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Journey through the Underground Railroad
By JAMES McGINNIS
Ephrata Review
Published: Apr 30, 2008 12:53 PM EST
ADAMSTOWN - An estimated 800,000 to 900,000 people successfully escaped slavery in the
United States south via the Underground Railroad during its roughly 40
years of existence.
A crowd of about 50 at the Adamstown Area
library also learned from speaker William Switala, a retired history
professor, that one of the Underground Railroad routes passed through
Adamstown.
Though Pennsylvania had a prominent role in the
Underground Railroad because of its location just north of the Mason Dixon
Line–as well as a largely sympathetic population–Lancaster
County was a key county that was crossed by several routes. The county had
long been a hotbed for the abolitionist movement.
"Most of the
slaves that came through Lancaster County went to Daniel Gibbons, a Quaker
who lived in Bird-In-Hand," he said. "He sent his runaways out on five
different routes, one of which crossed through Adamstown to
Reading."
He noted that the network was run primarily by white
Quakers and Anabaptists in the southeastern and south central portions of
the state, while operators in the western part of the state were more
diverse, comprised of both white and black Baptists, Presbyterians and
Methodists.
"The attitude in Pennsylvania was basically, don't ask,
don't tell," he said. "You had people who were very devoted to the
abolitionist cause, while others were determined to help the slave
catchers. However, most people were very supportive of the slaves. If you
begged, most people would give you something."
Not a literal
railroad, the network consisted primarily of abolitionists and former
slaves who provided safe houses, food, clothing, medical treatment and
other necessities for escapees. Some members, like ex-slave Harriet Tubman,
became "conductors" who would guide groups of runaways to freedom,
traveling mostly at night, while others, like John Fairfield, a businessman
who lived in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia (then still part of Virginia),
provided disguises and devised ingenious plots to help entire groups of
slaves escape the salt mines near the Ohio Valley.
Switala said that
the runaways who passed through Reading were aided by an unlikely ally,
city constable "Bully" Lyons, who would hide them in the town jail before
sending them on the Reading and Pennsylvania Railroad north through New
York state. This was one case where the Underground Railroad literally used
trains.
Most historians believe that there were about six million
slaves in the nation during those years, meaning that the "railroad" had a
noticeable impact on the South's economy.
Switala said that
many slaves chose to escape because of abusive masters, harsh beatings or
threats of being "sold South" to plantations and businesses in Alabama,
Mississippi or Louisiana. Slaves in these states generally endured harsher
conditions than those in slave states located farther north including
Tennessee, the Carolinas or Virginia.
"Alabama and Mississippi did
not have any laws permitting slaves to be granted freedom, while Louisiana
had a high incidence of diseases like malaria, yellow fever and
malnutrition."
He also added that others "just quit," and felt that
the risks of escape, which included severe beatings and other forms of
torture if captured by slave catchers, long journeys through unfamiliar
territory and exposure to harsh weather, were preferable to a grueling,
dehumanizing and undignified life of captivity.
"It amazes me that
these people did not have complete nervous breakdowns," he
said.
Although many "conductors" actively recruited and organized
mass-escapes, Switala also added that a number of slaves managed to
successfully flee captivity without any help, or apparent knowledge, of the
formal Underground Railroad network.
"We have accounts of black
slaves who escaped without any help whatsoever," he said. "There is one
account of a man who went north, all the way to Canada, by riding on the
roofs of trains at night. There were records of slaves stealing coaches or
horses from their masters, and there were steamship captains who hid
runaways in their coal bins, some charging money, while others did it for
free."
While most slaves who used the "railroad" to escape used the
routes leading northward, others fled south into the then-sparsely
populated Florida peninsula, where the Seminole Indians gave them safe
haven. Slaves who managed to escape from more westerly states, including
Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana, sometimes traveled
southwest to Mexico, though Switala said that this became more difficult
after Texas first seceded from Mexico in 1835 and joined the U.S. as a
slave state 10 years later.
"The initial independence and subsequent
granting of statehood to Texas was the worst thing that happened for slaves
in this region," he said. "It made escaping a lot more
difficult."
Although some of the former slaves and their families
who escaped to Canada, Mexico or other foreign nations returned to the
United States after the Civil War, many remained in those nations and
assimilated into their cultures. However, few, if any, returned to
Africa.
Switala also debunked a few myths about the Underground
Railroad. He cautioned attendees not to assume that the presence of secret
rooms, passages or tunnels in old buildings mean that they once housed
runaway slaves. "Just because you have a sub-basement or tunnel does not
necessarily mean that your home was part of the Underground Railroad," he
said. "Many tunnels were also built during Prohibition, or simply used as
storage rooms. You should look for further evidence, such as records
indicating that owners from that era being members of the Abolitionist
Society."
He also voiced skepticism about a claim made in a book
presented by one attendee that alleged that some quilts made in the 19th
century may have contained coded symbols intended to guide runaways
traveling the network. Entitled, "Underground Railroad Sampler," the book
consists of designs that author Jacqueline Tobin claimed were originally
created by former slaves to serve as secret maps.
Although Switala
said that some quilts may have been hung outside safe houses or used as
warning signs by members of the network, he said that it was unlikely that
a recently escaped slave would have possessed the skills to create the
elaborate patterns on the quilts displayed in Tobin's book.
"The
vast majority of scholars would say that there is not much evidence that
the patterns on this quilt represented signs directing slaves on the
Underground Railroad," he told attendee Lori Stanley, who presented it to
him. "I think there is a case where quilts could have been used as warning
signs or markers for safe houses. However, they would have had to learn
that from another station. It's unlikely that they would have learned that
information on the plantation."
A history education specialist,
Switala taught at Duquesne University near Pittsburgh before retiring in
2004. He has since written several books on the history of the Underground
Railroad, the clandestine network of abolitionists who helped runaway
slaves escape to the northern United States and Canada in the early and mid
19th century. These include "Underground Railroad of Pennsylvania" and
"Underground Railroad of Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia."
The
funding was provided by the Friends of Adamstown Area Library.
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