Fugitive Slaves And The Underground Railroad In The Kentucky Borderland

Author : J. Blaine Hudson
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2015-05-07
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781476604220

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Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in the Kentucky Borderland by J. Blaine Hudson Pdf

Between 1783 and 1860, more than 100,000 enslaved African Americans escaped across the border between slave and free territory in search of freedom. Most of these escapes were unaided, but as the American anti-slavery movement became more militant after 1830, assisted escapes became more common. Help came from the Underground Railroad, which still stands as one of the most powerful and sustained multiracial human rights movements in world history. This work examines and interprets the available historical evidence about fugitive slaves and the Underground Railroad in Kentucky, the southernmost sections of the free states bordering Kentucky along the Ohio River, and, to a lesser extent, the slave states to the immediate south. Kentucky was central to the Underground Railroad because its northern boundary, the Ohio River, represented a three hundred mile boundary between slavery and nominal freedom. The book examines the landscape of Kentucky and the surrounding states; fugitive slaves before 1850, in the 1850s and during the Civil War; and their motivations and escape strategies and the risks involved with escape. The reasons why people broke law and social convention to befriend fugitive slaves, common escape routes, crossing points through Kentucky from Tennessee and points south, and specific individuals who provided assistance--all are topics covered.

Author : Karolyn Smardz Frost
Publisher : Wayne State University Press
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2016-02-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780814339602

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A Fluid Frontier by Karolyn Smardz Frost Pdf

As the major gateway into British North America for travelers on the Underground Railroad, the U.S./Canadian border along the Detroit River was a boundary that determined whether thousands of enslaved people of African descent could reach a place of freedom and opportunity. In A Fluid Frontier: Slavery, Resistance, and the Underground Railroad in the Detroit River Borderland, editors Karolyn Smardz Frost and Veta Smith Tucker explore the experiences of the area’s freedom-seekers and advocates, both black and white, against the backdrop of the social forces—legal, political, social, religious, and economic—that shaped the meaning of race and management of slavery on both sides of the river. In five parts, contributors trace the beginnings of and necessity for transnational abolitionist activism in this unique borderland, and the legal and political pressures, coupled with African Americans’ irrepressible quest for freedom, that led to the growth of the Underground Railroad. A Fluid Frontier details the founding of African Canadian settlements in the Detroit River region in the first decades of the nineteenth century with a focus on the strong and enduring bonds of family, faith, and resistance that formed between communities in Michigan and what is now Ontario. New scholarship offers unique insight into the early history of slavery and resistance in the region and describes individual journeys: the perilous crossing into Canada of sixteen-year-old Caroline Quarlls, who was enslaved by her own aunt and uncle; the escape of the Crosswhite family, who eluded slave catchers in Marshall, Michigan, with the help of others in the town; and the international crisis sparked by the escape of Lucie and Thornton Blackburn and others. With a foreword by David W. Blight, A Fluid Frontier is a truly bi-national collection, with contributors and editors evenly split between specialists in Canadian and American history, representing both community and academic historians. Scholars of the Underground Railroad as well as those in borderland studies will appreciate the interdisciplinary mix and unique contributions of this volume.

Author : J. Blaine Hudson
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 318 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2006-03-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9780786424597

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Encyclopedia of the Underground Railroad by J. Blaine Hudson Pdf

Fugitive slaves were reported in the American colonies as early as the 1640s, and escapes escalated with the growth of slavery over the next two hundred years. As the number of fugitives rose, the Southern states pressed for harsher legislation that they thought would prevent escapes. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 criminalized any assistance, active or passive, to a runaway slave--yet it only encouraged the behavior it sought to prevent. Friends of the fugitive, whose previous assistance to runaways had been somewhat haphazard, increased their efforts at organization. By the onset of the Civil War in 1861, the Underground Railroad included members, defined stops, set escape routes and a code language. From the abolitionist movement to the Zionville Baptist Missionary Church, this encyclopedia focuses on the people, ideas, events and places associated with the interrelated histories of fugitive slaves, the African American struggle for equality and the American antislavery movement. Information is drawn from primary sources such as public records, document collections, slave autobiographies and antebellum newspapers. Entries contain pointers to related entries and suggestions for further research. Appendices include information such as a geographical listing of selected friends of the fugitive, noted Underground Railroad sites administered by the National Parks Service, a bibliography of slave autobiographies and selected Underground Railroad songs. A chronology of slavery and the Underground Railroad is also included.

Author : Ann Malaspina
Publisher : Infobase Publishing
Page : 153 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Abolitionists
ISBN : 9781438131290

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The Underground Railroad by Ann Malaspina Pdf

When the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was passed by Congress, the flight to freedom for runaway slaves became even more dangerous. Even the free cities of Boston and Philadelphia were no longer safe, and abolitionists who despised slavery had to turn in fugitives. But the Underground Railroad, a secret and loosely organized network of people and safe houses that led slaves to freedom, only grew stronger. Since the late 1700s, blacks and whites had banded together to aid runaways like Maryland slave Frederick Douglass, who disguised himself as a sailor to board a train to New York. Virginia slave Henry Brown packed himself in a box to get to Philadelphia. The minister John Rankin, who hung a lantern to guide runaways to his house by the Ohio River, endured beatings for speaking against slavery. Quaker storeowner Thomas Garrett was put on trial for helping fugitives in Delaware. Meanwhile, the nation marched on toward Civil War. At its height, between 1810 and 1850, these secret routes and safe houses were used by an estimated 30,000 people escaping enslavement. In The Underground Railroad: The Journey to Freedom, read how this secret system worked in the days leading up to the Civil War and the pivotal role it played in the abolitionist movement.

Author : Damian Alan Pargas
Publisher : University Press of Florida
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2020-09-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9780813065793

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Fugitive Slaves and Spaces of Freedom in North America by Damian Alan Pargas Pdf

This volume introduces a new way to study the experiences of runaway slaves by defining different “spaces of freedom” they inhabited. It also provides a groundbreaking continental view of fugitive slave migration, moving beyond the usual regional or national approaches to explore locations in Canada, the U.S. North and South, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Using newspapers, advertisements, and new demographic data, contributors show how events like the Revolutionary War and westward expansion shaped the slave experience. Contributors investigate sites of formal freedom, where slavery was abolished and refugees were legally free, to determine the extent to which fugitive slaves experienced freedom in places like Canada while still being subject to racism. In sites of semiformal freedom, as in the northern United States, fugitives’ claims to freedom were precarious because state abolition laws conflicted with federal fugitive slave laws. Contributors show how local committees strategized to interfere with the work of slave catchers to protect refugees. Sites of informal freedom were created within the slaveholding South, where runaways who felt relocating to distant destinations was too risky formed maroon communities or attempted to blend in with free black populations. These individuals procured false documents or changed their names to avoid detection and pass as free. The essays discuss slaves’ motivations for choosing these destinations, the social networks that supported their plans, what it was like to settle in their new societies, and how slave flight impacted broader debates about slavery. This volume redraws the map of escape and emancipation during this period, emphasizing the importance of place in defining the meaning and extent of freedom. Contributors: Kyle Ainsworth | Mekala Audain | Gordon S. Barker | Sylviane A. Diouf | Roy E. Finkenbine | Graham Russell Gao Hodges | Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie | Viola Franziska Müller | James David Nichols | Damian Alan Pargas | Matthew Pinsker A volume in the series Southern Dissent, edited by Stanley Harrold and Randall M. Miller

Author : Michael Burgan,Philip Schwarz
Publisher : Infobase Publishing
Page : 113 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 9781438106540

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The Underground Railroad by Michael Burgan,Philip Schwarz Pdf

Describes the system by which black slaves escaped captivity in the southern United States.

Author : Robert H. Churchill
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2020-01-02
Category : History
ISBN : 9781108489126

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The Underground Railroad and the Geography of Violence in Antebellum America by Robert H. Churchill Pdf

A new interpretation of the Underground Railroad that places violence at the center of the story.

Author : R. J. M. Blackett
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Page : 138 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : History
ISBN : 9781469608778

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Making Freedom by R. J. M. Blackett Pdf

Making Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of Slavery

Author : William M. Cockrum
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2013-04
Category : History
ISBN : WISC:89058564535

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History of the Underground Railroad as it was Conducted by the Anti-Slavery League by William M. Cockrum Pdf

The Underground Railroad was instrumental in facilitating the escape of 500-1,000 blacks per year from the South to Canada. Many left from various points in Kentucky and crossed Indiana and Michigan en route to freedom. This work is primarily concerned with the traffic through Indiana, and the exciting events it engendered. It includes a map showing the routes used, and photos of some of the activists in the Anti-Slavery League. The author also wrote the Pioneer History of Indiana.

Author : Larry Gara
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 155 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2013-07-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9780813143569

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The Liberty Line by Larry Gara Pdf

" The underground railroad—with its mysterious signals, secret depots, abolitionist heroes, and slave-hunting villains—has become part of American mythology. But legend has distorted much of this history. Larry Gara shows how pre-Civil War partisan propanda, postwar remininscences by fame-hungry abolitionists, and oral tradition helped foster the popular belief that a powerful secret organization spirited floods of slaves away from the South. In contrast to much popular belief, however, the slaves themselves had active roles in their own escape. They carried out their runs, receiving aid only after they had reached territory where they still faced return. The Liberty Line puts slaves in their rightful position: the center of their struggle for freedom.

Author : J. Blaine Hudson
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 318 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2015-01-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9781476602301

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Encyclopedia of the Underground Railroad by J. Blaine Hudson Pdf

Fugitive slaves were reported in the American colonies as early as the 1640s, and escapes escalated with the growth of slavery over the next 200 years. As the number of fugitives rose, the Southern states pressed for harsher legislation to prevent escapes. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 criminalized any assistance, active or passive, to a runaway slave--yet it only encouraged the behavior it sought to prevent. Friends of the fugitive, whose previous assistance to runaways had been somewhat haphazard, increased their efforts at organization. By the onset of the Civil War in 1861, the Underground Railroad included members, defined stops, set escape routes and a code language. From the abolitionist movement to the Zionville Baptist Missionary Church, this encyclopedia focuses on the people, ideas, events and places associated with the interrelated histories of fugitive slaves, the African American struggle for equality and the American antislavery movement. Information is drawn from primary sources such as public records, document collections, slave autobiographies and antebellum newspapers.

Author : William M. Mitchell
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 212 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 1860
Category : African Americans
ISBN : HARVARD:32044011408879

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The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom by William M. Mitchell Pdf

Author : Catharine S. Brown
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 239 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2006-02-10
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780786423781

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Abel Brown, Abolitionist by Catharine S. Brown Pdf

Abel Brown was born November 9, 1810, in Springfield, Massachusetts, and moved with his parents to New York State at age 11. As a young man, he entered the Christian ministry and soon felt called to action in the abolitionist movement. Brown was an eloquent voice crying out against slavery, publishing letters and reports in The Liberator and other periodicals with abolitionist leanings, as well as in his own paper, The Tocsin of Liberty (later The Albany Patriot). The founder and corresponding secretary of the Eastern New York Anti-Slavery Society, he traveled widely, preaching the message of abolition, often accompanied by fugitive slaves. Brown's death one day before his 34th birthday was a blow to New York's abolitionist movement and devastating for his wife, Catharine, who published this biography in 1849 as a way of keeping his memory alive. The work draws heavily on Abel Brown's correspondence, journals, and newspaper articles, allowing him to tell the story in his own words. This newly edited version preserves the 1849 original while offering clarification and context. The result is an unusual first-hand look at America's anti-slavery movement. Appendices contain excerpts from additional correspondence and sermons of Abel Brown.

Author : William Still
Publisher : Courier Corporation
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2012-03-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9780486131221

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The Underground Railroad by William Still Pdf

From a "conductor" who assisted runaway slaves in their flight to freedom, here is a collection of letters, newspaper articles, and firsthand accounts about refugees' narrow escapes and deadly struggles. Over 50 illustrations.

Author : Eber M. Pettit
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 186 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 1879
Category : HISTORY
ISBN : HARVARD:32044010375418

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Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad by Eber M. Pettit Pdf

This volume contains a multitude of wonderful stories that weave together a picture of life in the South in the 1800s and the fear and courage of those that participated in helping thousands of people escape slavery. The work also includes chapters on the politics of the time, and the oft-times contradictory laws that were passed.