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Antislavery in the United States 1776-1865:
A Pathfinder
Main Page | Antislavery | Biographical Sources | Libraries & Historical Societies | Timelines | The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad
Books
Bordewich, Fergus M. Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America.
New York : Amistad, 2005.
Bordewich provides a great narration about the major players of the Underground Railroad. The Selected Bibliography
lists additional resources on the topic. A major flaw with this work is the lack of numbered endnotes. Bordewich does site his resources
in the Notes section. Instead of using a numbered endnote, the author lists the page number, the text on that page
where an endnote should be located, and the sources used. Footnote and endnote chasers may find this method annoying. Overall,
Bound for Canaan is a good introduction to the workings and the major personalities involved in the Underground
Railroad.
Websites
Black Heritage Trail - Museum of African American History Boston
This site is an online tour of the Black Heritage Trail of Boston. Included is information about John J. Smith, Lewis & Harriet Hayler, and John Coburn, all of whom assisted fugitive slaves.
Black-White Relations on Nantucket by Robert Johnson
This article originally appeared in the Spring 2002 issue of Historic Nantucket. The article is an overview of race relations in Nantucket and provides some information regarding the island’s antislavery movement and fugitive slaves.
Brookline Underground Railroad Committee
This web site authored by the Brookline Massachusetts Underground Railroad Committee contains information about
Brookline’s role in the Underground Railroad, the anti-slavery movement, and the Civil War. Links to Underground Railroad sites are
also provided.
Documenting the American South
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries maintains this website containing resources
pertaining to the South. Included in this collection are digitized books and pamphlets regarding slavery, the
antislavery movement, runaway slaves, and the Underground Railroad.
Making of America (MOA) - Joint venture between Cornell University and the University of Michigan.
This digital library contains scanned images of US primary sources from 1850 to 1877. A good amount of material pertaining to antislavery sentiment, fugitive slaves, and the
Civil War can be found in this site. The Cornell version focuses on popular journals of the time, but also contains the War of the Rebellion series.
The University of Michigan version focuses on books/monographs.
Modern History Sourcebook: The Fugitive Slave Act, September 18, 1850
In response to the success of the Underground Railroad assistance to slaves, Congress passed the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. This site contains the text of this law. This site is part of Fordham University’s Internet Modern History Sourcebook.
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
This organization, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, studies the past, present, and future struggles in
freedom. This site provides a Scholar’s Corner and Resources listing sources that provide more information on the topic.
Profiles in Courage: African Americans in Lowell
Online version of an exhibit of the same title by Martha for the University of Massachusetts Lowell Center for Lowell History. Focuses on two families in Lowell, Massachusetts and their involvement in the antislavery movement and the Underground Railroad.
Seeking Freedom in Nineteenth-Century America
This article by Shelia Sibley describes an exhibit by the same title at the Newton History Museum (Newton, Massachusetts). The exhibit includes the abolitionist movement and the Museum’s Jackson Homestead,
which served as an Underground Railroad station.
Slaves and the Courts 1740-1860
This digital library is part of the Library of Congress American Memory project. The collection contains full texts of books and pamphlets
on the legal issues of slavery. Several fugitive slave cases are
represented in this collection, as are John Quincy Adams, Anthony Burns, Charles G. Davis, William Lloyd Garrison, Edward Greely Loring, Wendell Phillips, Theodore Parker, and Jonathan Walker.
The Study of the Legacy of Slavery in Maryland
This site is maintained by the Maryland State Archives. Although it focuses on slavery in Maryland,
the site contains William Still’s 1872 work, titled Underground Rail Road: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, etc,
which contains some information on the Underground Railroad in other states. This site also has other recommended sources.
Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, and the Underground Railroad
This source is a Calliope, Inc. Fact Sheet. It’s a very thorough site about abolition, the Underground Railroad, and the Fugitive Slave Laws. Thoreau’s and Concord, Massachusetts’s involvement in these matters are highlighted.
See also Anthony Burns, David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Leonard Black, Thomas H. Jones, Thomas Sims, William Wells Brown.
| ©2004-2008 Tim Sheehan tim@historynut.info |
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