hello, everyone. i'm cassandra newby-alexander and welcome to the history. 335 online class entitled african-american history two 1865. you all have been with me for the entire semester. i your support and of course,

your attention. now i have the honor to present one of my favorite topics. today's lesson is on the underground railroad, and i have entitled this particular lesson escapes from worthless sports agents, sea identitynd the underground railroad. now, i'm going to tell you in just a minute what the word sort refers to, but before i do, i want to really kind of highlight what is the history of the underground railroad. now, a lot of you have heard a lot of myths about the underground railroad. you've heard that one of the myths is that people used to quilt as a way of communicating to people, hanging out certain quilts outside of their homes. and somehow people would pick up these messages about where to go to find routes of escape.

well, that's utter nonsense. it's that the qlts never really existed in that way. this was started. a person who's writing a series of children's books on end and trying to figure out a to explain the underground railroad. but the reality of the underground railroad is so much more interesting, intriguing. and of course, one of the things that his story and some learn is that the overwhelming majority of people escaped aboard ships. why? because it was quicker. it was less dangerous in that you did not have to go through different landscapes. you did not have to go on to different plantations or through a variety of different state. but the dangers were still there in terms of people finding you hiding aboard the ships. and that's why so many people who attempted to escape did not

succeed. here in norfolk, in the hampton roads area, they had an inspection station that all of the ships had to stop it and that inspec ration station today is we have the historic fort fort wall sitting in the middle of what we call the hampton roads, which is a body of water where all the rivers pour out into the mouth of the chesapeake and seven miles from the chesapeake bay is the atlantic ocean. and so they would stop at this inspection station and they would infuse nothing but fumes into the holes of the ships, whether they were steamships or whether they were schooners, especially schooners to chase out people who were hiding aboard those ships. and they found a number of people trying to escape then and some incidences they did not

find anybody. and people successfully escape aboard ships. then you cou have not just individuals, not just men, younger men who were escaping, but often you would have entire family groups escaping through the underground railroad. you the another myth was that many people were escaping from the deep south and heading all the way to the north when the reality and this is from recent scholarship the reality is that many people escape to mexico or they escape to one of the caribbean islands. so they were able to get aboard a ship and leave some escaped to the swamplands. and so if you were in florida to or georgia, you would escape to the everglades, or if you were here in in virginia, especially the southern part of virginia or eastern north carolina, you escape to this enormous swamp called the great dismal swamp.

today, the swa is only about an eighth of the original size of the swamp. so it it it covered a massive amount of land. and a lot of people who escaped sometimes they were temporarily hiding in the swamp. other times they went into the deepest part the swamp around what is called lake drummond. and there have been numerous marooned communities over the past ten years that have been discovered. and so we want to, in this lecture, take a look at what was going on in america and how and why this institution, this operation called the underground railroad, emerged. but let's first take a look at that word site, and it comes from an account that was recorded by one of the station

masters on the underground railroad, located in philadelphia. and we love this man, william still, because he was a serious packrat. he kept all records and he began to record hard in the early part of the 1850s. the accounts of people who passed through his station. why? because one time when he was talking with one of the young men who was who had passed through a station he found out this young man who had escaped. it was actually his long lost brother who had been sold away from the family a few years before his parents william still his parents escaped. and so found out about this older brother. and that made him want to make sure the hebrew caught it. every sing go account in the hope that people once slavery was over that people would be

able to reconnect with their family members. well, this man, john atkinson, told william still that he had he was a prisoner of hope under james wray, who was his master. and this james wray was in portsmouth and he declared him to be a worthless sort. which is the same term for somebody who's despicable beyond measure, someone who is the lowest life of a human being. and he and william still said that john atkinson said that that his character was too disgusting for record. and and then he went on to describe what john atkinson looked like. he was considered to be a dark mulatto. so he was lighter skinned. but at the darker inn and a lot of people took a lot of time to describe africa and americans and their color.

and you'll see this not only in the runaway slave ads that masters put out, but also in the recordings of these station masters as they were describing the people who passed through their station, in part because cause the names of people could be similar to. others who escaped. so they wanted to create some identifying markers for these individuals. and he and he also described how john atkinson had been hiring out his time and he he was forced to pay his master $120 every year in exchange for his service, hiring out his time. and this was not unusual in port cities, which is why underground railroad was so robust along the eastern seaboard and especially in the upper south. so we're talking about virginia and maryland which is where the

majority of people escaped. and in this account, he also talked about how his master was drunken, how he actually worked at the gosford navy shipyard in portsmouth, which is now the norfolk naval shipyard. and how he was forced to work for his drunken master and how he had to pay this money out. and because he hired out his own time, that meant that he had a little extra spending change. and people who worked by hiring out their time often would have some extra spending change. and that provided them with an opportunity to pay people to help them escape. and we know that a number of ships that left these port areas like norfolk, alex d'andrea, loudoun county, and of course the seat of loud and county. wilmington, north carolina,

wilmington, delaware, all of these places that were right there along the coastal areas and that had important port areas that all of those areas you had ship captains, both steamers that would carry passengers as well as goods, as well as schooner hours that primarily carry goods back and forth. that is those captains or stewards or pilots. these were navigators. they would pay them to secret them aboard the ship. and some of these individuals were part of a massive underground railroad network. so these networks operated in localities. but then had one or two people who had contact, who maintain contact with those who were in the north. but let's talk a little bit about the origins of the underground railroad. so we know that the origins go

back to the 18th century end of vigils willing to help people escape. whether those individuals were where they lived, somewhere in the south or in the north, because slavery was legal everywhere. in fact, many people forget that. they forget that crispus addicks, who was the first man to die in the in the boston massacre, was actually a runaway slave from new york. and because he was a runaway slave, he was, of course, living as a free person, working in the maritime industry up in boston, but always susceptible to his master, to finding him and returning him to slavery. and so these individual who were helping people escape were everywhere in the country, not just those in the north, not just those in the south, but everywhere in the country.

but after the american revolution, when america set forth the idea, years of freedom, of liberty, of equality, that all men are created equal. and in the declaration, accused england of forcing slavery onto them. these ideals took root in a number of people's minds, and they believed that these ideals were how america's should function. and because of you had the emerging group of what we call abolitionists, both black and white. some people also were propelled by a religious movement called the great awakening, and that moved. it inspired so many people to look at slavery and say, this is wrong. this is against god's rules and ordinances. the holy spirit tells me that holding a person as a slave is wrong, and therefore i can no

longer be a slave holder. and so you would see countless mu efforts to have manumission laws passed. and so we would see places like virginia pass the manumission act. we would also see other places begin to get challenged, like massachusetts. these individuals and there was an enslaved woman who challenged massachusetts and the slave system and actually won in court. so you would see this movement, this sort of abolitionist movement bubbling up from the ground and coming up and changing the landscape scape of america. but one of the first accounts that we would see is something mentioned by george washington, who was complaining in 1786 that a group of quakers from

philadelphia were helping an enslaved person escape from alexandria, virginia. so there was tremendous concern, of course, george washington was a large slave holder and he wanted to maintain not only the system of slavery in the country, but especially in his home state of virginia. but he also wanted to protect the rights of slave holders. we would see in that year a man by the name of isaac hopper from philadelphia who actually started creating a system in philadelphia and in other parts of pennsylvania that would lead to assisting. so a system that would assist people who would found their way to philadelphia or some parts of pennsylvania in their escape route and helped them resettle or help them get close, helped them get a job or help them move

to another area further north that they thought might be even more of a protect it area for them. but within a few years, it wasn't just in philadelphia fear, but this network began to spread out to other places. first, among quaker was as a system, but also among free black communities that were starting to emerge throughout the northern areas and there were free black communities in the south. they could not open, only organize as the communities did in the north. so you would see communities black, free, black communities and philadelphia as well as in new jersey. you would also see it in new york, you would see it in boston, and eventually in places like new bedford and syracuse, new york. and these organizations, these

networks of people who would help individual girls, not only finding jobs, not only finding a place to live, food, clothes, because one of the first things you wanted to do was to change the clothes you didn't want to have the person walking around in the same clothing that they escaped in because that was an identifier. so. so these this network of people were very involved in also raising funds to help to assist and of course, to resettle individuals so that they could continue to live their lives. shortly thereafter, though, many of these individuals who escaped also wanted their family members to join them. in some cases, they escaped on their own. in other cases, as and this would be much later on, they escaped as family groups. but then they wanted all of their

family members, both their immediate family members, as well as their extended family members to escape as well. it wouldn't be until 1831, though, that the term the underground railroad would be applied and be a coined phrase. well, blacks actually contributed, as i've indicated, far more to the underground railroad than had been reported by earlier historians. we have lots of historians writing about the underground railroad for 150 years at least, but they left out african-americans until perhaps the last 30 or 40 years. and that's because, as the focus was on talking about the great work that whites did and the sacrifice that they made. and that's not to that. they did not make tremendous

sacrifices, because if you were captured helping an individual escape your sentence was usually prison or death, and especially if you were white because you were seen as far more of a threat for free. black. your sentence was prison and or enslavement and for a an enslaved person working on the underground railroad. your sentence was a beating and being sold to the lower south, which then for many people was like a death sentence. and so we would see african-americans, such as david ruggles, who would rise to national prominence. in fact, he was actually called the father of the underground railroad because he and william still so he was in new york, william still was in philadelphia.

they were key components of this network in the north that helped to galvanize the community, the black community, to provide homes, room jobs usually in their homes, as well as support creating this, this, this network in, the northern areas to assist individuals escaping. now, in the early years, the underground railroad was not a national network. we're not talking about a network that officially to the south. what they did was they created network in the north so that if people managed to make it to the north, then they would help them. they would resettle them. they would provide them with the necessities of life if they made it to the north. but they didn't have people going necessarily to the south to help people escape and that's

the difference between what would happen in the earlier years from the 1830s and forties or even before then. and what would happen much later by the 1850s. now, what would make people escape. because escaping was a risky venture. you might not survive trying to escape. there were people long before henry bok brown, who escaped from richmond by having himself nailed in a small box and mailed to. there were a number of people who tried before him and failed. they made it to philadelphia, but not alive because they suffocated in the box or the box was left on the docks for weeks and weeks, and they either from a asphyxiation or they died because it was too hot, or maybe they had been turned upside down

and they died because of the medical conditions of being on your head for days on end. and so what would propel somebody to escape? if you escaped and your family did not accompany you, they often paid the penalty. they paid the price. there were many accounts of men who escaped and they hope to escape. and then and then managed to get their families out later. but while they when they first left their families, especially their wives, were usually brought in for interrogation and. some of them never survive those beatings. and so what would propel somebody to escape because the the retribution was often harsh. well, it had a lot to do with how they were being treated. this harsh treatment. and you will see a count after a count after account of how said

they could not take it anymore or that they were no longer willing to endure the hardship trips of their masters women. and so it was the harsh treatment. another reason was separate from family. when henry brown escaped from richmond, his gate because he tried three times to purchase the freedom of his wife. his beloved wife was eventually sold from him, and he heartbroken. his the money that he had raised to purchase her was stole in first by the owner and then by an attorney that he was trying to use as a liaison to help him in. the end. she was sold away and he was so despondent that he even thought about killing himself. and then he had an aha moment that perhaps if he escaped himself, went to the north, he would be in a better position to

try to find her. of course, that did not work out for for. he never did find his beloved wife. but this. this idea that i'm separated from my family. and if i escape, i might be able then to go to the north and retrieve them in some way was a key factor in why some people escaped. other people were actually involved in the underground railroad. we know that a number of enslaved people, as well as free blacks in the south, were conductors on the underground railroad or agents in norfolk. it was so interesting to me when i was doing some research and i saw this, this ordinance in the city in which the city council ordered this station excuse me, the postmaster not to deliver abolitionist newspapers to their

population, to their poppy allocation of enslaved people. and i thought, wait a minute. you mean enslaved people could read? they had extra money. they actually had some to abolitionist newspapers. and you were deliv offering those newspapers to the enslaved population who were legally not supposed to be able to read and write. it just it really was a mind blowing thing for me. and so that really led down a pathway to see how many people were actually enslaved, were acting as conductors or agents on the underground railroad. and so some of them who were about to be caught fled through the underground railroad system that they used to help other people escape. another reason was the desire for freedom and a better life.

and of course, this we would see woven into many of the accounts that people wanted a better life. they had heard about it. they read about they wanted to be free. they wanted to be free from the whims of somebody who was not willing to treat them well. and then finally, one of the key motivators was the death of a slave holder, because that ultimately met meant that you were probably going to be sold away or your family was going to be sold away and usually when a slave holder died, there were debts to be paid and people were sold away. and so this mode evaded a number of people to escape, but always with the idea that if they escaped, they would be able to be in a better position to get family members. now, i wanted to show you this map because this shows you the main area where a lot of

underground railroad activity occurred, all going all the way up to the north because of the chesapeake bay and because of all of these major rivers that flowed into the chesapeake bay, which, of course, would flow into the atlantic ocean and how these rivers and these creeks and and, of course, the bay played a major role in helping people to escape from slavery, because as they were escaping aboard ships. now the ships sometime would take them simply across the river. like if you go into the kentucky, tennessee area, going across the ohio river to ohio some. so you had to flee by land to a certain point. and then after that, you would flee aboard ships.

one of the i think significa and parts of the film, harriet, about harriet tubman, a film was released a few years ago show that harriet tubman, not only fled on foot, but she fled across water and. she fled aboard ships that were operated by men, african-american men were seamen aboard the and they called them blackjacks. and these men were operating schooners, prima traveling, transporting goods from point to the other. and that brings to another point i wanted to mention, and that is the predominance of african-american men in the maritime industry. we know that many african american men were oyster women were fishermen, but they also seamen. there worked aboard these ships, helping to transport goods back and forth or loading them from the on and off the ships at the

docks. men such as crispus attucks. but others were actually also pilots as as ships captains. stewart working aboard both schooners and steamships and some of them actually owned their own schooners. you had african-american men who were ferryman because along the eastern seaboard. there were so many rivers and streams and creeks and so forth that ferries were a constant necessity as. people travel back and forth. and so this map kind of gives you an idea of how important the waterways were. now, historian wilbur siebert was the first one who really started giving us an idea of the railroad and these safe houses in the north. of course, he focused primarily on the whites who operate at safe houses.

he only mentioned a few blacks in his account and helped to frame this narrative that the abolitionists and those working on the underground railroad were prudes white because of his book and because of the emphasis he put in book. but he did include a number of accounts of who were involved in the underground, not just as passengers on the underground railroad, but as workers on the underground. but you had one recent book, and by reason, i have to put quotes around it. it out in early about 2005 and that was fergus border, which is book bound for canaan, which he tried for probably the first time to pull together a lot of these narratives from all over the country. and by all over the country, i'm not talking about past the

mississippi river because of that territory beyond from the mississippi river to california, ionia was still dominated by native peoples. and so the country really focused all of this attention, that territory from the mississippi river to the atlantic ocean. and so he was looking all these different operations, though he didn't really give a lot of attention to, the maritime industry, he was still focused on a lot of these trading accounts that wilbur siebert focused on in his book on the railroad. but it's still an important attempt to look at the underground railroad much more broadly and pull together as some of these incredible accounts, both from blacks and whites who were working to, help people escape and some cases they themselves slaves had been

enslaved, managed to achieve freedom. another book that was really an important account, looking at the underground, but from the perspective of why, where so many people escaped and why they escaped was fugitives. gibraltar, rich and by catherine grover and which she focused attention on new bedford, massachusetts. and how that particular city was so important in helping underground railroad to thrive and why that particular city. and we find out through her book that so many of the abolitionists were actually the multimillion heirs who operated the whaling industry and who themselves were able and they created then and environment in that city that almost protected the future lives. and that's perhaps why frederick

douglass wanted when they recruiting in 1863 for men who would serve in the 54th massachusetts regiment. they heavily recruited in boston, but especially in new bedford. new bedford, that was considered a haven to protect so many people who escaped from the underground railroad and the people who dominated in new bedford were actually from virginia. and then, of course, had eric faulkner's book, gateway to freedom that was written excuse me published in 2015 that highlighted it even more of the in portions of some of these african networks such as the one a new york focusing attention on some of the known people so that you know he didn't continue to recreate or or retell these stories about these

abolitionists that we all knew about or these workers on the underground railroad that we all knew about or. the handful of people like frederick douglass, harriet tubman, who escaped, but rather let's look at a lot of these other individ jewels and let's start talking about how they gained their freedom and the different routes they took as well, including where they ended up. and after the 1850 fusion of slave act was passed, many were encouraged to go to canada, especially the ontario province, where you would see cities and towns created or filled with fugitive slaves such as st catherine's, that's where harriet tubman had a home, as well as toronto, which was, of course, the capital of the ontario area. that later became even more important than the capital of canada. another book that that really kind of refocused a lens on, on,

on especially pennsylvania and and chester county, pennsylvania in particular. this is where lincoln university was. and, of course, lincoln university. he was created to not only empower african with a college education, encouraging them be missionaries, but also was a gathering place for abolition. and chester, in particular, was filled with free blacks who created important network, along with and partnering with the quakers created this network of safe houses as well as communities that people who were escaping through the underground railroad. there was a church, a famous church that still exists. it's not it's not open.

but the building still exists, called the hosanna church. and that's where a lot of prominent abolitionists were period, particularly come have meetings as well as worship together in that particular church. the most recent book, timothy walker's sailing to freedom, that includes at least ten articles looking at the importance of the maritime industry in the underground railroad and how that landscape wasn't important. reason why the underground railroad was perhaps most successful using sailing vessels. and so if you're interested in the historiography of looking at the underground railroad, these are the books to really pay attention to because they bring an important lens to the

underground railroad. aside from the stereotype types that still keep populating our planet. now i want to shift very quickly and i'm going to go through a few of these slides quickly, just giving you an idea of what helped to fuel the underground railroad and and what, you know, what were these why were these people so motivated, you know, why why were so many people being sent to the south norfolk, for example, norfolk, virginia, was considered william still the southern depot of the underground railroad. is that departure point going northward that more people in a concentrated way in his mine escape from norfolk than anyplace else in the country but interestingly until the into the 1840s it was also the virginia is primary departure point. going to the lower south specific difficulty to charleston and to new orleans of

the domestic slave trade. why? because of the robust maritime industry that was there. if you look at this slide, this is a 1790 census looking at concentrations of enslaved people. and as you can see, all along the eastern seaboard, that's where the massive amounts of people lived. by 1830, you would see that it that the country had really beyond the eastern seaboard and you're starting to see what people the black belt these concentric of african-americans in the in the carolinas especially south carolina, they were producing rice. so, of course, that a lot of water access but then as you're going into the lower south in cluding florida, alabama to arkansas, mississippi as well as

not quite east texas, we're almost there. you would start to see africa, americans dominating those areas. why? because of the cotton. and of course, that came about because the invention and and dissemination of the cotton gin by 1860, you see clear, lee, the constant trains that form this black and that's where the population portions both white and black, not just the enslaved populations they concentrated in those. that's where the majority of the cotton production was occurring. and by 1860, america produce. just 7/8 of the world's cotton production, 7/8. and and yes, you had a decline in who were owning slaves, but that doesn't mean that slavery

was not important. you had a decline in those slaves, but those who own owned far more in virginia, you would still see about 50% of the popular nation owning slaves. you would see a significant difference in other states such as louisiana and south carolina. we're at most maybe 10% of the people on slaves. but those who owned them, the ten percenters, they owned, the overwhelming majority. so what you're seeing is the beginnings of big business of corporate america. in fact, many historians have said that the institution, slavery and the products that were produced, america's first big business, the first corporate business in america, and, of course, the cotton export really tells you this particular. but what we know about the

underground railroad is that most of the people were not successful in escaping from the lower south, not unless they were in or could get to a port area. now, i want to kind of shift a little bit and and just mention a bit about the abolitionists and especially the white abolitionists. i've talked a little bit about the black abolition office, and i'll talk a little bit more, but full of white abolitionists, you see the earliest ones were quakers. and many of these individual calls were motivated because of because they were impacted by the great awakening, and they believed that just as accepting christ in your life was a personal thing, they believed that so was your position on slavery. they felt thought that was wrong to own slaves, but they didn't feel that they should that particular idea on other people and so pre 1830 abolish is white

were not pushing to end slavery across the board but rather to make it easier for for people to free slaves if they wanted to. and we would see a movement in the latter of the 18th early 19th century to facilitate that. for example, virginia in 1782 would pass a manumission act allowing slave holders to simply petition the court saying who they were going to free, why they were going to free them, and when they were going to free them. and then they were freed. but by the early part of the 19th century, those same that had passed manumission acts were pulling back on them and making it excuse me, more difficult to free their slaves and, forcing those enslaved people who were recently freed to leave the state in five virginia had a law

that said if you were recently freed after 1806, you had a year to get out of the state. and if you didn't, you would become a slave again. and so it then became a to free slave in, especially if people wanted to be with their family members. we would see these early white abolitionists tend to have a colonization outlook. they wanted blacks to leave. they became free to leave the country, go back to africa. of course, the problem was since so many african were mixed, not mixed with different europeans and different indigenous peoples, but they were also mixed with different african peoples. exactly where in africa they go back, if they even wanted to go back or if they wanted to go to africa. but they had a colonized asian outlook. they pushed for the creation of

a colony that we call today, liberia and, of course they did not believe in immediate uncompensated amounts of patients. they believed that it should be gradual it should be individual and of course, if people free there and their enslaved people, then they should be compensated for the loss. and we see groups in. is there just a few examples? the pennsylvania abolition society city that was created in 1775 that aided free blacks in court, that drafted petitions to end slavery, that disseminated information about anti-slavery activities, we would see another one in new york mentions society doing the same thing, helping blacks to be educated. so even though many of them were not, they were gradualist. they were moderates. they still provide some

assistance to blacks, but they were not all interested in free blacks being a part of their organized nations for the most part. and wanted to maintain control of what would happen. and you would see out of those organizations the creation of the american colonization society. eventually, many free would reject the goal as an appeal. the colonization society. and and they would there would be almost a fight between many free black organizations and that and that society. you would also see people like david walker who published walker's appeal, who was very much against colonization and was responding to their position on colonization. of course, in his appeal he was talking to both whites and

blacks and using the declaration of independence, as well as, the constitution as argument for why slavery should be over and why white people should not be pushing black people to leave america because it was just much their country as it was white people's country. then you had the post 1830 abolitionists and the reason 1830 was so important is because this that of time that we would start to see cotton production emerge age as america's big business is first big business. and so shift in the economic importance of cotton production and the labor force that was to ensure that that production happened that would also impact the voices of. many of these abolitionists, especially the white abolitionists, but it would also

change the fervency of many free blacks because they found themselves very vulnerable as well. not only the south, but in the north. for example, in new york, by the 1830s they had a kidnap raping club in which they were kidnaping free blacks and selling them to deep south as enslaved people. and so 1830, that period represented a sea change. excuse me, and how africa americans. it represented. it represented a sea change in the how african-american fans

would be seen in this country excuse me having a moment here. all right. so what the 1830 abolitionist groups did was they pulled together and form for the first time a national organization, but they wanted differentiate themselves from the earlier abolitionists and they call themselves instead of an abolitionist society, they took the name anti-slavery society and of course, words always matter. and they were distancing themselves really from the more moderate approach that earlier abolition and this had and. so the american anti-slavery society was concentrated in boston and included blacks as members. and here, you know, there were

three leading black abolitionist james cromwell, robert purvis, james barbados. and they were advocating for immediate uncouple say the emancipation, the abolitionist society actually formed in philadelphia. they brought together 63 delegates from 11 states and. they really were the ones who said, we're going to direct early, confront slavery. we're not going to just sit back and help if somebody comes to the north, instead, we're going to directly confront slavery and we're going to start sending agents to the south to help undermine slavery. they believed in direct. in fact, this is what david walker actually in his book that that those who were against

should need it to directly confront it, not just to be passive supporters of efforts to end slavery, but they needed to directly confront. now, eventually, this organization would because of the concerns, especially those who were pushing a more religious perspective of it, but their concerns, this direct confrontation. and so william lloyd garrison and his supporters on one side and author and lewis tappan, who were big industrial loyalists in new york on the other side, who would actually eventually help to create the american missionary association. so these two sort of groups they would split the organization apart. but organization would continue to thrive under the leadership of william lloyd garrison, who

would publish one of the most important newspapers, abolitionist newspapers in the country, the liberator. and the liberator was the one that had huge numbers of subscription ones that that in included the voices. many people from throughout the south, as well as, the north that sent coded messages about what was going on, especially in terms of of abolitionists activities or underground railroad activities, but were other newspapers that were out there and and many of them were actually being published by african americans such as freedom's journal, which was published by samuel and john breast form. these were two black abolitionists. you had another one, the colored american. in fact, black abolitionists

didn't just talk about ending slavery. they also talked about the rights of african americans to rights as citizens of this country. so they were advocating kind of a twofold approach. while white abolitionists were simply focused primarily on ending slavery, black abolitionists, most of whom were blacks publishing these newspapers in the north, or a move to the north, they were focused on two things ending, but also the rights of free blacks. and you would have individuals who well-known such as absalom jones, who created the first black episcopal church, who was among those early abolitionists, very intent on making sure that he and his congregation and his network were involved in

helping. and so the idea of black churches being very much involved really is embodied in the work of absalom jones. but this extended throughout the entire country wasn't just with the black episcopal church, but it was with a of baptists and methodist churches. you would see. and i wanted to show you pictures of those individuals who were early black abolitionists who formed the general colored association advocating those two things that i just mentioned, because, again, it wasn't about ending slavery that was the first and an important step, but the second step was also promote the rights and privileges as citizens of this country of african americans. so, for example, you would see in the massachusetts of the

general color association pushing for abolish saying all of massachusetts discover mandatory laws in fact was so interesting is when frederick douglass escaped he complained about how when he was in massachusetts, in boston, he could not get a job, even though he was a skilled cocker, a person who waterproofed the ships but because of the caulkers association that barred blacks from being, he couldn't get a job and so this organization was saying, well, look, you know, you can't just free people and then deprive them of a right to earn a living. you have to allow them to be full citizens and to have full access to everything in society another thing was integrating schools these public schools. this these were public dollars. and so there should not be a prohibition about blacks becoming part of these public

schools and abolishing any prohibition to interracial marriages, as well as uplifting the community. in many ways. and so here are a few pictures of some of the most black abolitionists in the country. of course, we have paul coffey, who is one of the earliest black who owned his own shipping in new bedford or william wells brown or henry highland garnett, charlotte fortune grimm key. frances. ellen watkins, harper. all also as e.w. harper, whose most famous poem bury me in a free land was so powerful. in fact, i want to just recite the opening lines to that, she says. make a grave where you will in a lonely plain or lofty hill. make it among earth's graves,

but not a land where men are slaves. and so it is a powerful poem. i encourage you to look it up and to read it yourself. and it's these kinds of poems, songs, writings that help to transform way people thought about slavery. solomon northup he was kidnaped into slavery in the late 1830s. god is freedom. after 12 years, i it was a hard fought battle by the 1840s and published his book 12 years a slave to talk about the horrors of slavery and how free blacks were kidnaped into slavery and the business that the business side of slavery that was so, so devastating. or marianne chad carey, who

started the newspaper the provincial freemen that she published out of toronto in canada, which was an abolitionist newspaper, or harriet tubman, who managed to be something of everything. she was not only a fugitive slave, what i call a freedom seeker, but she was also someone who decided to be a conductor, a very effective conductor on the railroad. but she didn't stop there during the civil war. she was a nurse, a spy, and actually led troops battle helping to free the largest, the single largest number of enslaved of people ever over 17 people. she led to freedom and so these abolitionist these are just a few black abolition is i wanted you to know about and highlight even though they're mentioned your readings and that leads me to talking very briefly about

harriet tubman lots of of myths about harriet tubman in fact, you know, you see pictures where there's a wanted ad with her picture on it. well, aside from the people who knew her, including her slave holder, nobody else knew what she looked like, which is why she was effective. and she was a master disguise. she she managed to look like different people every time she would go to the south, which was at least 19 times to retrieve, including her entire with the exception of, her husband, her first husband, who actually a free black who did not want to leave the land that he owned and go to the north. we know that she suffered a traumatic head injury which may have resulted in she never learn was able to learn how to read and write but she knew the landscape she knew how to read

the landscape. she knew how to read people and she knew how to read the stars. and she used especially the waterways ways in her quest to not only get her own freedom, but the freedom of her choice of other people. but she always carried something with her to route to as a way of protection, but also to keep other people from running back. she carried a gun and there were a few times when people thought they got frightened and they thought they were going to turn back. and she basically pulled out the gun and said, you're either going to be free or you're going to be dead because dead men tell tales. and so essentially you're not going to go running back and tell everybody and expose this to those who seek to destroy it,

because you would endanger the lives of everybody who was a part of that. here's a an ad. and in the middle of the ad you see the name minty because call harriet tubman minty are anita was her name and it talks about how she was 27 years old and of course mint, she ended up where in the office of william still in philadel sophia and that's how she became not only knowledgeable about the underground railroad. she was directed to william still. she arrived in philadelphia, but she also became most important conductor on the underground railroad. and of course, with his assist, since all the people she brought in, he managed to coordinate the effort to resettle them and of course, to make sure they had jobs. plenty of food, clothing as well

as support as they resettled in the north. now, i just wanted to kind of focus a little bit attention on some very important statistics that i've able to garner from william still account. there were other station masters who record it what happened, but they burned most of their records at the end of the civil war. william still did not because his goal was to use his to reunite all these individuals who had fled with their family members. and so he actually during the civil war, he actually hid all of his records in a cemetery in philadelphia, especially when. he thought that the city might be overrun by the confederates and in his book, he recorded over six 763 accounts. and of that number, 285 came

from virginia. now keep in mind that he wasn't covering everybody who escaped and he only started recording these accounts in 51. so accounts before then, he did not record. and those accounts. after 1860, he did not record. and there were still freedom seekers throughout the civil war and the months leading up the civil war. so there's a lot that he did not cover, but this kind of gives us insight, 350 out of those 763 accounts came from maryland because maryland was contiguous to pennsylvania, and that made it much easier for people to escape to that area. 42 came from delaware, and then there were a few other states, include washington, d.c. and so i also mentioned know for the city of norfolk, a hundred and

two escape from norfolk but those who escaped from and from actually passed through the norfolk station. so some of them were recorded to have left aboard ships in norfolk, even though they may have been from richmond petersburg or portsmouth. and so these accounts were really important in helping us to understand. and now i wanted to to also just show you this entry in william stills, a journal where he talked about harriet tubman and he talked about so many other people in this particular journal. what is called journal, see, which is truly important. and one thing i want to say about that is that he had son who understood the value of what his father did, and instead of throwing his away after his father died, he gave them to an

archive to preserve. and that's why we know so many of the stories today that we know about before, because that archive kept that material and has now pulled it out for people to understand and, you know, just to quickly talk about harriet tubman, again, you know, while she was operating. she became moses of her people because the slave holders were so angry about her effectiveness that they, you know, they were publicized in a lot of the escapes that she was implicated in. now, of them, she actually didn't do. but any escapes. after a while, people thought, oh, it must be this this woman, you know, this moses, what they call moses who's helping escape now there were people there was a man by the name of john fairfield who was from the western part, virginia, who was

also a notorious conductor. this is a white man whose family he was a slave a prominent slave holding family. and he was so angry about slavery that he managed to make sure that all the enslaved people on the plantations that were owned by his family members successful, he escaped and he used different disguises to help these escapes. we there's a reference to him dying, being killed. and they're saying he was trying to foment a slave revolt, but probably he was captured trying to assist a number, people escaping from and going up to canada. but he also quite effective and what helped what propelled people up to canada it had to do

with the 1850 fugitive slave. now, there were other fugitive slave acts that had been passed by congress. and, of course, the constitution, the 1789 constitution had a fugitive slave clause, but the fugitive slave act is what made difficult. and we go back to that slide made it difficult for people to remain in this country primarily because a special court was created it to that almost incentivized the magistrate to rule in favor of somebody being escaped slave and so started pushing and recommending that people leave and go to canada. what we know is that after the civil war or actually during the civil war, some of these individuals came back to this country and enlisted in one of the united states colored troop regiments, some of them come

back after the war, and some of them actually returned to their hometowns, while others went out west and settled. so we know that the fugitive slave act resulted in so many people leaving the country, but the end of the civil brought so many back. now, how did many of them escape? i mentioned, you know, schooners, and i mentioned steamships. and i wanted to show you a few pictures as some of the most prom and steamships in and especially steamships that had are stewards or are one of the seamen helping to hide a freedom seeker aboard the ships and usually their special compartment was a little tiny access space, often over the boiler. so it wasn't a pleasant ride going from, say, norfolk or from

richmond or going from newburgh or wilmington, carolina, or going from any of the other port areas. the south, going to florida, delphia, boston, new bedford or ah, syracuse, york or any of the other places. but these in the visuals help freedom seekers aboard these ships and they left in on regular time. so here from norfolk at you see the ships listed, you see the ship captains and these vessels left on a regular basis. and you can look at some of the accounts and see when they left and you can see on these ads. oh, yeah, i see they left on this particular date coming up to philadel, sophia or any of the other locations, some of them left on skiffs like in this

picture and the waterways that you see, you see how rough it is this is the hampton roads, the body water, where all the rivers pour into this sort of massive water hub. this is why the hampton roads was chosen as the access point to the largest naval base on the water in the world, the norfolk naval shipyard is 300 feet deep, seven miles from the atlantic ocean at the mouth of the chesapeake bay. and these individuals were headed past that inspection station and they were going get aboard a schooner that had actually passed the inspect ocean and were headed to philadelphia. so that's an example of some of the people escaped as well. or you had this wonderful image. and if you come to virginia, you'll see a plaque where this

event actually occurred. you see, captain fountain and hammering at his ship because he has at least 20 people who been secreted aboard that in a compartment and the mayor and a bunch of thugs, norfolk, went aboard the ship to tear it up because they had heard there were enslaved people aboard the ship. and in his bravado, he said, oh, i'll help you find them if you think i have slaves hidden aboard. and he started on the other side of the ship eventually he was allowed to continue on the journey and all of the people made it safely to the north. we would also, and i mentioned this earlier, would see people hiding in places like the dismal swamp. and every one in the region knew that there were enslaved people hidden in or hiding in the

swamp, and a few were found, but the majority were not because the swamp was such a difficult place to penetrate between all of the inside, the biting flies, the mosquitoes, the chiggers, the ticks, the fleas. aside from all that you had, the bears you had fox, you had snakes, you had all, you know, wolves. you had all of this facing you as well as going the sludge, the muck and all of that. and that's why many people who lived in the deepest part, the heart of the swamp on these in these communities, often lived there generationally. and so here are a pictures there. the there was one man named strother hunter, who was a reporter for weekly who decided venture into the swamp and

managed to find in some enslaved people or formerly enslaved people like this man, osman, who was in his sixties. and clearly he had been brought from africa, one of the west african countries. so he even had the markings from initiation ceremony on his cheeks and very early in his life he had escaped and he was one of the leaders of these maroon communities. and there were other accounts talking about people who lived in the swamp and many course in the north. you see in this picture were helping people who had escaped by boat, sometimes just coming across rivers or creeks to put them in in carts, wagons carriages and taking them to

safe so that they could continue to live. now, i want to also mention one last thing, and this is based on some recent discoveries. so this letter from john atkinson that published by william, this is a man who escaped from a worthless site in norfolk. so he moved to st catherine's in canada in the ontario of canada, and he made that there were some people helped him like a dr. lundy. now these are people who are living in norfolk but he also talked about henry now his code name was bluebeard, who was an enslaved man who also ended up escaping, but he was a big conductor on the underground railroad in the hampton roads area, and he taught about these individuals helping. well, a few years ago, there was a discovery about this

particular church in norfolk is the only black fossil in the nation called st mary's. it was created as a safe space for haitian refugees, both white and black. it was created about in 1794. this church that currently exists was actually built. in 1857. but there was a previous church, st patrick's church, same congregation that was built to to help provide support and safety for. these haitian refugees. well one of the people who was a member of the church was named mary olga, who later married a man named lou vest, and she was a member of st patrick's church. well, her father was a haitian refugee, and her mother was a free black from norfolk. and she lived in this area and eventually when she was an adult, she purchased the little boy who's also a haitian

refugee, his name was marc rene de morti, and she did not free him until he was 21. because of that law that required that recently free people had to leave the state. so she held him until he was able to go back and forth to boston. and then so she emancipated him and during this time he and this is a picture of de morti in his later years we find out because of a of a an account that he published. he used to work for a doctor. harry lundy, the same one that was mentioned by john atkinson. and they were working to help people escape on the underground railroad. and then he picked up lundy's work and worked four years as a conductor, the underground

railroad and keeping touch with abolitionists, especially in boston and in new bedford. there was a letter that intercepted by slave holders in norfolk, by officials in norfolk in 1851, and he had to flee because it implicated him working well. one of the interesting things not only is that his adopted mother, mary levesque, helped to get the plans that were stolen for the u.s.s. merrimack, which became the s.s. virginia. first iron clad vessel, and of course, that sped up the construe of the uss monitor, which was the first armed force fully made ironclad vessel. not only that, but recently in the last few years they discovered a tunnel in the church. and that's the only tunnel that's been discovered in hampton roads.

no explanation for the existence of this tunnel three feet wide, four feet deep, made of brick, constructed according to the forensics of the brick construct that sometime in the early 1840s, when church was burned down and they by abolitionists excuse me, not abolitionist but anti but but pro-slavery people the the the new church that was renamed st mary's actually is architecture so as not to disturb the tunnel and it was only when the church was renovating is sanctuary mary that they found this tunnel and it actually two parts to it and the end of the tunnel led to a wharf and the tunnel actually went into the firmly into the black community. so it's interesting that even

today they were finding out more information about the underground railroad, its operations. that's how secretive. it was. and that's how integrated into the community it was. i wanted to end with just showing you a few pictures. i've talked about william still. i've talked about the abolition society that was there in and he was the secretary of the vigilance committee of the abolitionist society. and this is a picture of where operated. and of course this is just a map showing you the location of boston new bedford, always on the waterway. these important port areas that not only brought the ships in but created an environment and communities that help to protect and support the the freedom

seekers. and then finally i wanted you to see in on these are some points of where would settle and of course in some cases they would back to this country after the civil war in hopes of finding freedom. finally here in america. and so i wanted just to conclude our discussion with hoping that you will take the time to read more about this incredible subject on the underground railroad and. hopefully share your this information with people in your community. so thank you all so much for attending this class and i look forward to our next session and thank you all so much for attending. take