Timeline

Banner Image:  Underground Railroad installation created in 1977 by undergraduate Cameron Armstrong on the campus of Oberlin College (Oberlin College)

Slavery, Resistance, and the Legacy of the Underground Railroad, 1520s to 2020s

Compiled by Cooper H. Wingert

and the House Divided staff

Last updated March 2023

1526

First documented slave rebellion in mainland North America erupts at the short-lived Spanish colony San Miguel de Gualdape near Sapelo Sound, Georgia, as enslaved Africans and indigenous Guale revolt and escape the settlement.

1619

Virginia colonist John Rolfe reports on the arrival of Africans in late August from the first of two pirate ships that had raided Portuguese slave traders on the high seas. The infamous “Middle Passage” of the trans-Atlantic slave trade had already resulted in the kidnapping of hundreds of thousands of Africans who had then been transported to the Americas, but Rolfe’s written observations represent some of the earliest records of African servitude and enslavement in British North America.

1641

Massachusetts becomes the first colony to explicitly legalize chattel slavery on the North American mainland.

1662

Virginia legalizes hereditary slavery with a new law specifying that children of enslaved women inherit the status of their mother, not their father.

1738

Florida’s Spanish governor Don Manuel de Montiano grants unconditional freedom to enslaved people escaping neighboring British colonies who are willing to convert to Catholicism, and sanctions the establishment of a free Black settlement at Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (Fort Mose).

1739

Enslaved insurgents fight for their freedom in the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina, one of the largest slave revolts in the British North American colonies before it is suppressed by local white militia.

1772

Chief Justice Lord Mansfield of England establishes the freedom principle in the Somerset case involving American freedom seeker James Somerset, whose slaveholder brought him to England. Mansfield rules that Somerset cannot be taken back to the American colonies, because slavery is “so odious” it can only exist where positive laws are in force. The ruling becomes a key tool for antislavery activists across the Atlantic.

1775

Virginia’s royal governor Lord Dunmore offers freedom to enslaved men willing to serve in the British army in November.

1779

British general Henry Clinton issues his Philipsburg Proclamation in June, offering freedom to Black men and women enslaved by Patriots in all thirteen rebellious colonies, regardless of whether they join the British army.

1780

Pennsylvania legislature adopts gradual abolition declaring that enslaved children born after March 1 will become free at age 28. The law does not free enslaved Pennsylvanians born before its passage and allows unfree labor to continue for decades. Nonetheless, it makes the state a key destination for freedom seekers escaping the South.

1783

Thousands of Black refugees escape with evacuating British forces even though the Treaty of Paris pledges Britain to return American freedom seekers. US politicians spend decades futilely seeking compensation for one of the largest episodes of slave flight in American history until the Civil War.

Massachusetts chief justice William Cushing rules that slavery is incompatible with the state’s new constitution after two enslaved people, Elizabeth Freeman and Quok Walker, successfully sue their slaveholders.

1787

Northwest Ordinance outlaws slavery in any new states created north of the Ohio River.

US Constitution’s Fugitive Slave Clause authorizes slaveholders to pursue freedom seekers anywhere in the country, but remains silent about whether state or federal authorities are responsible for overseeing renditions.

1793

1793 Fugitive Slave Act receives President George Washington’s signature on February 12 and becomes the nation’s first federal statute attempting to regulate freedom seekers. But the law entrusts enforcement to Northern states, not the federal government.

Upper Canada adopts gradual abolition at the urging of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe. The legislation frees enslaved children once they reach the age of 25 and bans the future importation of enslaved people, establishing Canada as a haven for freedom seekers fleeing the US.

1796

Ona Judge escapes from President George Washington in Philadelphia on May 21. Traveling by ship to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Judge twice evades Washington’s slave catchers and lives there until her death in 1848.

1800

Authorities foil Gabriel’s Revolt near Richmond, Virginia, executing alleged conspirators.

1804

Ohio adopts its Black Laws which require free African Americans to register upon arriving in the state. Other Northern states soon follow suit and pass similar laws to discourage Black emigration. 

1807

British Empire abolishes the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in March.

1808

Congress outlaws the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and future slave imports from overseas, but the domestic slave trade within the Southern states grows.

1811

German Coast Uprising becomes the largest slave rebellion in US history in Louisiana in January, before US troops and local militia defeat and capture the freedom seekers.

1819

Upper Canada embraces the Somerset principle when Chief Justice John Beverley Robinson rules that enslaved people become free the moment they reach Canadian soil. Canadian authorities refuse to extradite freedom seekers to the US, increasing Canada’s appeal to African Americans.

1820

Missouri Compromise is approved by Congress, extending the geographic divide between free and slave states westward.

Pennsylvania adopts a new personal liberty law or anti-kidnapping statute to protect free Black residents. In the coming years, other Northern states pass similar personal liberty laws, which establish basic legal protections for African Americans living in the North and make it difficult for slaveholders to recapture freedom seekers.

1825

William Grimes publishes one of the first slave narratives in US history to offset the cost of purchasing his own freedom. 

1826

Quakers Levi and Catherine Coffin relocate from North Carolina to Indiana, and then to Cincinnati in 1847, assisting hundreds of freedom seekers. The couple’s prolific activism earns Levi the moniker “President of the Underground Railroad.”

1827

Freedom’s Journal begins publication in New York, becoming the first Black-owned newspaper in the US.

1829

Black abolitionist David Walker publishes his Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World which endorses slave revolts and calls for the use of violence to overthrow slavery.

1830

Kentucky tightens its slave stealing laws and makes it a crime to “seduce” an enslaved person to escape, ushering in a new era of harsher slave stealing statutes across the South. 

1831

William Lloyd Garrison founds The Liberator which becomes a leading abolitionist newspaper and an influential voice for immediate abolition and moral suasion for the next three decades.

Nat Turner leads a slave revolt in Southhampton County, Virginia in August. Authorities capture the rebels and execute Turner, but the violent insurrection unnerves slaveholders across the South.

1833

Abolitionists gather at Philadelphia in December to form the American Anti-Slavery Society, under the leadership of Boston editor William Lloyd Garrison.

1834

British Parliament abolishes slavery throughout its empire on August 1.

Jermain Loguen escapes from Tennessee to Canada and eventually settles in Syracuse, New York, where he openly boasts about aiding freedom seekers and earns a reputation as the “Underground Railroad king.”

1835

Abolitionist David Ruggles founds the New York Committee of Vigilance, a self-protection society for Black New Yorkers aimed at preventing kidnapping. The group soon expands its mission to include aiding and sheltering freedom seekers. Similar vigilance committees organize across the North, creating a series of interconnected local networks to assist freedom seekers.

New York’s highest court declares 1793 Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional in Jack v. Martin in December, with Chancellor Reuben Walworth arguing that the Constitution’s fugitive slave clause never expressly granted power to the federal government to enforce it, but instead reserved that power for states. 

1837

Mexico’s Congress abolishes slavery on April 5, making the country a leading destination for freedom seekers escaping from the US South. Although Mexican president Vincente Guerrero had used war powers to abolish slavery in 1829, his abolition decree had been selectively enforced. No longer trying to placate slaveholding Texans, Mexican leaders adopt a more unambiguous antislavery stance.

Maine refuses to extradite two white sailors to Georgia on slave stealing charges after the two men had helped a freedom seeker named Atticus escape from Savannah, Georgia. 

Philadelphia abolitionists organize their own vigilance committee in August modeled after Ruggles’s New York organization. Initially led by Black activist Robert Purvis, the group goes underground for much of the 1840s before returning to the public eye under the leadership of Black abolitionist William Still in 1852.

Freedom seeker Charles Ball publishes his narrative Slavery in the United States which gains a wide audience among abolitionist readers.

1838

Frederick Douglass escapes slavery in Maryland and travels to New York, where vigilance leader David Ruggles shelters him. Douglass moves on to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he later begins his career as an antislavery lecturer.

1839

New York governor William Seward refuses to extradite three white sailors to Virginia on slave stealing charges. Virginia retaliates by imposing special inspection fees on New York-owned vessels. 

1840

Antislavery movement divides over strategy between followers of William Lloyd Garrison, who embrace pacifism and moral suasion, and others who prefer direct political action against slavery. Political abolitionists leave the American Anti-Slavery Society in May and form the rival American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.

1841

Missouri court convicts three abolitionists for slave stealing and sentences the three men, James Burr, George Thompson, and Alanson Work, to 12 years in prison.

1842

US Supreme Court strikes down many Northern states’ personal liberty laws in Prigg. v. Pennsylvania in March. Although the ruling marks a victory for slaveholders, it also shifts responsibility for fugitive slave renditions from individual states to the federal government.

Harriet Jacobs escapes slavery in North Carolina and reaches New York City by boat. On the eve of the Civil War, Jacobs publishes her autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, detailing the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her enslaver.

1843

Massachusetts enacts the Latimer law in March in response to the Supreme Court’s Prigg ruling. The new Massachusetts law prohibits state officials from helping slaveholders pursue enslaved people. Other Northern states follow suit and pass their own non-cooperation laws that frustrate slaveholders’ attempts to recapture freedom seekers.

1844

Lewis and Harriet Hayden escape from Kentucky with the help of schoolteacher Delia Webster and Reverend Calvin Fairbank. Kentucky authorities convict Webster and Fairbank for their role in the escape. Webster is pardoned in 1845, and Fairbank in 1849. Fairbank continues to aid Kentucky freedom seekers before being convicted again in 1852 and is jailed until 1864.

Maryland authorities convict abolitionist Charles Torrey for slave stealing and sentence him to six years in prison. Torrey would die behind bars two years later.

1845

Garrisonians establish a second vigilance committee in New York City to assist freedom seekers, operated by Black activist Louis Napoleon and antislavery editor Sydney Howard Gay.

Frederick Douglass publishes his Narrative the first of several memoirs recounting his escape from slavery, establishing him as one of the most requested speakers on the abolitionist lecture circuit.

1847

The Crosswhite Family rescue from slave catchers at Marshall, Michigan in January prompts slaveholders to call for stricter federal fugitive slave legislation, including criminal penalties for Underground Railroad activists. 

US Supreme Court affirms the constitutionality of the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act in Jones. v. Van Zandt in March, ruling that Ohio abolitionist John Van Zandt had to compensate a Kentucky slaveholder for helping a freedom seeker escape.

Vigilance activists rescue two freedom seekers and fatally injure Maryland slave catcher James Kennedy in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on June 2. A jury acquits Dickinson College professor John McClintock on charges of inciting a riot, but sentences 11 Black residents to the state penitentiary for their role in the rescue, before the state’s supreme court ultimately overturns their convictions.

1848

Pearl mass escape rattles Washington, DC slaveholders when 77 freedom seekers attempt to flee the nation’s capital by boat on April 15. Armed whites overtake the group, and slaveholders sell many of the freedom seekers south. Later, local authorities convict two white allies, Daniel Drayton and Edward Sayres, on charges of slave stealing. Unable to pay their fines, Drayton and Sayres remain in jail until President Millard Fillmore pardons them in 1852.

More than 40 armed freedom seekers escape in a “slave stampede” from Lexington, Kentucky on August 5. Kentucky militia clash with the freedom seekers before finally recapturing them days later. Slaveholders sell alleged enslaved ringleaders to the Deep South, while authorities convict their white leader, Edward J. “Patrick” Doyle, to 20 years in the state penitentiary.

Freedom seekers William and Ellen Craft make a daring escape by train from Macon, Georgia to Philadelphia. The light-skinned Ellen impersonates a male slaveholder, while William acts as her enslaved valet. Slave catchers track the couple to Boston two years later, but the city’s vigilance committee protects the Crafts. Nonetheless, William and Ellen sail to England for greater safety, where they publish an account of their escape, Running A Thousand Miles for Freedom in 1860.

 1849

Henry “Box” Brown arranges to be express mailed out of slavery in Richmond to the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee’s office. Brown later tours Great Britain as an antislavery lecturer.

Harriet Tubman escapes from Maryland fearing that her slaveholder is planning to sell her. Tubman returns to the Eastern Shore throughout the 1850s to rescue other enslaved people, becomes active on the antislavery lecture circuit, and takes up residence in New York and Canada.

An attempted “slave stampede” involving 35-50 armed freedom seekers is thwarted by local militia near Canton, Missouri on November 2.

1850

Abolitionists rally against the proposed Fugitive Slave Act at the Cazenovia Convention in upstate New York on August 21. Over 2,000 abolitionists and 50 freedom seekers attend, as Frederick Douglass and other speakers vow to resist slave catchers with force.

1850 Fugitive Slave Act is signed into law on September 18, making the federal government responsible for recapturing freedom seekers who have escaped into the Northern states and imposing new criminal penalties on Underground Railroad activists.

Federal authorities return James Hamlet to slavery from New York City on September 26, marking the first case under the new Fugitive Slave Act.

Black abolitionists found the Committee of Thirteen in New York City in response to the Fugitive Slave Act. Led by Dr. James McCune Smith, Philip A. Bell, and William P. Powell, the vigilance committee shelters freedom seekers across Manhattan and Brooklyn during the early 1850s.

1851

Boston’s vigilance committee rescues Shadrach Minkins on February 15, after federal officers seized him under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.

Christiana resistance erupts in south central Pennsylvania on September 11, when local residents from Lancaster County and four freedom seekers from Maryland open fire and kill their slaveholder Edward Gorsuch in the presence of federal officials and a posse of his relatives. The federal government charges nearly 40 people with treason, but the freedom seekers and the leaders of the resistance escape to Canada and prosecutors ultimately fail to secure any convictions.

Black and white activists rescue Jerry Henry from a fugitive slave rendition hearing in Syracuse, New York on October 1. The dramatic rescue further embarrasses the US government’s efforts to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, as Henry escapes to Canada and federal prosecutors only manage to convict one of the abolitionists.

1852

Uncle Tom’s Cabin sells over 300,000 copies in its first year, as novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe rallies antislavery sentiment among Northern readers.

Maryland slave catcher kills freedom seeker William Smith at Columbia, Pennsylvania on April 29, after Smith resists arrest under the Fugitive Slave Act. Smith may be the only freedom seeker killed by a slave catcher on Northern soil under the auspices of the federal law. 

Pennsylvania abolitionist Daniel Kaufman fined under the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act for aiding 13 freedom seekers five years earlier. The $4,000 judgement against Kaufman marks a rare legal victory for slaveholders against an abolitionist, but does little to deter other Underground Railroad activists.

1853

Freedom seeker William Thomas fights off federal officers with help from local residents at Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania on September 3. After Thomas escapes, vigilance leaders charge federal deputy marshals with assault and battery under Pennsylvania state law.

1854

Kansas-Nebraska Act is passed by Congress in May codifying the doctrine of popular sovereignty, which allows incoming states to decide whether to permit or outlaw slavery. The law overturns the Missouri Compromise line that prohibited new slave states north of the 36th parallel, outraging many Northerners.

US troops return freedom seeker Anthony Burns to slavery from Boston on June 2. The federal government’s controversial tactics turn more Northerners against the Fugitive Slave Act. Boston abolitionists later purchase Burns’s freedom, and Burns attends Oberlin College in Ohio before moving to Canada as a preacher.

Wisconsin Supreme Court defies federal authority and declares the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional in July. The US Supreme Court later reverses the Wisconsin court ruling in 1859 in Abelman v. Booth.

Nearly 40 enslaved people liberate themselves in a pair of “slave stampedes” from St. Louis in October and November.

1855

Federal authorities release Rosetta Armistead following a rendition hearing on April 3. Her lawyer, future president Rutherford B. Hayes, successfully argues that Armistead is free because her slaveholder willingly brought her onto Ohio soil. 

St. Louis authorities thwart another attempted “slave stampede” in May and accuse three free Black residents of involvement in the escape plot, including Mary Meachum.

Jane Johnson and her children escape from a US ambassador while passing through Philadelphia on July 18. Infuriated slaveholders target one of the abolitionists who helped her escape, Passmore Williamson. But instead of discouraging Underground Railroad activism, Williamson’s highly publicized three-month prison sentence transforms him into a martyr for the antislavery cause.

1856

US authorities recapture freedom seeker Margaret Garner and her family near Cincinnati, Ohio on January 28 under the Fugitive Slave Act. Rather than see her family returned to slavery, Garner kills her youngest child before federal officers seize her. The US government eventually returns Garner and her family to slavery, but not before the tragic case shocks more Northerners into speaking out against slavery.

Abolitionist Benjamin drew publishes A North-Side View of Slavery, a compilation of interviews with formerly enslaved people who had escaped from the United States and resettled in Canada West (modern-day Ontario).

1857

Dred Scott decision delivers a major blow to the antislavery movement as Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney rules in March that Black people are not US citizens, while also insisting that property rights in slaves are nationally protected.

Ohio residents rescue Addison White from federal custody in May prompting a standoff between federal authorities and Ohio officials. White’s rescuers go unpunished despite openly defying the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.

Federal authorities recapture freedom seekers Angela and Irwin in Cincinnati on June 12. Prosecutors convict Cincinnati newspaperman William Connelly for harboring the couple, but Connelly only serves 20 days and is celebrated as an antislavery martyr. 

1858

Archy Lee secures his freedom during a rendition hearing at San Francisco in April, the first case under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act in California. 

Vigilance forces liberate John Price in the Oberlin-Wellington rescue in Ohio on September 13. The US government charges 37 rescuers with violating the Fugitive Slave Act, but only manages to convict two abolitionists to relatively light sentences.

John Brown leads a raid into western Missouri that frees a dozen enslaved people in December, anticipating his Harpers Ferry raid less than a year later.

1859

Slave catchers overtake Dr. John Doy and a wagon train of 11 freedom seekers traveling through Kansas on January 25. The freedom seekers are reenslaved, but Kansas abolitionists rescue Doy from a Missouri prison in July.

John Brown launches his abortive Harpers Ferry insurrection on October 16-18 before US marines surround Brown and his followers. Virginia authorities execute Brown in December, but his death transforms him into a martyr among many antislavery Northerners.

Illinois crowd rescues freedom seeker Jim Gray from federal custody in Ottawa on October 20. 

1860

Harriet Tubman and vigilance forces rescue Charles Nalle from federal custody in Troy, New York on April 27.

Abraham Lincoln wins the 1860 election in November and becomes the first US president elected on an antislavery platform.

1861

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.

First Confiscation Act is signed into law by President Lincoln on August 6, authorizing US armies to seize any enslaved people forced to labor for the Confederacy.

US Supreme Court rules in Kentucky v. Dennison that the federal government cannot compel states to extradite individuals to face criminal charges in another state. The case marks a victory for antislavery activists and Ohio governor William Dennison, who had refused to extradite free African American activist Willis Lago to Kentucky on charges of slave stealing. 

1862

Revised Articles of War are passed by Congress in March, forbidding US soldiers from returning freedom seekers.

District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act is signed into law by President Lincoln on April 16, freeing the capital’s enslaved residents and reimbursing slaveholders.

Congress outlaws slavery in US territories on June 19.

Second Confiscation Act receives President Lincoln’s signature on July 17. The new legislation goes much further than its predecessor (August 1861), empowering the president to direct US armies to liberate any enslaved people held by disloyal slaveholders as “captives of war.”

1862 Militia Act is passed by Congress allowing African Americans to enlist in the US army as laborers.

Lincoln administration signals support for Black citizenship when Attorney General Edward Bates argues in November that free African Americans are US citizens, rejecting the logic behind the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott ruling.

1863

Emancipation Proclamation is issued by President Lincoln on January 1, declaring free all enslaved people held in the Confederate states and authorizing the enlistment of Black soldiers. The sweeping directive, however, exempts Union-occupied Tennessee and parts of Union-occupied Virginia and Louisiana, designating them as under control of civil laws and not war measures.

Bureau of Colored Troops is established in May, transforming Black recruitment from efforts at the state-level to a national bureau in the adjutant general’s office. More than 180,000 African American men serve in the US Colored Troops during the Civil War.

1864

Arkansas Unionists abolish slavery as voters ratify a new state constitution in March, over the protest of Confederate sympathizers.

US Senate approves the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery by an overwhelming margin on April 8, but the amendment stalls in the House of Representatives.

National Union (Republican) Party platform endorses abolition by constitutional amendment at the national convention held in Baltimore in early June.

Congress repeals the 1793 and 1850 Fugitive Slave Acts on June 28.

Louisiana Unionists vote to end slavery in September.

Maryland voters abolish slavery by a slim majority in October.

1865

House of Representatives approves the 13th Amendment 119 to 56 on January 31, sending it to the states for ratification.

13th Amendment is officially proclaimed on December 18, after receiving the approval of the required three-fourths of the states.

1869

Sarah Bradford publishes Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, celebrating Tubman’s involvement in the Underground Railroad. Proceeds from the book go to help Tubman, then living in poverty.

1872

Abolitionist William Still publishes vigilance committee records in his book The Underground Railroad.

1893

Charles T. Webber’s painting “The Underground Railroad” is unveiled at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. 

1898

Professor Wilbur Siebert authors the first scholarly study of the Underground Railroad, which relies heavily on interviews with white abolitionists and their children. Leaning into folklore, Siebert depicts the Underground Railroad as an elaborate series of “routes” manned by “conductors.”

1951

The Weavers release the first commercially recorded version of  “Follow the Drinking Gourd.” Adapted by Lee Hays for the popular folk-singing group in the late 1940s, the song celebrates the Underground Railroad, but leads to confusion about whether freedom seekers actually used coded songs to escape.

1961

Historian Larry Gara publishes The Liberty Line which challenges depictions of an elaborate Underground Railroad network. Instead, Gara argues that freedom seekers escaped largely on their own with little organized assistance.

1967

Artist Jacob Lawrence illustrates Harriet and the Promised Land, a children’s book about Harriet Tubman. Lawrence had previously created a series of 31 paintings entitled The Life of Harriet Tubman in 1940.

1977

Oberlin College senior Cameron Armstrong unveils an Underground Railroad sculpture which depicts railroad tracks emerging from the ground at an angle.

1998

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.

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.

2011

Fort Monroe is named a national monument chronicling the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in 1619 and wartime emancipation.

2014

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park is established on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

2017

Colson Whitehead’s novel The Underground Railroad wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Barry Jenkins subsequently adapts the novel into a television series that premiers on streaming services in 2021.

2018

Historian Richard Blackett publishes The Captive’s Quest for Freedom, which uses contemporary newspaper reports and trial transcripts to document Underground Railroad activity, placing less reliance on the recollections gathered by historian Wilbur Siebert.

2019

Film Harriet is released depicting the life of freedom seeker Harriet Tubman.

2021

Juneteenth National Independence Day Act is signed into law by President Joe Biden, establishing June 19 as a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.