Grayson McCoy - UGRR Project

The Underground Railroad Project

Conductors

Station Masters

Experience on a Southern Plantation

before Escaping

Secret Signs

The Routes

Major Geographic Features

Ellen Craft

Frederick Douglass

Harriet Tubman

John Brown

Thomas Garrett

William Still

Hanby House

The Hanby House was built in 1853 in Pennsylvania. Benjamin Hanby was an important person in his community becasue he was a minister, abolitionist, student and teacher. While he did have many roles in his community he also played a big role in the Underground Railroad. Mr. Hanby would open up his house to run away slaves and with the help of his family he would feed them, clothe them, and even lead them to a safe path to Canada. He was threatened and hated by most people but at one point he was asked why would you brake the law? Benjamin said "When a man made law is in conflict with God's law, there is no compromise". So many slaves knew that they would be able to find help and their freedom with Benjamin Hanby.

Sandwich First Baptist Church

Code Words

The Sandwich First Baptist Church was established in the early 1840s. Many of the members of the congregation were formerly enslaved people who had made their way to freedom in Upper Canada into Ohio. The Church helped out any escaped slave they could. To prevent being caught, the slaves would use secret code words when getting inside of the church. The slaves that made it to the church would stay in an underground basement that the church kept hidden inside. The slaves would have food and clothes given to them and when they wanted to leave they would yet again sneak out in the dead of night so they would not be caught be any of the town's citizens.

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818 in Talbot, Maryland. Douglass's mom was a slave and his dad was a white European man. He was later separated from his mom and dad so that he could go work on a plantation farm. Here Douglass was taught to read and write by the farmer's wife which he found quite interesting and continued to study with the few books he owned. The farmer soon found out about the teaching and put an end to it so Douglass tried to escape but failed. Douglass then came up with a plan to write a train ticket because most slaves were not smart enough to read and write. He escaped the farm on a train to New York where he then was free.

Harriet Tubman was born in 1822 and was one of nine siblings living in Dorchester Maryland. Here they were slaves on a cattle farm working sun up to sun down. Tubman eventually grew tired of living on the farm and decided to make a deal with her owner. She would get a job wherever she wanted but would have to send a check back to him each month. While she was out exploring the land she figured that it could be her key to freedom and out of slavery. But then her owner fell into a critical amount of debt and was forced to sell Tubman and her family. Now she and her family decided to make a break for freedom by taking a route up Wickenden to cross the line and become free.

Ellen Craft started off her life as a young slave hoping for a better life. Later down the road, she met a man named William and the two fell in love but they were still both slaves. The two wanted to get married but decided to escape slavery first. William came up with an idea for Ellen to disguise herself as a sickly, old, white man and pretend William was her slave. Later on December 21, 1848, they decided to put there plan into action and started their escape. The two took a train down to Georgia and then crossed main streams and rivers. Eventually, they made it to Philadelphia and earned their freedom.

William Still was one of the last Underground Railroad Station Masters. He lived in Delaware where he would take in many runaway slaves and hide them until they would get to their new haven. Here not only did he help the runaway slaves on their journey, but he also supplied them with all the resources they needed such as food, clothing, and coordinated escape routes. On a journey to help a slave who had come to Still's house seeking refuge, he found that it turned out to be his long-lost brother. His brother had escaped from captivity in the Deep South.

Haines House

Plymouth Church

John Brown was a huge part of the Underground Railroad. His entire family would hide away slaves in his house to prevent captivity. Brown had several sons and this led to his family participating in Bleeding Kansas. This conflict led to the death of 5 pro-slavery supporters. Then again in the December of 1858 Brown and his several sons helped 11 enslaved people from the plantations and misery. From here they took a 1,500-thousand-mile journey to cross the Canadian border and earn their freedom.

Thomas Garrett was a very famous Station Master during the Underground Railroad. He was said to added 2,750 slaves before the Civil War. He would often help out the slaves by giving them food and clothes and even letting them stay in his own home. Garrett would also send them in a direction of freedom and even give them some money so that they would be able to start their new lives. This was a very dangerous lifestyle for Garrett to live because he would often receive threats from pro-slave advocates. In 1848 he received a very large fine for violating figurative slave laws.

The Plymouth Church was established in 1847. There have been many stories of runaway slaves hiding out in the basement of the Church waiting to escape to Canada. After years of research and discovery we know that slaves would stay in the basement of the Plymouth Church for months at a time without seeing the crack of daylight. They would also have very little food and water with nothing to sleep on but the floor. The Chuch's fist minister was a man named Henry Ward Beecher. He shared his views against slavery and this often resulted in protests and mobs outside of the church.

The Haines House was the home of J. Ridgeway and Sarah Grant Haines. The two had six children and were Quaker farmers on their land of 126 acres. Jonathan had always been against slavery and wanted to do something about it. He turned his house into a stop on the Underground Railroad for slaves. The slaves seeking Ridgeway's help would come to his house at night in the hope of not being caught and then Mr. Ridgeway would lead them to a secret room above his kitchen. From here, the slaves would receive items such as food, water, new clothes, and a small blanket to sleep on. Then after the slaves got some sleep they would disappear from the house once again in the hope of making it to Canada and earning their freedom.

Words

Meaning

Levi Coffin House

- Tracks

Levi and Catharine Coffin were known as two of the founders of the Underground Railroad. The two were originally from North Carolina and as a young boy Mr. Coffin saw a chain gang of enslaved people as they were walking. One of them gripped his father and said they took me from my wife and son, please help. This tragedy moved young Coffin's life so that he decided to help and get these slaves to freedom. Levi opened up his home as a safe house for the escaped slaves on the run. The slaves would come in the cold and freezing night and creep through the door where they would be greeted by Levi. The slaves would be given a warm bed, food, and even money so they could buy supplies on the road. Then they would leave on their way the next night going back on their journey to find freedom.

Routes fixed by abolitionist sympathizers

John Rankin House

Levi and Catharine Coffin were known as two of the founders of the Underground Railroad. The two were originally from North Carolina and as a young boy Mr. Coffin saw a chain gang of enslaved people as they were walking by one of them gripped his father and said they took me from my wife and son please help. So this tragedy moved young Coffin's life so he decided to help and get these slaves t freedom. Levi opened up his home as a safe house for the escaped slaves on the run. The slaves would come in the cold and freezing night and creep threw the door where they would be greeted by Levie. The slaves would be given a warm bed, food, and even money so they could buy supplies on the road. Then they would leave on their way the next night going back on their journey to find freedom.

- Depots

Hiding places

Guides on the Underground Railroad

- Conductors

Ohio River

Important Locations:

- Ohio River

- Dismal Swamp

- Freedam Trail Forest

Dismal Swamp

The Ohio River played a big role in the Underground Railroad because it served as a way for slaves to move up Kentucky and into Ohio. The slaves also saw the river as a ticket to freedom and a chance to start a new and better life. A famous man named Christopher Miller, an educator with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in downtown Cincinnati said the early Black communities were significant and resilient, especially along the riverfront. This way the newly escaped slaves would be able to come and go as they pleased.

During the Underground Railroad, the runaway slaves would often hide out in the wilderness. One of the biggest hiding spots used was the Dismal Swamp. While the swamp was very nasty and hard to navigate this made it the perfect hiding spot. The slaves would often spend days in the swamp watching out for their hunters and then moving on to a safe house. The swamp contained severe thornes, vines and vigorous trees. It also had deadly animals lurking inside. There were snakes making this place very dangerous.

- Agents

Sympathizers who helped the slaves connect to the Railroad

Those who hid slaves in their homes

- Station Masters

Important Stops:

- Plymouth Church

- Levi Coffin House

- Rankin House

-Sandwich First Baptist Church

- Haines House

- Hanby House

- Bethel AME Church

Slaves lives on plantations before they escaped were all very different depending on many things. One thing was the same and that was working in the fields. These slaves would wake up at the crack of dawn and then work until the moon came out. They would receive no pay and have very little food to eat. The slaves usually would live in small shacks with dirt floors and would receive no bed to sleep on. The life of a slave on a big farm was hard because it meant more work but life on a little farm also meant that sometimes you would not get food. These slaves would often try to escape but if caught they would sometimes be killed or beaten.

Freedam Trail Forest

The slaves who were able to escape from their jobs and masters relied on other people to give them food and shelter. Since the slaves continued with no map of where the next safe hose was they would often get lost and have to spend nights inside of woods to avoid being captured again. Then once they left the slaves would escape in all directions, some to Mexico, some to Cuba, but most came north towards Canada. These woods helped hide the slaves from hunters and saved them from captivity.

John Brown

Josiah Henson

Thaddeus Stevens

Isaac Hopper

Messaging in Quilts

Secret Songs

Josiah Henson was born in 1789 in Maryland as a slave. When Henson was a little older he ran away to Canada where he came across a house where freedom seekers were. The escaped slaves were also met with a Methodist preacher who traveled around the United States fighting against slavery. This changed the life of a young Josiah Henson because he dedicated his life to fighting against slavery and helping people during the underground railroad escape to Canada. Later in Henson's life he wrote and published his autobiography highlighting his entire life of fighting against slavery.

John Brown or (Ben Ford) was born in 1818 on the Betty Moore farm. The Brown family served as workers on a cotton field. Then Brown was sold to a slave dealer by his owner and was then separated from his mother and brother. The slavemaster took him to Georgia and was then sold once again to another cotton farmer. Now Brown had come into a cruel cotton farmer who was described as wipping his slaves often. Brown tried to escape multiple times but failed and was punished by being forced to wear a giant metal color with bells so he could not escape. The farmer's son one day came to Brown's rescue and released him to freedom were he moved to Indiana and then changed his name to Ben Ford.

Bethel AME Church

Isaac Hopper played a very large role in the Underground Railroad. When Hopper was a young man he tried to free his neighbor's slave. This is when he decided to dedicate his life to helping fight for equal rights. Later in Hopper's life, he played an important part in the movement by hiding slaves in his home. He was also the leader of organizing a network of safe places for them to hide while they were on the run. Then again in 1829 he moved to New York and helped hide slaves there and at one point even stopped a pro-slave supporting mob.

Thaddeus Stevens was a well-known Pennsylvania congressman who was not afraid to show people that he was against slavery. Stevens was a very big political advocate when it came to fighting for slave rights. He also helped slaves during the Underground Railroad by letting them stay in his house and giving them directions to other safe places. In a later discovery conducted in 2002, they found a secret bunker underneath Stevens's house. They discovered that this was where Stevens had hidden the runaway slaves.

The Bethel AME Church was primarily a black church that continued many members that associated with the Underground Railroad. The Church and its congregation would offer a place to stay for any slave on the run or trying to escape to freedom. The Slaves would go to the back of the church during the night and use a secret code word to get in. Once inside of the church, the slave would receive food, water, and some blankets to sleep with. Then the next night the slave would leave and more would come. A famous conductor named Harriet Tubman also used this as a stop in one of her most famous journeys leading slaves to freedom.

During the underground Rail Road station masters would use quilts to signal slaves on the run by hanging certain quilts on a window sill. The quilts were to let the slaves on the run know that the area was safe or if it was not, they would also tell them things such as wear to get food and head next.

There were many songs used on the Underground Railroad such as:

- Follow the Drinking Gourd

- Underground Railroad

- Let Us Break Bread Together

- Steal Away

- Go Down Moses

- The Journey

- Wade in the Water

- Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

- This Is Science

- Welcome to Your Future

- Bessie

- Music in slave Life

- Canaan

Follow the Drinking Gourd

Follow the drinking gourd.

Follow the drinking gourd.

For the old man is a–waiting for to carry you to freedom

If you follow the drinking gourd.

When the sun comes back and the first quail calls,

Follow the drinking gourd.

For the old man is a–waiting for to carry you to freedom

If you follow the drinking gourd.

The riverbank makes a very good road,

The dead trees will show you the way.

Left foot, peg foot, traveling on,

Follow the drinking gourd.

The river ends between two hills,

Follow the drinking gourd.

There's another river on the other side,

Follow the drinking gourd.

When the great big river meets the little river,

Follow the drinking gourd.

For the old man is a–waiting for to carry you to freedom

If you follow the drinking gourd.

By: Grayson McCoy

Bow Tie = Dress in disguise to appear of a higher status

Bear Paw = Follow an animal trail through the mountains to find water and food

Log Cabin = Seek shelter now, the people here are safe to speak with

Sources Used

- History.com Editors. “Frederick Douglass.” History, A&E Television Networks, 27 Oct. 2009, www.history.com/topics/black-history/frederick-douglass.

- Dawson, Shay. “Harriet Tubman.” National Women’s History Museum, National Women’s History Museum, 2015, www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/harriet-tubman.

- Quarstein, John. John Brown (AKA “Fed” and “Benford”) (1818-1876) •. 19 Feb. 2019, www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/john-brown-aka-fed-and-benford-1818-1876/.

- “Josiah Henson (U.S. National Park Service).” Www.nps.gov, www.nps.gov/people/josiah-henson.htm.

- “History Matters: Thomas Garrett’s Trial of 1848.” Delaware First Media, 24 Feb. 2017, www.delawarepublic.org/culture-lifestyle-sports/2017-02-24/history-matters-thomas-garretts-trial-of-1848. Accessed 4 May 2024.

- “Underground Railroad.” Plymouth Church, www.plymouthchurch.org/underground-railroad.

- “Sandwich First Baptist Church · the North Was Our Canaan: Exploring Sandwich Town’s Underground Railroad History · Collections.” Collections.uwindsor.ca, collections.uwindsor.ca/nwoc/first-baptist.