Railroad: Did you mean...?

Anna Maria Weems (circa 1840 to circa 1863) was an enslaved African American woman in Rockville, Maryland, who escaped by posing as a young Black livery man and carriage driver, assisted by the Underground Railroad, in September 1855. She...

John Brown (1800-1859) was a militant abolitionist best known for the part he played in the violence of Bleeding Kansas (1854-1859) and his raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now in West Virginia) in October 1859. Brown developed an intense...

Slaveholders in the United States frequently claimed that Blacks were 'happy' to be slaves and could, in no way, function as free people as they would find freedom 'burdensome' – a claim fully articulated by slavery apologist T. R. Dew's...

When Sojourner Truth (circa 1797-1883) escaped from slavery, she later said, "I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right" (Delbanco, 142). So it was also with Harriet Tubman (circa 1822-1913...

William "Box" Peel Jones was an enslaved African American who, in 1859, was shipped in a box from an unknown location to the home of the abolitionist William Still (1819-1902) in Philadelphia and then traveled on, with assistance from the...

Passmore Williamson (1822-1895) was a Quaker abolitionist, successful businessman, and member of the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Williamson helped many slaves gain freedom, among them Henry Box Brown (circa 1815 to...

Enslaved Blacks in the United States, seeking freedom, often fled to Canada, especially after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 compelled citizens in free states to help slave-catchers apprehend them. Although they frequently faced racial prejudice...

Jane Johnson (circa 1814/1827-1872) and her two young sons, Daniel and Isaiah, were slaves of one John Hill Wheeler of North Carolina, who brought them north to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on his way to New York in July 1855 en route to a...

The buffalo were essential to the Plains Indians, and other Native American nations, as they were not only a vital food source but were regarded as a sacred gift the Creator had provided especially for the people. Buffalo (bison) supplied...

William Still (1819-1902), the abolitionist known as the "Father of the Underground Railroad" for the records of escaped slaves he kept and later published as The Underground Railroad Records in 1872, c. 1898.