The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom: A comprehensive historySiebert, Wilbur Henry
History
The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom: A comprehensive history
Siebert, Wilbur Henry
Fugitive slaves -- United States; Underground Railroad
In the remaining portion of the Northwest Territory, the number of
lines was relatively not so great; and extended areas, as in the
western and northern parts of Indiana or the southeastern part of
Illinois, contained few or no lines so far as can now be discovered.
In western and northern Illinois the conditions were more favorable,
and the multiplicity of routes is such that on account of the
fusion, division and subdivision of roads it is impossible to say
how many lines crossed the state. In Michigan the case is not so
complicated, and one can trace with some clearness six or seven
paths leading to Detroit. Iowa, not a part, however, of the old
Northwest Territory, was traversed by lines terminating in Illinois,
and therefore deserves consideration here. In the southeastern
part of the state there were several short routes with initial
stations at Croton, Bloomfield, Lancaster and Cincinnati, all of
which had terminals no doubt along the Mississippi, though it has
been possible to complete but two of the routes. In southwestern
Iowa, Percival and the three roads branching from it are said to
have supplied means of egress for slaves from Missouri and Nebraska
through three tiers of counties ranging across the state in lines
parallel with the north boundary of Missouri. John Brown took the
northernmost of these parallel roads in the winter of 1858 and 1859,
when he led a company of twelve fugitives from Missouri through
Kansas to Percival on their way to Chicago and Detroit.
[Illustration: UNDERGROUND LINES OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO. Drawn by
Thomas Williams.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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