{"id":1664,"date":"2021-08-11T12:46:48","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T16:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/?page_id=1664"},"modified":"2023-06-26T11:40:20","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T15:40:20","slug":"foner-on-middle-atlantic-region-foner","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/regional-essays\/foner-on-middle-atlantic-region-foner\/","title":{"rendered":"The Underground Railroad in the Middle Atlantic Region by Eric Foner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Banner image:\u00a0<\/strong>The 1849 escape of Henry &#8220;Box&#8221; Brown from Richmond, Virginia to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was perhaps the most sensational Underground Railroad story of the era.\u00a0 Original illustration from William Still\u2019s <em>Underground Railroad<\/em> (1872), colorized by Forbes (<a href=\"https:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/18059\">House Divided Project<\/a>)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Download PDF version of this essay (coming soon)<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/category\/foner\/\">See related Timeline entries<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>By the 1830s, slavery had essentially ceased to exist in Pennsylvania and New York.\u00a0 Yet slavery in the South remained central to the economic prosperity of these states\u2019 great urban centers, Philadelphia and New York City.\u00a0 As a result, the abolitionist movement there was far smaller than in cities further north, such as Boston and Syracuse, and many local officials were more than happy to cooperate in apprehending and returning enslaved people seeking freedom from\u00a0 bondage.\u00a0 Nonetheless, Philadelphia and New York were critical way stations in the metropolitan corridor through which fugitives from slavery made their way from the Upper South to upstate New York, New England, and Canada.\u00a0 Indeed, the Underground Railroad may be said to have originated in these cities.<\/p>\n<p>The history of slavery, and of individuals assisting runaway slaves in the Middle Atlantic region goes back to the early colonial days.\u00a0 Not until the 1830s, however, did organized efforts emerge to aid persons fleeing from bondage.\u00a0 In 1835, David Ruggles, a Black activist who called on the antislavery movement to devote its efforts to \u201cpractical abolition,\u201d established the New York Committee of Vigilance.\u00a0 Originally focused on combating the kidnapping of free Blacks from city streets for sale into southern slavery, the committee soon began offering assistance to enslaved African Americans seeking freedom.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In 1835, David Ruggles, a Black activist who called on the antislavery movement to devote its efforts to \u201cpractical abolition,\u201d established the New York Committee of Vigilance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_4748\" style=\"width: 1278px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-18-at-4.32.06-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4748\" class=\"wp-image-4748 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-18-at-4.32.06-PM.png\" alt=\"1838 cartoon\" width=\"1268\" height=\"780\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-18-at-4.32.06-PM.png 1268w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-18-at-4.32.06-PM-300x185.png 300w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-18-at-4.32.06-PM-1024x630.png 1024w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-18-at-4.32.06-PM-768x472.png 768w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-18-at-4.32.06-PM-900x554.png 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1268px) 100vw, 1268px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4748\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">1838 political cartoon featuring David Ruggles (center) and other &#8220;disappointed abolitionists&#8221; in New York City (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/pictures\/item\/2008661783\/\">Library of Congress<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In one form or another, the Committee of Vigilance survived until the Civil War.\u00a0 Its active leaders generally consisted of only a dozen or so individuals, mostly Black, assisted by a few white abolitionists.\u00a0 Ordinary members of the city\u2019s free Black community \u2013 the nation\u2019s largest \u2013 watched for fugitives on the docks and city streets.\u00a0 Ironically, the low-income occupations to which Blacks in New York were relegated &#8212; servants in hotels and private homes, and dockworkers \u2013 put them in a strategic position to assist enslaved men and women who accompanied their owners visiting New York and were entitled, according to state law, to freedom.\u00a0 The committee took part in a remarkable range of activities, some legal and public, some secret and against the law.\u00a0 \u201cPractical abolition\u201d included monthly meetings to raise money and report on activities, efforts to expand the rights of free Blacks, and lawyers who went to court attempting to foil kidnappers and prevent the return of alleged fugitives whom authorities had apprehended.<\/p>\n<p>Before the advent of the New York committee, one abolitionist newspaper noted, the plight of fugitives had been a matter \u201ctoo little thought of by the professed friends of the colored man.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn1\" name=\"_ednref1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 But at its annual meeting in 1838, the American Anti-Slavery Society urged abolitionists \u201cto appoint committees of vigilance, whose duty it shall be to assist fugitives from slavery, in making their escape, or in legal vindication of their rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By 1842, the weekly <em>National Anti-Slavery Standard<\/em> could report the existence of such organizations \u201cin most of our cities and large towns,\u201d including Philadelphia.<a href=\"#_edn2\" name=\"_ednref2\"><sup>[2]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 New York City had taken the lead, but a broader infrastructure of local individuals and groups committed to assisting those seeking freedom\u00a0 was now in place.\u00a0 In the 1840s, their ability to coordinate their efforts would expand, and collectively they would become known as the Underground Railroad.<\/p>\n<p>After the abolitionist movement split into competing camps in 1840, followers of William Lloyd Garrison established a second Underground Railroad outpost in New York City, since the Committee of Vigilance was closely associated with the anti-Garrisonian faction led by the New York merchant Lewis Tappan.\u00a0 Centered at the office of the <em>National Anti-Slavery Standard<\/em>, this new vigilance committee was led by Sydney Howard Gay, the newspaper\u2019s editor, and Louis Napoleon, a Black porter who worked in the office and, although illiterate, took part in numerous activities relating to alleged fugitives including seeking writs of habeas corpus for those who had been captured in New York.\u00a0 Napoleon scoured New York\u2019s docks searching for enslaved people who had concealed themselves on vessels and met runaways dispatched by train from Philadelphia.\u00a0 In one court proceeding, the attorney for a slaveholder sarcastically asked the abolitionist lawyer John Jay II if the Louis Napoleon who had brought the case was the emperor of France.\u00a0 Jay replied: \u201ca much better man.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn3\" name=\"_ednref3\"><sup>[3]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 A third organization assisting fugitives, the Committee of Thirteen, also operated for a few years in New York in the early 1850s.\u00a0 This group of Black abolitionists included the prominent physician James McCune Smith and William P. Powell, who ran the Colored Seamen\u2019s Boarding House near the East River docks.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1665\" style=\"width: 526px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-11-at-12.42.25-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1665\" class=\"wp-image-1665 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-11-at-12.42.25-PM.png\" alt=\"NYC map\" width=\"516\" height=\"1002\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-11-at-12.42.25-PM.png 516w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-11-at-12.42.25-PM-154x300.png 154w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 516px) 100vw, 516px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1665\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Status of select Underground Railroad sites in New York City (House Divided Project)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Some of the most celebrated fugitives in American history passed through Philadelphia and New York.\u00a0 They included Frederick Douglass, who found refuge at Ruggles\u2019 home after arriving from Maryland in 1838; Harriet Tubman, who after her own escape made numerous forays into Maryland to lead others out of slavery; Harriet Jacobs, who hid for seven years in her free grandmother\u2019s attic in North Carolina before a sea captain transported her to freedom; and Henry \u201cBox\u201d Brown, who arranged to be shipped in a crate from Richmond to the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee\u2019s office.\u00a0 The passage of the draconian 1850 Fugitive Slave Act did not deter Underground Railroad operatives.\u00a0 The Philadelphia committee forthrightly advertised its meetings in local newspapers and held public fund-raising meetings.\u00a0 \u201cFugitives from southern injustice are coming thick and fast,\u201d read one of the committee\u2019s public notices in 1854.\u00a0 \u201cThe underground railroad never before did so large a business as it is doing now.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn4\" name=\"_ednref4\"><sup>[4]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 50%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-1664 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-large'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Harriet-Jacobs.jpeg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"485\" height=\"586\" src=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Harriet-Jacobs.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"woman seated in chair, arms crossed\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-2657\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Harriet-Jacobs.jpeg 485w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Harriet-Jacobs-248x300.jpeg 248w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-2657'>\n\t\t\t\tHarriet Jacobs (<a href=\"https:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/19134\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\">House Divided Project<\/a>)\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Harriet-Tubman.jpeg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"485\" height=\"592\" src=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Harriet-Tubman.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"woman standing, arms folded\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-2658\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Harriet-Tubman.jpeg 485w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Harriet-Tubman-246x300.jpeg 246w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-2658'>\n\t\t\t\tHarriet Tubman (<a href=\"https:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/11943\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\">House Divided Project<\/a>)\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>In 1855 and 1856, in two tiny notebooks now available online, which he called the Record of Fugitives, Sydney Howard Gay meticulously recorded the arrival of well over two hundred men, women, and children at his office on Nassau Street, not far from New York\u2019s City Hall.<a href=\"#_edn5\" name=\"_ednref5\"><sup>[5]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 More than half arrived by train via Philadelphia and also appear in a similar notebook (entitled Journal C of Station No. 2 and also digitized) maintained by William Still, the leading spirit of that city\u2019s vigilance committee, who arranged for runaways to be sent to Gay.<a href=\"#_edn6\" name=\"_ednref6\"><sup>[6]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Taken together the two documents contain a treasure trove of information about both those seeking freedom\u00a0 and how the Underground Railroad in the Middle Atlantic region operated.\u00a0\u00a0 Not surprisingly, nearly half the enslaved runaways originated in Maryland and Delaware, the eastern slave states closest to free soil.\u00a0 But many also arrived from Virginia and North Carolina, states considerably more distant.\u00a0 Individuals of every age absconded, but most were in their twenties, their prime working years, when their economic value to their owners was at its peak.\u00a0 Three quarters of those seeking freedom were men.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 50%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-2' class='gallery galleryid-1664 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-large'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Sydney-Howard-Gay.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"629\" height=\"752\" src=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Sydney-Howard-Gay.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"man facial hair side profile\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-2-2675\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Sydney-Howard-Gay.jpg 676w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/Sydney-Howard-Gay-251x300.jpg 251w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-2-2675'>\n\t\t\t\tSydney Howard Gay (<a href=\"https:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/44278\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\">House Divided Project<\/a>)\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/William-Still.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"629\" height=\"782\" src=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/William-Still-824x1024.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"headshot man cleanshaven\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-2-2670\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/William-Still-824x1024.jpg 824w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/William-Still-242x300.jpg 242w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/William-Still-768x954.jpg 768w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/William-Still-900x1118.jpg 900w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/11\/William-Still.jpg 1008w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-2-2670'>\n\t\t\t\tWilliam Still (<a href=\"https:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/12783\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\">House Divided Project<\/a>)\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>While the popular image of the Underground Railroad tends to focus on lone individuals making their way north on foot, in fact, more of the enslaved who passed through Philadelphia and New York in the mid-1850s escaped in groups, sometimes composed of family members including small children.\u00a0 Many absconded on Captain Albert Fountain\u2019s ship the <em>City of Richmond<\/em>.\u00a0 Fountain established a regular packet service from Richmond and Norfolk to New York City in the early 1850s.\u00a0 He was not, Still wrote, \u201caverse to receiving compensation for his services,\u201d up to one hundred dollars per slave.\u00a0 He offered to rescue the families of fugitives for a hefty fee.\u00a0 A Black ship carpenter worked with Fountain, informing potential runaways when the vessel was sailing.\u00a0 The ship often stopped at Wilmington, Delaware, to pick up runaways who had been given refuge by Thomas Garrett, a Quaker abolitionist. In Philadelphia, Fountain landed fugitives at night at the foot of Broad Street, where Still arranged for them to be met.\u00a0 Whatever the cost, those seeking freedom certainly appreciated Fountain\u2019s efforts.\u00a0 Thomas Page, who escaped from Norfolk on Fountain\u2019s vessel in 1856, asked Still two years later to \u201cgive my love\u201d to the captain and to urge him to visit Boston, \u201cas there are a number of his friends that would like to see him.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn7\" name=\"_ednref7\"><sup>[7]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The nation\u2019s rail network expanded rapidly in the two decades before the Civil War and a good number of freedom seekers took advantage of this new technology.\u00a0 Harriet Eglin and her cousin Charlotte Giles of Baltimore borrowed five dollars \u201con the credit of Charlotte\u2019s mistress\u201d and arranged for a white man, who had been told they were free, to buy their train tickets to Pennsylvania.<a href=\"#_edn8\" name=\"_ednref8\"><sup>[8]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Many fugitives, of course, did escape on foot, sometimes over long distances.\u00a0 Simon Hill of Appomattox County, Virginia, told Gay he \u201ctook &#8230; to the woods, and bent his steps northward and in about two weeks reached Philadelphia,\u201d a distance of well over two hundred miles.<a href=\"#_edn9\" name=\"_ednref9\"><sup>[9]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3264\" style=\"width: 639px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/12\/Gay-Record-of-Fugitives-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3264\" class=\"wp-image-3264 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/12\/Gay-Record-of-Fugitives-scaled-e1687120837169-845x1024.jpg\" alt=\"handwritten document with cursive\" width=\"629\" height=\"762\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/12\/Gay-Record-of-Fugitives-scaled-e1687120837169-845x1024.jpg 845w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/12\/Gay-Record-of-Fugitives-scaled-e1687120837169-248x300.jpg 248w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/12\/Gay-Record-of-Fugitives-scaled-e1687120837169-768x931.jpg 768w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/12\/Gay-Record-of-Fugitives-scaled-e1687120837169-1267x1536.jpg 1267w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/12\/Gay-Record-of-Fugitives-scaled-e1687120837169-1690x2048.jpg 1690w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/12\/Gay-Record-of-Fugitives-scaled-e1687120837169-900x1091.jpg 900w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/12\/Gay-Record-of-Fugitives-scaled-e1687120837169-1280x1552.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3264\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sydney Howard Gay recorded the escape of Harriet Eglin in his Record of Fugitives (<a href=\"https:\/\/exhibitions.library.columbia.edu\/exhibits\/show\/fugitives\">Columbia University Libraries<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Alongside the dramatic stories of individual escapes, the records kept by Gay and Still also contain insights into the operations of a key set of Underground Railroad operatives during the 1850s.\u00a0 Gay noted nearly fifty fugitives who reached New York with the assistance of Thomas Garrett from Wilmington.\u00a0 But far more common south of the Mason-Dixon Line was aid from individuals unconnected with any network.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, freedom seekers in slave states tended to approach Black persons, both free and enslaved, for help in initiating or conducting their escapes.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4594\" style=\"width: 639px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/04\/Middle-Atlantic-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4594\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4594\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/04\/Middle-Atlantic-928x1024.jpg\" alt=\"regional map\" width=\"629\" height=\"694\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/04\/Middle-Atlantic-928x1024.jpg 928w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/04\/Middle-Atlantic-272x300.jpg 272w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/04\/Middle-Atlantic-768x847.jpg 768w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/04\/Middle-Atlantic-1393x1536.jpg 1393w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/04\/Middle-Atlantic-1857x2048.jpg 1857w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/04\/Middle-Atlantic-900x993.jpg 900w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/04\/Middle-Atlantic-1280x1412.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4594\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Middle Atlantic region, c. 1850s (House Divided Project)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Gay\u2019s operation in New York stood at the nexus of two sets of Underground Railroad networks: one in southeastern Pennsylvania centered on William Still\u2019s office in Philadelphia and including Quaker farm families in the city\u2019s rural hinterlands, both in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and the vigilance committees in New England and upstate New York.\u00a0 Although fugitives reached New York City by many routes, a majority of the persons listed in the Record of Fugitives had been forwarded from Philadelphia.\u00a0 Generally, Still put them on a train, telegraphed ahead announcing their impending arrival, and provided instructions for how to reach Gay\u2019s office or to meet up with Louis Napoleon.\u00a0 An abolitionist from Vermont recalled how, while visiting Gay in 1856, a dispatch arrived from Still giving notice of \u201c\u2018six parcels\u2019 coming by the train.\u00a0 And before I left the office, the \u2018parcels\u2019 came in, each on two legs.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn10\" name=\"_ednref10\"><sup>[10]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 The train from Philadelphia did not cross the Hudson River and usually, Napoleon met fugitives at a ferry terminal in New Jersey or Manhattan.\u00a0 At one point he rented an apartment where they could hide.\u00a0 But Gay also knew persons, including the Quakers James and Abigail Gibbons on Twenty-Ninth Street and various residents of Weeksville, a free Black community in Brooklyn, ready to shelter fugitives until they continued their journeys.\u00a0 The operations were not free of tensions.\u00a0 In 1856, Gay complained to James Miller McKim of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee: \u201cStill is in the habit of sending men here by a train that arrives about 3 a. m.\u00a0 Unless it is <u>absolutely imperative<\/u>&#8230; it should not be done.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 He noted that Napoleon had to walk three miles from his home on Thirty-Third Street to reach the ferry terminal.<a href=\"#_edn11\" name=\"_ednref11\"><sup>[11]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, it became more imperative for fugitives from slavery to reach Canada \u2013 nowhere in the United States could they feel safe. Gay directed more fugitive slaves to Syracuse, half-way between Albany and the Canadian border, than to all other destinations combined.\u00a0 The site of the Jerry rescue of 1851, Syracuse was known as the Canada of the United States because of its antislavery atmosphere.\u00a0 In Jermain Loguen, himself an escaped slave, Syracuse boasted one of the most effective Underground Railroad operatives in the entire North.\u00a0 In the 1850s, Loguen became known as the city\u2019s \u201cunderground railroad king.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn12\" name=\"_ednref12\"><sup>[12]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 His operations, illegal under federal law, were flagrantly public.\u00a0 Sympathetic newspapers reported on the arrival of groups of runaways at Loguen\u2019s home and published annual reports on the number of fugitives who had passed through the city (two hundred in 1855 according to one account).\u00a0 Loguen placed notices in newspapers publicizing the presence of slave catchers in Syracuse, calling on citizens to run them out of town.\u00a0 In 1859, Loguen held a fund-raising event at his residence.\u00a0 The house, according to a local newspaper, was \u201ccrowded with visitors and friends of the Underground Railroad,\u201d including \u201cabout thirty fugitives.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn13\" name=\"_ednref13\"><sup>[13]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 From Syracuse, men and women seeking freedom were sent to Rochester, where Frederick Douglass\u2019s house was one hiding place, and then on to Buffalo and then Canada, over the recently opened Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In Jermain Loguen, himself an escaped slave, Syracuse boasted one of the most effective Underground Railroad operatives in the entire North.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The outbreak of the Civil War led to an increase in the number of those seeking freedom in the North.\u00a0 Three days after the firing on Fort Sumter, the <em>New York Tribune<\/em> observed that fugitives were passing through Philadelphia \u201cin far larger numbers than usual.\u201d\u00a0 Runaway slaves, wrote McKim, now traveled \u201cfearlessly by daylight &#8230; and by a variety of routes heretofore closed to them.\u201d\u00a0 Anyone \u201cwho would now undertake to catch and return a fugitive slave,\u201d he added \u201cwould be a fool.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn14\" name=\"_ednref14\"><sup>[14]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The war fundamentally transformed the opportunities available to slaves seeking freedom.\u00a0 As soon as federal troops entered a locality, which in Maryland meant from the very beginning of the conflict, Black men and women sought refuge with the Union army or flocked to Washington, DC, now the capital of an antislavery government.\u00a0 No longer did slaves have to reach the North or Canada to find freedom.\u00a0 \u201cAn end is put &#8230; to the Underground Railroad,\u201d wrote McKim.\u00a0 \u201cI take this opportunity &#8230; to thank the contributors to the treasury of the Vigilance Committee, &#8230; and to notify them that in all probability we shall have no further call for their aid in this particular line of business.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn15\" name=\"_ednref15\"><sup>[15]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Many of those who had found refuge in Canada now returned; some went on to enlist in the Union army.<\/p>\n<p>Although the organization ceased to exist, many Underground Railroad operatives continued their efforts to improve the lot of Black Americans.\u00a0 After the Civil War, William Still took part in the fight to integrate the city\u2019s streetcars and secure for Blacks the right to vote, as well as helping to organize a home for orphans of Black soldiers and sailors.\u00a0 When Still died in 1902, a Black correspondent wrote to his son, \u201cthere are costly monuments towering toward the sky to men of the Caucasian race for deeds not so great nor so dangerous as his acts in the under-ground Rail Road.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn16\" name=\"_ednref16\"><sup>[16]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 James Miller McKim was instrumental in the creation of the American Freedmen\u2019s Aid Commission, a pioneering effort to assist the emancipated slaves.<\/p>\n<p>After the war, Sydney Howard Gay achieved widespread recognition for a series of books on American history.\u00a0 In one, he wrote that thanks to the Underground Railroad, thirty thousand slaves had reached \u201ca safe refuge in Canada.\u201d\u00a0 As for the indispensable Louis Napoleon, in the 1870s the <em>New York Tribune<\/em> published a brief sketch, in a series on \u201cNew-York Characters.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThe old man,\u201d it reported, \u201chobbles painfully\u201d with the aid of a walking stick; \u201cfew would have suspected &#8230; that he had ever been the rescuer of 3,000 persons from bondage.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn17\" name=\"_ednref17\"><sup>[17]<\/sup><\/a> \u00a0Napoleon died in 1881, just days before his eighty-first birthday.\u00a0 His death certificate in New York City\u2019s Municipal Archives recorded his occupation as: \u201cUnderground R. R. Agent.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4741\" style=\"width: 639px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-18-at-3.51.21-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4741\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4741\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-18-at-3.51.21-PM-1024x760.png\" alt=\"Napoleon death\" width=\"629\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-18-at-3.51.21-PM-1024x760.png 1024w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-18-at-3.51.21-PM-300x223.png 300w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-18-at-3.51.21-PM-768x570.png 768w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-18-at-3.51.21-PM-900x668.png 900w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-18-at-3.51.21-PM.png 1150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4741\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Louis Napoleon&#8217;s 1881 death certificate listed his occupation as &#8220;Underground RR agent&#8221; (NYC Municipal Archives)<\/p><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Further Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bentley, Judith. <em>\u201cDear Friend\u201d: Thomas Garrett and William Still, Collaborators on the Underground Railroad<\/em>. New York: Cobblehill Books, 1997.<\/li>\n<li>Blockson, Charles L. <em>The Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania<\/em>. Jacksonville, NC: Flame International, 1981.<\/li>\n<li>Calarco, Tom and Don Papson. <em>Secret Lives of the Underground Railroad in New York City: Sydney Howard Gay, Louis Napoleon, and the Record of Fugitives<\/em>. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Foner, Eric. <em>Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad<\/em>. New York: W.W. Norton, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Hodges, Graham Russell Gao. <em>David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City<\/em>. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.<\/li>\n<li>Hunter, Carol M. <em>To Set the Captives Free: Reverend Jermain Wesley Loguen and the Struggle for Freedom in Central New York 1835-1872<\/em>. New York: Garland, 1993.<\/li>\n<li>Sernett, Milton C. <em>North Star Country: Upstate New York and the Crusade for African American Freedom<\/em>. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002.<\/li>\n<li>Still, William. The Underground Railroad (Philadelphia: Porter &amp; Coates, 1872).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Citations<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref1\" name=\"_edn1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 <em><u>Liberator<\/u><\/em>, May 18, 1838.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref2\" name=\"_edn2\"><sup>[2]<\/sup><\/a> <em>National Anti-Slavery Standard<\/em>, August 11, 1842.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref3\" name=\"_edn3\"><sup>[3]<\/sup><\/a> <em>New York Times<\/em>, October 2, 1857.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref4\" name=\"_edn4\"><sup>[4]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 <em>Pennsylvania Freeman<\/em> in <em>Provincial Freeman <\/em>(Toronto), July 8, 1854.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref5\" name=\"_edn5\"><sup>[5]<\/sup><\/a>. https:\/\/exhibitions.library.columbia.edu\/exhibits\/show\/fugitives.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref6\" name=\"_edn6\"><sup>[6]<\/sup><\/a> https:\/\/hsp.org\/history-online\/digital-history-projects\/pennsylvania-abolition-society-\u00a0 papers\/journal-c-of-station-no-2-william-still-1852-1857-0.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref7\" name=\"_edn7\"><sup>[7]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 William Still, <em>The Underground Railroad<\/em> (rev. ed. Philadelphia, 1878), 159-62, 333.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref8\" name=\"_edn8\"><sup>[8]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Record of Fugitives, May 26, 1856.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref9\" name=\"_edn9\"><sup>[9]<\/sup><\/a> Journal C of Station No. 2, August 29, 1855; Record of Fugitives, August 30, 1855.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref10\" name=\"_edn10\"><sup>[10]<\/sup><\/a> Still, <em>Underground Railroad<\/em>, 583.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref11\" name=\"_edn11\"><sup>[11]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Gay to James Miller McKim, September 11, 1858, Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection, Cornell University.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref12\" name=\"_edn12\"><sup>[12]<\/sup><\/a> Carol M., Hunter, <em>To Set the Captives Free: Reverend Jermain Wesley Loguen and the Struggle for Freedom in Central New York 1835-1872<\/em> (New York, 1993), 151.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref13\" name=\"_edn13\"><sup>[13]<\/sup><\/a> <em>Syracuse Journal<\/em> in <em>Douglass\u2019 Monthly<\/em>, March 1859.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref14\" name=\"_edn14\"><sup>[14]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 <em>New York Tribune<\/em>, April 15, 1861; <em>National Anti-Slavery Standard<\/em>, December 28, 1861.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref15\" name=\"_edn15\"><sup>[15]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 <em>National Anti-Slavery Standard<\/em>, December 14, 1861.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref16\" name=\"_edn16\"><sup>[16]<\/sup><\/a> Allen W. Turnage to William H. Still, August 9, 1902, American Negro Historical Society Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.<a href=\"#_ednref17\" name=\"_edn17\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><sup>[17]<\/sup>\u00a0 <em>New York Tribune<\/em>, October 12, 1875.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2272\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/10\/Foner-216x300.jpeg\" alt=\"Eric Foner\" width=\"216\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/10\/Foner-216x300.jpeg 216w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/files\/2022\/10\/Foner.jpeg 227w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 216px) 100vw, 216px\" \/>ERIC FONER\u00a0<\/strong>is a former DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. Foner received his doctorate from Columbia and has also studied at Oxford. Foner has served as the president of the Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, and Society of American Historians. Foner has served as a consultant of several historical sites and museums for the National Parks Service. Foner\u2019s publications include:\u00a0<em>The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery\u00a0<\/em>(Norton, 2010) and\u00a0<em>Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad\u00a0<\/em>(Norton, 2015).\u00a0<em>The Fiery Trial\u00a0<\/em>won the Pulitzer Prize for History, the Bancroft Prize, and The Lincoln Prize.\u00a0<em>Gateway to Freedom\u00a0<\/em>was awarded with the American History Book Prize by the New-York Historical Society.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related<\/strong> <strong>Works and Appearances by Eric Foner<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=TlICBAAAQBAJ&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;dq=Eric%20Foner%20Gateway&amp;pg=PP1#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Partial View Gateway to Freedom (2015)<\/a>\u00a0via Google Books<\/li>\n<li>Politico,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/magazine\/story\/2015\/01\/underground-railroad-states-rights-114536\/\">\u201cWhen the South Wasn\u2019t a Fan of States\u2019 Rights,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0January 23, 2015<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/S1MCmdn_63Y\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Interview with History Channel<\/a>\u00a0(Video \/\/ 2:45 min)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/O0e7B5z7duI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">C-SPAN \u201cAfter Words\u201d Interview<\/a>, March 22, 2015 (Video \/\/ 130 min)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/cEGLKXAabS4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Conversation with David Blight at Yale<\/a>, April 17, 2015 (Video \/\/ 96 min)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Banner image:\u00a0The 1849 escape of Henry &#8220;Box&#8221; Brown from Richmond, Virginia to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was perhaps the most sensational Underground Railroad story of the era.\u00a0 Original illustration from William Still\u2019s Underground Railroad (1872), colorized by Forbes (House Divided Project) Download PDF version of this essay (coming soon) See related Timeline entries By the 1830s, slavery [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2531,"parent":1609,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-1664","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1664"}],"version-history":[{"count":55,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1710,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1664\/revisions\/1710"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/ugrr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}