Editing Underground Railroad (section)

====Geography====

[[File:Rail Road Suspension Bridge Near Niagara Falls v2.jpg|thumb|Freedom seekers escaped slavery and reached Canada by way of the [[Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge]].]]

The Underground Railroad benefited greatly from the geography of the U.S.–Canada border: Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and most of New York were separated from Canada by water, over which transport was usually easy to arrange and relatively safe. The main route for freedom seekers from the South led up the Appalachians, Harriet Tubman going via [[Harpers Ferry]], through the highly anti-slavery [[Connecticut Western Reserve|Western Reserve]] region of northeastern Ohio to the vast shore of Lake Erie, and then to Canada by boat. A smaller number, traveling by way of New York or New England, went via [[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]] (home of [[Samuel May]]) and [[Rochester, New York]] (home of [[Frederick Douglass]]), crossing the [[Niagara River]] or [[Lake Ontario]] into Canada. By 1848 the [[Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge]] had been built—it crossed the Niagara River and connected New York to Canada. Enslaved runaways used the bridge to escape their bondage, and Harriet Tubman used the bridge to take freedom seekers into Canada.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Niagara River: Between Slavery and Freedom |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-niagara-river-between-slavery-and-freedom.htm |website=NPS |access-date=21 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center |url=https://www.nps.gov/places/niagara-falls-underground-railroad-heritage-center.htm |website=NPS |access-date=21 September 2024}}</ref> Those traveling via the New York [[Adirondacks]], sometimes via Black communities like [[Timbuctoo, New York]], entered Canada via [[Ogdensburg, New York|Ogdensburg]], on the [[St. Lawrence River]], or on [[Lake Champlain]] ([[Joshua Young]] assisted). The western route, used by [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] among others, led from Missouri west to free Kansas and north to free Iowa, then east via Chicago to the [[Detroit River]].

[[Thomas Downing (restaurateur)|Thomas Downing]] was a free Black man in New York and operated his Oyster restaurant as a stop on the Underground Railroad. [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|Freedom seekers]] (runaway slaves) escaping slavery and seeking freedom hid in the basement of Downing's restaurant.<ref>{{cite web |title=Downing's Oyster House |url=https://maap.columbia.edu/place/1.html |website=Mapping the African American Past |publisher=Columbia University |access-date=20 June 2024}}</ref> Enslaved people helped freedom seekers escape from slavery. Arnold Gragstone was enslaved and helped runaways escape from slavery by guiding them across the [[Ohio River]] for their freedom.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blaisdell |first1=Bob |last2=Rudisel |first2=Christine |title=Slave Narratives of the Underground Railroad |date=2014 |publisher=Dover Publications |isbn=9780486780610 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0g_dAwAAQBAJ&q=civil%20war}}</ref>

[[File:William Still portrait.png|thumb|William Still was a free Black man in Philadelphia who helped hundreds of freedom seekers escape from slavery.]]

[[William Still]],<ref>Blight, David, 2004, p. 175</ref> sometimes called "The Father of the Underground Railroad", helped hundreds of slaves escape (as many as 60 a month), sometimes hiding them in his [[Philadelphia]] home. He kept careful records, including short biographies of the people, that contained frequent railway metaphors. He maintained correspondence with many of them, often acting as a middleman in communications between people who had escaped slavery and those left behind. He later published these accounts in the book ''The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts'' (1872), a valuable resource for historians to understand how the system worked and learn about individual ingenuity in escapes.

According to Still, messages were often encoded so that they could be understood only by those active in the railroad. For example, the following message, "I have sent via at two o'clock four large hams and two small hams", indicated that four adults and two children were sent by train from [[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania|Harrisburg]] to Philadelphia. The additional word ''via'' indicated that the "passengers" were not sent on the usual train, but rather via [[Reading, Pennsylvania]]. In this case, the authorities were tricked into going to the regular location (station) in an attempt to intercept the runaways, while Still met them at the correct station and guided them to safety. They eventually escaped either further north or to Canada, where slavery had been [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833|abolished]] during the 1830s.<ref>{{cite book| last=Still|first=William| title=The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts| date=1872| url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21243533-the-underground-railroad?from_search=true&search_version=service_impr| asin=B00264GNTU| access-date=July 25, 2015| archive-date=December 14, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181214092959/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21243533-the-underground-railroad?from_search=true&search_version=service_impr| url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Desperate Conflict in a Barn.png|thumb|280px|''Struggle for freedom in a Maryland barn''. Wood-engraving from William Still's ''The Underground Rail Road'', p. 50.<ref>Dictated by Robert Jackson a.k.a. Wesley Harris on November 2, 1853. "Engravings by Bensell, Schell, and others."</ref>]]

To reduce the risk of infiltration, many people associated with the Underground Railroad [[Compartmentalization (information security)|knew only their part of the operation]] and not of the whole scheme. "Conductors" led or transported the "passengers" from station to station. A conductor sometimes pretended to be enslaved to enter a [[plantations in the American South|plantation]]. Once a part of a plantation, the conductor would direct the runaways to the North. Enslaved people traveled at night, about {{convert|10|-|20|mi|0}} to each station. They rested, and then a message was sent to the next station to let the station master know the escapees were on their way. They would stop at the so-called "stations" or "depots" during the day and rest. The stations were often located in basements,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cedarville University|date=February 12, 2018|title=Underground Railroad Hiding Places|url=https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/wyland_collection/85|journal=Slideshow Images|access-date=February 28, 2021|archive-date=April 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424165353/https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/wyland_collection/85/|url-status=live}}</ref> barns,<ref>{{cite web|date=1930s|title=Point of interest at Oakland City – site of barn of Col. James W. Cockrum used as an underground railroad station|url=http://visions.indstate.edu:8888/cdm/singleitem/collection/isulib/id/7638/rec/3|url-status=live|access-date=February 27, 2021|website=Wabash Valley Visions & Voices Digital Memory Project|archive-date=April 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415024158/http://visions.indstate.edu:8888/cdm/singleitem/collection/isulib/id/7638/rec/3}}</ref> churches,<ref>{{cite web|date=March 15, 2017|title=The Underground Railroad|url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog/underground-railroad|access-date=February 28, 2021|website=National Museum of African American History and Culture|language=en|archive-date=March 10, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310182912/https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog/underground-railroad|url-status=live}}</ref> or in hiding places in caves.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Smith Underground Railroad Station :: Ohio :: Henry Robert Burke :: Lest We Forget|url=http://lestweforget.hamptonu.edu/page.cfm?uuid=9FEC4E64-D74A-B3E9-A15B5ED01281AC79|access-date=February 28, 2021|website=lestweforget.hamptonu.edu|archive-date=April 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415024543/http://lestweforget.hamptonu.edu/page.cfm?uuid=9FEC4E64-D74A-B3E9-A15B5ED01281AC79|url-status=live}}</ref>

The resting spots where the freedom seekers could sleep and eat were given the code names "stations" and "depots", which were held by "station masters". "Stockholders" gave money or supplies for assistance. Using biblical references, fugitives referred to Canada as the "[[Promised Land]]" or "Heaven" and the [[Ohio River]], which marked the boundary between [[slave states and free states]], as the "[[Jordan River|River Jordan]]".<ref>{{cite web| title=Underground Railroad Codes| url=http://www.safepassageohio.org/resources/weblesson.pdf| work=Myths and Codes of the Underground Railroad| series=Safe Passage| publisher=Greater Cincinnati Television Educational Foundation| page=20| access-date=June 29, 2013| archive-date=June 12, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612135935/http://www.safepassageohio.org/resources/weblesson.pdf| url-status=usurped}}</ref>