Movement of resistance · 1810–1865
The Underground Railroad
A clandestine network guiding the enslaved to freedom in the North and Canada.
On the timeline
- April 15, 1848The Pearl escape attempt
Seventy-seven enslaved people board the schooner Pearl in Washington, D.C., the largest recorded nonviolent escape attempt in U.S. history, before being captured.
- December 25, 1848The escape of William and Ellen Craft
Disguised as a white planter and his valet, the Crafts complete a 1,000-mile escape from Georgia, reaching free Philadelphia on Christmas Day.
- March 23, 1849Henry "Box" Brown mails himself to freedom
Henry Brown is sealed in a crate and shipped from Richmond to Philadelphia, arriving alive after 27 hours, one of the most audacious escapes ever.
- December 1850Harriet Tubman escapes and returns
After escaping slavery, Tubman makes repeated trips back via the Underground Railroad, freeing dozens.
- February 15, 1851The Shadrach Minkins rescue
Boston's Vigilance Committee storms a courthouse to free Shadrach Minkins from federal custody under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.
- September 11, 1851The Christiana Resistance
Black residents of Christiana, Pennsylvania take up arms against slave-catchers under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, killing an enslaver.
- October 1, 1851The Jerry Rescue
A Syracuse crowd of thousands breaks into a jail to free William "Jerry" Henry, defying the Fugitive Slave Act.
- 1852William Still's Vigilance Committee
Philadelphia reorganizes its Vigilance Committee under William Still, who begins the record-keeping that becomes the UGRR's defining archive.
- June 2, 1854The rendition of Anthony Burns
Federal troops march escaped Anthony Burns back to slavery through Boston, radicalizing the North against the Fugitive Slave Act.
- January 28, 1856· debatedThe Margaret Garner tragedy
Cornered by slave catchers after crossing the frozen Ohio River, Margaret Garner kills her own daughter rather than see her re-enslaved, an act that haunted the nation.
- September 13, 1858The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue
An interracial crowd in Ohio frees a captured fugitive, John Price, defying federal slave-catchers.
Resources
A newly authenticated Underground Railroad safe-house passage in Manhattan.
The NPS program coordinating 800+ verified UGRR sites across the U.S. and Canada.
The "President of the Underground Railroad" recounts decades of the work.
The movement's greatest primary source, hundreds of escapes in the freedom seekers' own words.
A documentary on William Still and the Philadelphia network.
5,000+ digitized letters, interviews, and maps from the pioneering UGRR historian.
The web
Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations, the links rarely drawn together.
- enabled (incoming)·EventThe Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
By making the North unsafe, the 1850 act pushed escape routes all the way to Canada and swelled the Underground Railroad.
- part of (incoming)·PersonWilliam Still
Still's records are the backbone of what we know about the Underground Railroad.
- led to (incoming)·EventMaroons of the Great Dismal Swamp
Maroon networks of escape and concealment foreshadowed the routes and tactics of the Underground Railroad.