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.