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Digital Bookshelf: Digital Texts: Recollections


Anderson, Osborne P.  A Voice from Harper's Ferry : a narrative of events at Harper's Ferry, with incidents prior and subsequent to its capture by Captain Brown and his men.  Boston, 1861.

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Source Type: Recollection


Bearse, Austin.  Reminiscences of fugitive-slave law days in Boston.  Boston, MA: Warren Richardson, 1880.

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Source Type: Recollection


Bradford, Sarah H. Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman.  Auburn, NY: WJ Moses, 1869.

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Source Type: Recollection


Brown, Thomas.  Brown's three years in the Kentucky prisons, from May 30, 1854, to May 18, 1857Indianapolis, Courier Company Print, 1857.

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Source Type:  Recollection


Coffin, Levi. Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, the reputed president of the Underground Railroad: being a brief history of the labors of a lifetime in behalf of the slave, with the stories of numerous fugitives, who gained their freedom through his instrumentality, and many other incidents. Cincinnati: Western tract society, 1876.

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Source Type:  Recollection

Editor's Rating:  Essential

While Levi Coffin's claim to be the "President of the Underground Railroad" was overblown, his central role in assisting fugitives in the Ohio Valley is undisputed.


Conway, Moncure Daniel. Autobiography, Memories and Experiences of Moncure Daniel Conway. 2 vols. New York: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1904.

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Source Type:  Recollection


Crooks, George R. Life and Letters of the Reverend John McClintock. New York: Nelson & Phillips, 1876.

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Source Type: Recollection


Drayton, Daniel. Personal memoir of Daniel Drayton, for four years and four months a prisoner (for charity's sake) in Washington jail. Boston, B. Marsh; New York, American and foreign anti-slavery society, 1855.

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Source Type:  Recollection


Hinton, Richard J. John Brown and his men; with some account of the roads they traveled to reach Harper's Ferry.  New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1894.

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Source Type:  Recollection   


Johnson, H.U. Dixie to Canada: Romances and Realities of the Underground Railroad. Buffalo, NY: Charles Wells Moulton, 1894.

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Source Type: Recollection


Kittredge, Frank E. Man with the branded hand : an authentic sketch of the life and services of Capt. Jonathan Walker.  Rochester, NY:  H.L. Wilson Printing Company, 1899.

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Source Type: Recollection


May, Samuel J.  Some Recollections of Our Antislavery Conflict.  Boston, MA: Fields, Osgood & Co., 1869.

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Source Type:  Recollection


Mitchell, C.W. The Underground Railroad. London: William Tweedie, 1860.

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Source Type: Recollection


Petitt, Eber M. Sketches in History of the Underground Railroad Compromising Many Thrilling Incidents of the Escape of Fugitives from Slavery and the Perils of Those Who Aided Them. Fredonia: W. McKinstry & Son, 1879.

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Source Type: Recollection


Siebert, Wilbur Henry. The Underground Railroad: From Slavery to Freedom. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1898. Click Here

Source Type:  Recollection

Editor's Rating:  Essential

Wilbur Siebert produced the first serious academic studies of the Underground Railroad.  He collected an extraordinary body of recollections, particularly with white abolitionists who had supported the Underground Railroad.  Siebert's work has since been thoroughly superseded as analysis, but his interviews remain invaluable.


Smedley, Robert Clemens. History of the Underground Railroad in Chester and the Neighboring Counties of Pennsylvania. Lancaster, PA: Office of the Journal, 1883.

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Source Type: Recollection

Editor's Rating:  Essential

Robert Smedley relied heavily on interviews with former Underground Railroad agents and Quaker abolitionists to produce a detailed though anecdotal survey of the fugitive aid network in southeastern Pennsylvania.


Still, William. The Underground Railroad. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1872.

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Source Type: Recollection

Editor's Rating:  Essential

After the Civil War, William Still reviewed his journals and other papers from his days as head of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee and produced a memoir of the experience that remains the single most important source on the operations of the Underground Railroad.  Still's recollection actually contains hundreds of pages of contemporary documents, includes excerpts from the vigilance committee journals, letters, newspaper clippings and numerous fugitive slave notices.


 

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