Early Underground Railroad Networks Form

Following the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act, networks of free Black people, Quakers, and other allies began organizing informal systems to shelter and assist freedom-seekers. Philadelphia's Free African Society, founded in 1787 by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, became an early node. These networks, later called the Underground Railroad, operated through kinship and religious ties and were largely organized and led by free and formerly enslaved Black people.