Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad

Eric Foner is amongst my favorite historians. More nuanced and original then Goodwin, more directly accessible (I guess I mean shorter) than Caro, Foner conveys realistic history that does not conveniently fit into a single pat thesis. And Gateway to Freedom is another great example. In a relatively slim volume, the book conveys fascinating information about the underground railroad, the heroes of the effort---many, many of them african-americans, the gross differences between Philadelphia, New York and Boston in attitudes towards slavery, and much much more. An important takeaway from the book is the importance of the abolitionists in the ending of slavery (and the supporters of the underground railroad were abolitionists). First, although as a percentage of slaves, the number of escapees is not very impressive, Foner's narrative powerfully conveys the profound difference it made to many, many lives. The difference between slavery and freedom. Think about it. Second, a suggestion--a canard-- that abolitionists were not important to the end of slavery is clearly refuted. Yes, they were a small percentage of the north. Yes, they were radicals who were not directly influencing Washington policy. But, they were having an impact far beyond those measures. The Southern overreaction that precipitated the Civil War and emancipation was a reaction, a provoked reaction for which the abolitionists deserve the same credit as the civil rights marchers of the 1960's receive for the reaction they provoked. These are true heroes of whom Foner rights, and their stories are deservedly remembered.

There will probably never be a definitive history of the underground railroad. Estimates of the number of slaves who escaped from bondage between 1830 and 1860 range from 30,000 to 150,000. Thus, the number of fugitives amounted to less than ½% of the total slave population. But the symbolism of the underground railroad—to slaves, to opponents of slavery, and to slave holders—was more important than absolute numbers might suggest. Early perceptions of the underground railroad were likely influenced by Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in which Harriet Beecher Stowe describes fugitives escaping from slavery in Kentucky by crossing the Ohio River, and journeying, with the aid of sympathetic Quakers, through central Ohio to Sandusky, from which they sail across Lake Erie to Canada. Stowe’s account implies that the underground railroad was a structured, systematic, operation with established stations between which fugitives moved surreptitiously with the assistance of sympathetic guides. Wilbur Siebert’s 19th-century book tends to confirm this impression. Writing half a century later, Larry Gara criticizes Siebert for exaggerating the contributions of white abolitionist and neglecting the role of the fugitives themselves. More recent scholars have portrayed the underground railroad as a collection of loosely connected local networks. In Foner’s words, Underground railroad was “an umbrella term for local groups that employed numerous methods to assist fugitives.”Foner’s book surveys the historical background for the underground railroad, going all the way back to slavery in colonial New York state. Foner’s account is brief, and much of it will be familiar to those who have studied this subject. He describes the issue of fugitive slaves in the early American republic. The Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery in the new territories, but provided that escaped slaves could be recovered there. Under the Constitution, slaves did not become free by escaping to free states. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 allowed for runaways to be seized and returned to their masters—those interfering with this process could face legal consequences. With growing anti-slavery sentiment, some free states found various ways to make it more difficult for fugitives (or free blacks) to be sent south. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was more assertive than its 1793 predecessor. It declared that personal liberty laws were illegitimate, and specified penalties for aiding fugitives. Reaction to the 1850 law was strong. It was this act that persuaded Harriet Beecher Stowe to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin (a book that makes repeated allusions to the 1850 law).Foner’s book focuses on New York City. Despite its ties to the South and slavery, the city became a hub for escaped slaves, whose flight had been facilitated by anti-slavery whites, and free black populations in the mid-Atlantic states. New York and other cities established vigilance committees that provided legal assistance for some fugitives and helped others reach relative safety further north, in Boston, upstate New York, or Canada. Even in New York city, there was not consistent cooperation between all the anti-slavery groups. Foner focuses on Sydney Howard Gay, William Still, David Ruggles, Theodore Wright, Charles Ray, and Harriet Tubman. William Jay and John Jay II often served as legal counsels for the anti-slavery cause. On the other hand, there is very little discussion of Frederick Douglass, who generally operated independently of the groups Foner describes.Foner is a leading historian of the Civil War and Reconstruction periods. But his investigation of the underground railroad was significantly hampered by the limited number of relevant documents. There are more records for underground railroad activities in New York city than in some other places; but even these are scarce. As Foner notes, New York Vigilance Committee reports provide “long accounts” of legal cases, but, “The committee’s clandestine assistance to fugitive slaves is much more difficult to document.” Unlike abolition societies, the Committee “’deemed it prudent’ to keep many of its actions secret. As a result, the committee’s labors often went ‘unnoticed and almost unknown.’” William Still’s writings were widely published. But, when writing about fugitives he assisted, "‘for prudential reasons’ he kept ‘dark’ their names and the details of their escapes.” “Gay and the men Wendell Phillips called his ‘runners’ had continued to assist fugitives in the early 1850s, but so secretly that information about their activities in these years is virtually nonexistent.”Nonetheless, much valuable information was supplied by Still, who, as a clerk for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, kept records about fugitive slaves, and published many of them in The Underground Railroad (1872 and subsequent editions) after the Civil War. Gay (editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, and underground railroad facilitator) maintained a journal that documented the aid he and his colleagues provided to fugitives. Strangely, although Gay was prominent in the abolition movement and his journal was easily available among his papers at Columbia University, it seems no scholar before Foner made much use of it.Chapter 7 is among the most interesting in the book. Based on the compilations of Still and Gay, Foner offers some generalizations about the fugitives. Many came from Maryland and Delaware, but a significant number came from Virginia and North Carolina. Most were relatively young. As slaves, they had performed a wide variety of tasks, some of which required considerable skill. It seems that, in most cases, the fugitives fled to escape physical abuse. But fear of being sold to the Lower South also motivated many fugitives. Some of these former bondsmen had to make difficult decisions to separate from their families. The fugitives, who often traveled in groups, reached the North by horse, carriage, ship, railroad, or walking.The book includes 3 maps, 24 pages of black and white illustrations (photographs and engravings of persons and events, and facsimiles documents), 42 pages of notes (which can serve as a bibliography), and a 25-page index.

Book was good and had alot of detail. Could be hard to follow all that is mentioned, but finished feeling like I had alot more of an understanding of the underground railroad.

Suppose you were a member of a militant environmental action organization, some of whose members were willing to undertake extra-legal activities such as spiking trees or interfering with whaling. How open would you be about your activities? Now suppose that you are a historian 175 years in the future, trying to write a history of the environmental action movement. What would be your sources? This is the problem Eric Foner faced in writing "Gateway to Freedom," his new history of the Underground Railroad.Foner focuses on the route Philadelphia-New York City-upstate New York/Canada, used by slaves fleeing from western Maryland, northern Virginia (now West Virginia), and the Delmarva peninsula (Delaware then being a slave state). He describes the relationships among the various anti-slavery (a much more action-oriented term than "abolitionist") groups in those cities and the key activists, most of them black, many of them runaways, who formed the Vigilance Committees that were in charge of hiding and transporting escaping slaves. Foner estimates that 2,000 to 5,000 slaves per year escaped the South from 1828 to 1862, and pays special attention to the period after 1850 when the federal Fugitive Slave Law was passed. During this time, abolitionists were a minority in New York because of its strong commercial ties to the South (rich merchants formed the Union Safety Committee, whose job was to return runaway slaves). Yet they were able to form multiple organizations (supporters of William Lloyd Garrison, his opponents, and black self-help groups), hold fund-raising events, publish newspapers, organize legal representation for seized blacks, and carry out the activities of the Vigilance Committees.The heart of Foner's narrative comes from joining the records of William Still, the secretary of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committe, with those of Sydney Howard Gay of New York's Anti-Slavery Standard, with the Canadian and US Census of 1859 and 1860. Unless I misread his end notes, this work was done by Foner and his researchers. This allows him to trace the route escaped of slaves from the South along the Underground Railroad to freedom. Although somewhat repetitious, these stories tell us why slaves fled (usually ill-treatment), how they got to Pennsylvania, how they found help, where they ended up, and how they attempted to reunite with their families. They carry forward one of Foner's recurring themes, black self-emancipation -- the act of fleeing, support from free black stevadores and sailors, outreach and organized response by black Vigilance Committees.As a general reader, I found the book clear and the narrowed focus essential. Had Foner focused on the organizations rather than the activities, we would have been lost in internicine politics arising from 19th Century religious thought. Had he focused on the people rather than the activities, we might have known a lot more about Lewis Tappan (a rich white abolitionist) but probably no more about Lewis Napoleon (a black "scout" who picked up newly arrived escaped slaves). While I missed any discussion of the Underground Railroad in Ohio, it would probably have cost us the rich, verifiable detail of the joined sources.As Foner puts it, "Stripped of previous distortions, the story of the underground railroad remains one with an extraordinary cast of characters and remarkable tales of heroism, courage and sheer luck. ... Fugitive slaves, wrote [Philadelphia abolitionist] James Miller McKim, represented 'some of the finest specimens of native talent the country provides,' and their actions offered 'simple proof' of everything abolitionists maintained about 'the capacity of the colored man.'"

Near New York City, beginning of XX century, a man is experimenting his just conquered freedom.

A very informative and detailed book. A great read.

Eric Foner relate dans ce livre une partie de l'histoire de l'Underground Railroad, ce réseau plus ou moins informel qui aida pendant des années jusqu'à la guerre de Sécession les esclaves du sud à fuir. Il centre son analyse en particulier sur le rôle joué par la ville de New York, passage souvent obligé vers le Canada et les régions plus hospitalière du nord de l'Etat de New York mais dont les liens commerciaux et politiques avec le Sud en faisaient une ville souvent très hostiles aux fugitifs.Eric Foner en explore toute l'ambiguïté et montre comment les militants abolitionnistes s'organisaient pour tenter de contrer l'application des lois permettant le retour forcé des fugitifs ou les enlèvements de noirs affranchis par des chasseurs de prime sans scrupules.Il montre comment ce sont souvent des militants afro-américains qui sont en pointe sur ce soutien concret aux fugitifs. L'abolitionnisme dépassait le cercle des philanthrope évangélique.

A study of one aspect less know of slavery. The road to be followed to the North for freedom by the best specialist of the Secession War. You may follow his 3 MOOCs on Edx about this part of History, which is still lively in the States.