GROVE, OH: Rutherford B. and Lucy Hayes Home (NPS)
New England
(1820) FERRISBURGH, VT: Rokeby Museum (Vermont Historical Society)
Abolitionists Rowland and Rachel Gilpin Robinson married in 1820 and settled at Rokeby near Ferrisburgh, Vermont, where they assisted dozens of freedom seekers.
(1838) NEW BEDFORD, MA: Nathan and Polly Johnson House (NPS)
In 1838, Black activists Nathan and Polly Johnson sheltered freedom seeker Frederick Douglass after his escape from slavery in Baltimore.
(1844) BOSTON, MA: Lewis and Harriet Hayden (NPS)
Freedom seekers Lewis and Harriet Hayden escaped from Kentucky in 1844 and eventually settled in Boston, taking an active role in Boston’s antislavery vigilance committee and sheltering other freedom seekers in their home. In October 1850, the Haydens protected William and Ellen Craft from slave catchers.
(1850) FLORENCE, MA: Basil Dorsey and Thomas H. Jones House (Sojourner Truth Memorial)
Two freedom seekers lived at this Florence, Massachusetts home after escaping from slavery: Basil Dorsey (1850-1852) and after him Thomas Jones (1854-1859).
(1852) BRUNSWICK, ME: Harriet Beecher Stowe House (CSPAN)
Abolitionist author Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin from her Brunswick, Maine home.