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The Fugitive Slave Act and the Underground Railroad
In 1899, Harriet Tubman purchased a home in Auburn, New York. Tubman, after escaping slavery, lead, on 15 trips to the South, hundreds of Blacks to freedom, via The Underground Railroad, in the North and Canada. This webpage discusses the Underground Railroad (UGRR) and the Fugitive Slave Act which increased the necessity of the UGRR.
Amy Post (1802-1889) and Isaac Post (1798-1872) moved to Rochester from Long Island in 1836. They were active advocates of temperance, spiritualism, and abolition. They were close friends of Frederick Douglass and their home on Sophia Street was a station on the underground railroad.
"Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters 'US', let him get an eagle on his button and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pockets and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States." (Frederick Douglass)
The Fugitive Slave Act
By 1850 the State of New York was well-known to slaves as a place of no slavers. In order to deter slaves from escaping and free citizens from aiding in escape attempts, legislation was passed in the United States Congress by southern congressmen. These laws stipulated that it was illegal for any citizen to assist an escaped slave. Furthermore, the legislation, which was entitled The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, demanded that if an escaped slave was sighted, he or she should be apprehended and turned in to the authorities for deportation back to the "rightful" owner down south. It was thought that the Fugitive Slave Act would diminish the incentive for slaves to attempt escape. The rationale behind this was the slaves' realization that even if they managed to escape from their plantation, they could still be caught and returned by any citizen in the United States. In fact, the Fugitive Slave Act was so severe that at the behest of Senator Henry Clay, it was legislated that any United States Marshall who refused to return a runaway slave would pay a hefty penalty of $1,000. Ironically, the Fugitive Slave Act was favored strongly by, and signed by President Millard Filmore of Buffalo.
The Underground Railroad
Harriet Tubman
For the 240 years from the first African slave until 1860, slaves ran and some escaped to freedom. In 1850, the value of a trained slave was around $2500 - an enormous sum at the time. Thus, slaves were chased by their masters or bounty hunters. Because intelligence agencies placed single men and women in domestic jobs in cities like Syracuse and towns as Geneva, the transportation of slaves to freedom obviously had to be done under the utmost secret of conditions. The transport worked much like a railroad and so it was called The Underground Railroad. Once a slave escaped and managed to make contact with sympathizers, he or she became a part of the underground railroad and would hopefully be transported to freedom. Similar to an actual railroad, the act of transporting the escaped slaves incorporated all the terms used during a railroad journey. The routes from safe-house to safe-house (houses where fugitive slaves were kept) were called lines and were roughly 15 miles long, but the distance shortened considerably the further north one got. Stopping places were called stations. Those who aided fugitive slaves were known as conductors. In order to keep terms as clandestine as possible, the fugitive slaves were known as packages or freight. Though the road to freedom, called The Underground Railroad, was organized prior to 1950, the organization became widespread after The Fugitive Slave Act.
By necessity, the routes of the Underground Railroad generally avoided cities, where more people meant a greater risk of being caught. They were often across areas of marginal farmland and wooded areas where houses were few. With the end of the Civil War, the need for the Underground Railroad ended, and as other farmers began to move into the area, or the farmland gave out, the African-American families in communities such as Paynes Crossing and Pokepatch, Ohio; Lick Creek, Indiana; and Miller Grove, Illinois moved on. The paths to freedom ran through many areas now part of the U.S. Forest Service system, and include rural freed slave communities, Underground Railroad transportation routes, stations and safe houses. Research on these sites has been ongoing for the past several years in response to public interest in heritage preservation.
In recognizing the importance of this early segment of African American history, weve begun to identify, research, and preserve these resources. This work has the potential to tell an important part of the story of the quest for freedom.
Harriet Tubman with escaped slaves at an Underground Rail Road station
In 1842, William Wells Brown carried sixty-nine fugitive slaves on a steam boat to Canada. It is estimated that between 1850 and 1863, the Underground Railroad movement was responsible for helping approximately 70,000 slaves escape and journey safely northwards into Canada and subsequent freedom. The cities of Buffalo, Rochester and their surrounding areas helped to play a leading role in the Underground Railroad movement. As they are conveniently located close to the Canadian border, they served as one of the stations of the Underground Railroad. Certainly one of the last stops before fugitive slaves could be considered free men.
The entire area of western New York was filled with stops or stations of This Underground Railroad. With the help of Harriet Tubman, Rochester became a main station. In 1868, Frederick Douglass said he knew of major stations in Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and in Canada, St. Catherines, Ontario. In Buffalo, Broderick Park (at the foot of Ferry Street and the Black Rock Canal) was a site for a crossing the Niagara river into Canada.
At the "stations", the weary slaves were given food, rest, and a change of clothing. Instances often occurred in which common citizens did not have direct contact with the fugitive slaves, but were nonetheless equally vital in attaining their eventual freedom. There were various fundraising events. Further, there were informants who had knowledge about police activity and who would pass this information on to the "conductors" who saw that the "freight" received safe passage.
Underground Railroad Chronology
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