Harriet Tubman Resources: Underground Railroad

Journalist Bordewich's survey of the Underground Railroad from its earliest days in Revolution-era America through the Civil War and the extension of the vote to African Americans in 1870. Using archival and contemporary sources (letters, autobiographies, tax records and slave narratives, as well as new scholarship), Bordewich reveals the Railroad to be much more complicated than is usually understood.

A fascinating collection of letters, diaries and narratives of slaves who risked death to find freedom. Organized geographically, with accompanying historical notes and photographs.

Thomas Garrett, a Quaker from Wilmington, Delaware, believed so strongly in the Underground Railroad and in helping slaves escape that he chafed under the Quaker belief in non-violence when force seemed to be the only way to win freedom for the slaves. This book was an important work in antebellum reform when it was first published in 1977. Author James McGowan disputed earlier arguments that white abolitionists were unified in their opposition to slavery and that they were largely responsible for the success of the Underground Railroad while the escaped slaves were helpless and frightened passengers who took advantage of a well-organized network.

"A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, &c., Narrating the Hardships, Hair-Breadth Escapes and Death Struggles of the ... & Others or Witnessed by the Author." First published in 1872.

First published in 1898, this pioneering work was the first documented survey of the system that helped fugitive slaves escape from areas in the antebellum South to regions as far north as Canada. Comprising fifty years of research, the text includes interviews and excerpts from diaries, letters, biographies, memoirs, speeches, and other firsthand accounts.