Timeline
1790-1830 |
1790-1830
Precursors to the Underground Railroad
| According to author Fergus Bordewich, the roots of the Underground Railroad are formed by the work of people such as Isaac Hopper, a Quaker who sees it as his religious duty to help men escape from bondage. Hopper works in Philadelphia, organizing what Bordewich calls the first “cell” of underground, abolitionist work. Fergus M. Bordewich, Bound for Canaan , 50; Early in the century, Quakers in the North Carolina Piedmont region make up the only sizeable population of abolitionists below the Mason-Dixon Line and the Border States (Bordewich, 63). They soon begin organized efforts to help slaves escape from slavery. Late 1820s to early 1830s Canada ceases returning fugitive slaves to the United States, cementing its status as the ultimate goal for many fugitives. (Bordewich, 247)
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1791
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| John Simcoe is appointed first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada (still a British colonial possession) and, as a passionate abolitionist, makes it clear that blacks will enjoy the same rights as whites in his territory (Bordewich, 114).
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1820
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Quakers Levi and Vestal Coffin establish the first deliberate, long-distance escape route for slaves from North Carolina to Indiana . Levi Coffin later calls himself the “president” of the UGRR. (Bordewich, 64-78) |
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In March, the Pennsylvania legislature passes the first law within the United States “that was deliberately intended to interfere with the Fugitive Slave Act” (Bordewich, 136). The law stated that anyone involved in the kidnapping of a black in Pennsylvania was punishable by up to $2,000 or 21 years in prison at hard labor. Many more of these personal liberty laws follow in states across the North. |
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1821 |
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1822
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1824 and 1825
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The Castigator publishes the letters of Reverend John Rankin to his brother, who had recently become a slaveowner in Virginia. Rankin was a leading abolitionist and important Underground Railroad operative. The letters are reprinted throughout the coming years, “dissect[ing] every argument that was commonly used to rationalize slavery.” (Bordewich, 141) |
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1829 |
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Isaac Hopper moves to New York due to conflict within the Quaker movement over his alignment with the anti-slavery Hicksite faction.
He opens a bookstore which sells Hicksite and antislavery literature. (Bordewich, 134) |
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1830
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On October 28, Josiah Henson, the fugitive slave upon whom Uncle Tom of Uncle Tom's Cabin is rumored to be based, reaches Canada with his family. (Bordewich,125)
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1831-1840
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1831
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On January 1, William Lloyd Garrison publishes the first issue of the Liberator. Many Southerners cite Garrison's “new doctrine of uncompromising radicalism” as a direct cause of Nat Turner's slave revolt. (Bordewich, 106) |
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In August, Nat Turner leads his slave revolt, the bloodiest in American history. The aftermath of the revolt leads to much stricter rules regulating slaves and free blacks in the Upper South. (Bordewich, 106) |
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1833
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In December, the first nationwide antislavery conference is held in Philadelphia, organized by William Lloyd Garrison. (Bordewich, 143) |
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1834
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William Wells Brown escapes slavery in Kentucky and becomes involved with Underground Railroad and abolitionist activities, traveling to Europe to speak his beliefs. (William Wells Brown, Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave (Boston: The Anti-slavery Office, 1847) http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/brown47/menu.html |
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1835
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In June, Harriet Jacobs, who later publishes Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl , escapes from slavery in North Carolina on what becomes a seven-year journey to freedom. (Bordewich, 277) |
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In October, there are riots in Utica, New York. At a meeting of delegates to form New York branch of American Anti-Slavery Society people are mobbed, rooms raided, etc. because of their abolitionist activities. (Bordewich, 149-153) |
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In November, the Vigilance Committee of New York is formed with David Ruggles as the leader. During his tenure, the New York Vigilance operation reportedly rescues over 1,000 slaves from slavery. (Bordewich 171-178) One of the first organizations in which African Americans hold most positions of power; Ruggles does not believe in the superiority of white leadership. The New York Committee becomes a model for others across the country. |
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1837
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In August, the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee is founded under the leadership of James McCrummel and Robert Purvis. (Bordewich, 176) |
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1838
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On September 3, Frederick Douglass escapes slavery by train, using borrowed freedom papers. (Bordewich, 181; McDougall, 58) |
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1840
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Solomon Northup, a free man from New York State , is tricked by kidnappers into believing he had a position in a traveling circus. Instead, he finds himself enslaved in Washington D.C. , where he would remain until his rescue in 1853 (Marion Gleason McDougall, Fugitive Slaves: 1619-1865, Freeport: Books for Libraries Press, 1971, 37.) |
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John Van Zandt takes nine fugitive slaves into his wagon when returning to the country from Cincinnati ; he is stopped by three people and all but two slaves are captured. Mr. Van Zandt is arrested, tried, and fined $12,000, which drives him into bankruptcy. The case, Jones v. Van Zandt, eventually reaches the Supreme Court in 1847. (McDougall, 42) |
1841-1850
The Crisis over Personal Liberty
| Ohio, a border state, becomes more and more involved in Underground Railroad activity, specifically Ripley, Ohio. Figures such as John Rankin, George DeBaptiste, Calvin Fairbank and Delia Webster grow in importance. As railroads spread across the United States, those involved with aiding fugitive slaves begin to refer to their work as the “Underground Railroad” for the first time. By the 1850s railroad terminology is the common among all Americans when referring to Underground activity. |
1841
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Josiah Henson founds the Dawn Institute, a community in which former slaves learn self-sufficiency, emphasizing useful trades and teaching literacy He also becomes one of the most important conductors on the Underground. (Bordewich,240; http://www.fergusbordewich.com/FBtimelinepage.shtml) |
Henry Bibb escapes from slavery in the Kansas/Oklahoma Territory. First moves to Detroit then to Canada when the second Fugitive Slave Act is passed. Bibb becomes one of the most famous escaped slaves, writing memoirs and leading activists. (Henry Walton Bibb, Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, Written by Himself (New York: Author, 1849) Reproduced at http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/bibb/menu.html) |
1842 |
Prigg v. Pennsylvania is decided by the Supreme Court. The case involves Margaret Morgan, a slave who escaped from Maryland to Pennsylvania and was reported by attorney Albert Prigg, arrested, and sent back to Maryland without any legal recourse. The case determines that although states could not openly violate the Fugitive Slave Act, they did not have to actively enforce those laws. Many Personal Liberty Laws are passed in response to this decision. (McDougall, 27-28) |
On October 25, George Latimer is seized in Boston without a warrant and a trial ensues after which he is emancipated. This is the first in a series of high-profile fugitive slave cases in Boston which do a great deal to bring the issue of fugitive slaves into public debate. (McDougall, 39-40) |
1844 |
Jonathan Walker receives the brand “S.S.” on his hand (meaning “Slave Stealer”) when he attempts to take escaped slaves to the free Bahamas . He is caught and put on trial, and the jury sentences him to public exhibition and the branding. He is left penniless. In the North the case becomes famous and Walker is seen as a martyr; the “S.S.” is said to stand for “Salvation to the Slave.” This incident changes the struggle, for Northerners see the South as a threat to even the white man's freedoms. (Bordewich, 283-292; McDougall, 42) |
1847 |
William Still is hired as a clerk and janitor at the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery; after the second Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 he is appointed chairman of the Vigilance Committee. He works
closely with the Underground and people such as Harriet Tubman, and he is involved with famous cases such as those of William and Ellen Craft, Henry “Box” Brown and warns William Parker of Gorsuch's impending arrival at Christiana. (Bordewich, 355-356) |
Henry “Box” Brown is received by James McKim and William Still in Philadelphia in a box 3 feet long and 2 feet wide. (http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/boxbrown/summary.html) |
In May, Mrs. Oliver moves from Arkansas to Maryland with her children and 12 slaves, passing through free Pennsylvania on the way. Five months later the slaves escape into Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, where Daniel Kauffman keeps them in his barn with the help of Philip Breckbill and Stephen Weakley. Mr. Kauffman is later found guilty for harboring fugitives. (Stanley W. Campbell, The Slave Catchers: Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850-1860, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1970, 123-124) |
On June 2, in what comes to be known as the McClintock Riot, three blacks in Carlisle, Pennsylvania are established as the slaves of Kennedy and Hollingsworth of Maryland. The free black population protests but the Judge gives custody of the men back to their owners and a riot ensues for which 36 people are tried in August in a nationally publicized trial. (McDougall, 39; also see http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/encyclo/m/ed_mcClintockriot.htm) |
1848
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Thomas Garrett is put on trial for his Underground Railroad work in Delaware . He is convicted for helping 6 slaves and fined $15,000. He remains openly defiant of the court throughout the case. (Bordewich, 353-354) |
On January 24, gold is discovered in California. |
On April 13, the Pearl arrives in Washington , D.C. to carry 77 fugitive slaves North. The plot is revealed and the ship captured, and all of the slaves and the whites aiding their escape (Drayton and Sayres) are taken back to D.C. and paraded through the streets. President Polk has to order federal employees into the streets to stop the violence. (Bordewich, 295-299; McDougall, 42) |
On July 27, the trials of Drayton and Sayres begin, garnering national attention. This incident in the nation's capital foreshadows both a political realignment and changing attitudes of many Americans as sectional rhetoric and lines harden. (Bordewich, 301-304) |
In December, Ellen and William Craft escape from slavery when Ellen, who is nearly white, disguises herself as an injured Southern planter traveling North by train for medical attention with William as her slave. (McDougall, 58-60; see also http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/craft/menu.html) |
1849 |
Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland, overland to Pennsylvania. (Bordewich, 346) |
1850
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On August 26, Congress votes the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act into law as part of the Compromise of 1850, admitting California as a free state and allowing popular sovereignty in the New Mexico territories |
In September, James Hamlet, a free black from New York , is arrested by a U.S. Marshal as the fugitive slave of Mary Brown of Baltimore. When people hear of the event, money is immediately raised for his return and
he is back with his family by October 5, 1850. (McDougall, 43-44; Campbell, 115). |
1851-1861
Fugitives and the Coming of War
| Escaped slaves begin publishing their stories, increasing awareness and sympathy across the North. Henry Bibb and Mary Ann Shad, both fugitives and becoming leaders of the black community in Canada, publish their stories and later become enemies over their views of what life for fugitives would be like after their escape from slavery. By the later years of the decade, Personal Liberty Laws spread across the North. The Laws also cause more conflict between the North and South as well as the State governments and the Federal government. |
1851
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Henry Bibb runs the North American Convention of Colored People in Toronto , addressing the question of what fugitives are to do upon their escape to freedom. Bibb wishes to develop colonies in places such as Canada and Jamaica. (Bordewich, 384-385) |
In February, Frederic Wilkins, an escaped slave from Norfolk , Virginia, living in Boston under the alias of Shadrach, is discovered and taken to court. Before a trial can take place, however, a group of free blacks forcibly enter the courtroom, take the prisoner and see him on his way to Canada . The incident is discussed by Congress, giving it national prominence. (McDougall, 45-46) |
In March 1851, Seth Concklin is killed after attempting to save the family of William Still's brother from slavery in Alabama . His death gains national attention like other divisive fugitive stories of 1851. (Bordewich, 361) |
| On September 11, 1851, Marshal Kline and his party reach the home of William Parker and call him out. Parker responds to Kline's call and steps into sight. (Thomas P. Slaughter, Bloody Dawn: The Christiana Riot and Racial Violence in the Antebellum North (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 60. After multiple exchanges between the parties, Eliza Parker, wife of William Parker, allegedly blows a horn to sound an alarm for neighboring fugitives to come to their aid. (Slaughter, 62) |
Following the above call, the Christiana Slave Riot occurs with both sides claiming the other side fired the first shots. Edward Gorsuch, the slaveholder from Maryland who came to Pennsylvania to bring his slaves back to Maryland under the second Fugitive Slave Act, is killed in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania during the recovery efforts. The trial begins on November 24, 1851. (Slaughter) |
In October, the “Jerry” incident takes place; Jerry, an escaped slave working in Syracuse , is carried out of the restaurant where he works by slavecatchers. A Liberty Party convention happens to be taking place at the same time, and when he is put on trial they carry him out of the courtroom and send him to freedom. Though people are indicted in the case, no one receives punishment. (Bordewich, 333-340) |
Held between November 24 and December 11, the Christiana Treason trial captures national attention, resulting in no convictions. The incident polarizes sectional differences and dramatically undermines the new Fugitive Slave statute. |
In the winter, Calvin Fairbank is arrested and sentenced to 15 years in the Kentucky State Penitentiary for aiding a fugitive to safety; he only recently finished another sentence of five to six years. (Bordewich, 365) |
1852
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| Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published. |
1853
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Anderson, a slave, is found and arrested as a fugitive slave by Mr. Seneca T. P. Diggs near his farm in Howard County, Missouri without a pass. Anderson stabs and kills Diggs then escapes to Canada where he lives in peace until 1860 when he was placed on trial. The U.S.
government does not ask Canada to return him until 1860 under the extradition treaty. There is a legal struggle over where Anderson is to be tried, but ultimately he is tried in Toronto and defended by Gerrit Smith, whose speech is widely circulated around the United States . Anderson is released on a technicality. (McDougall, 25-26) |
In March, Mary Ann Shadd becomes the first black woman to publish a newspaper in North America when she begins publication of Provincial Freeman , dedicated mostly to attacking Bibb's newspaper, Voice of the Fugitive , and his ideas on segregation as Shadd believed in integration of blacks into white communities. Black ideas and plans of utopias would continue in the years to come through men such as Reverend William Kind. (Bordewich, 386-387, 389) |
In August, the trial of George Washington McQuerry, the slave of Henry Miller, takes place; McQuerry is sent back to slavery after having escaped in 1849 to Cincinnati. (Campbell , 121-123) |
On September 3, William Thomas is pursued by deputy marshals G. M. Wynkoop, John Jenkins, and James Crossin. As he tries to escape, they fire and hit Thomas, who jumps into the river covered with blood since he would rather die than return to slavery. His pursuers leave the scene and Thomas is helped from the river and never heard from again in Wilkes Barre. Though they never succeed in getting the marshals sentenced, abolitionists continue to press charges against multiple times after the incident, proving an increased commitment in the North to helping fugitive slaves. (Campbell , 139-140) |
1854
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In January, the Kansas-Nebraska Act is introduced (and later passed into law), establishing popular sovereignty in the former Nebraska territories and thus repealing the 1820 Missouri Compromise. |
On March 11, Joshua Glover is claimed as the escaped slave of Benjamin Garland when found and jailed in Wisconsin. He is severely beaten in the encounter, and when word gets out, the jail is eventually stormed and Glover sent to freedom in Canada. This results in the Supreme Court case of Ableman v. Booth (1859), a Supreme Court decision which upholds the federal fugitive slave law. ( Campbell , 157-159) |
On May 26, escaped slave Anthony Burns is arrested, put on trial, and sent back into slavery despite a large effort by antislavery sympathizers across the country. The trial in Boston gains national attention as the last of the famous fugitive slave cases in the city. (McDougall, 45-46) |
1855
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In July, Passmore Williamson, secretary of the Pennsylvania Antislavery Society, aids slave Jane Johnson and her children in escaping slavery when their master brings them into free territory on a ship. They remain free simply because their master was out of the country at the time of the hearing; Judge Kane rules that in reality they have no status whatsoever. (Campbell , 143-144) |
1856
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Margaret Garner and her family attempt to escape slavery; when they are caught by their master, Garner tries to kill her children, wishing them dead rather than forced back into slavery. (Bordewich, 401-403;
McDougall 46-47). |
In May, proslavery forces attack abolitionists in Lawrence, Kansas. (Bordewich, 414) |
On May 23, in retaliation, John Brown and his followers slaughter five known proslavery men in Pottawatomie , Kansas , typifying what is now known as “Bleeding Kansas.” (Bordewich, 415) |
In November, James Buchanan is elected President. He takes office on March 4, 1857 just days before the announcement of the Dred Scott decision. |
1857
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On March 6, in a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court rules in Dred Scott v. Sandford that Congress cannot prohibit slavery in the territories and that blacks “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” |
On May 21, Addison White, the slave of Daniel White, escapes pursuers who arrive at his hiding place at the home of Udney Hyde. Addison is taken care of by members of the Underground Railroad, including Hyde, who went into hiding for six months after aiding in Addison's escape. (Campbell , 161-162) |
On November 26, fugitive slave West is captured by Dr. Austin W. Vallandigham in Illinois without a warrant. The court discharges him based on the absence of a warrant, but the claimant arrests him immediately afterwards based on the Fugitive Slave Law and ultimately he is sent back to slavery. (Campbell , 132-133)
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1858
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John Rice, a black man from Oberlin, is enticed by an offer of work to a secluded area where kidnappers await him. However, because of the efforts of the people of both Oberlin and Wellington, John is rescued. Thirty-seven people from the two towns are arrested and tried, but no severe punishments are given. The trial captures national attention. (McDougall, 49-50) |
1859
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On July 4, John Brown rents the Kennedy farmhouse in south-central Pennsylvania from the family of Dr. Booth Kennedy under the fake name of Isaac Smith. To avoid any suspicions, Brown gives out a cover story that he and his followers are farmers from New York, who have traveled to Virginia to find more suitable conditions to grow crops. Brown pays $35 to rent the farm until the following March. (David S. Reynolds, John Brown, Abolitionist. The Man who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Ceded Civil Rights (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 297. |
On August 16, Brown meets with Frederick Douglass in a quarry near the town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Douglass tells Brown that Harpers Ferry is “a perfect steel trap.” Brown ignores his warnings, more intent on trying to convince Douglass to join his plan. Douglass refuses, but Shields Green, a former fugitive slave who made the trip with Douglass, declares “I b’leve I’ll go wid de old man,” and joins Brown. (Reynolds, 299). |
On October 17, John Brown and a small contingent of me, including Brown's sons and a fugitive slave named Shields Green, storm the federal armory at Harpers Ferry. Brown dreams of creating a "subterranean passageway" to help slaves escape from across the Appalachian mountain range. The raid fails and Brown is ultimately hanged in early December. He becomes a martyr for many abolitionists in the North and the Harpers Ferry incident serves as a catalyst for the start of the Civil War. |
Between OCtober 26 and November 2, 1859, John Brown is tried in a state court in Charles Town, Virginia, even though the armory he attacked was Federal Government property. The trial is conducted swiftly and without a hint of adherence to proper judicial process. Brown is convicted on three counts: treason against the State of Virginia, murder, and attempting to incite servile insurrection. He is sentenced to hang on December 2 , 1859. (Reynolds, 347-357) |
On the morning of December 2, John Brown is executed at around 11 o’clock. All throughout his trial and month imprisonment, Brown impresses both Northerners and Southerners with his eloquence and devotion to his cause. On the way to his hanging, Brown hands a note to his jailer which reads “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land cannot be purged away but with blood.” (Reynolds, 395) |
1861
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On April 12, the Civil War begins when shots are fired on Fort Sumter.
Between 1865 and 1870 comes the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, ending slavery and beginning the process of integrating blacks into American civic life
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