text:
1946 Vancouver Island earthquake
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1946 Vancouver Island earthquake
UTC time
ISC event
898434
USGS-ANSS
ComCat
Local date
June 23, 1946 (1946-06-23)
Local time
10:15 a.m.
Magnitude
7.5 Mw
Depth
~ 20 km (12 mi)
Epicenter
49°45′N 124°30′W / 49.75°N 124.5°W / 49.75; -124.5 [1]
Areas affected
Canada
United States
Total damage
Limited [2]
Max. intensity
VIII (Severe)
Casualties
2 killed[3]
The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake occurred with a moment magnitude of 7.5 that struck Vancouver Island, on the Coast of British Columbia, Canada, at 10:15 a.m. on June 23.[3] The main shock epicenter occurred in the Forbidden Plateau area northwest of Courtenay. While most of the large earthquakes in the Vancouver area occur at tectonic plate boundaries, the 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake was a crustal event. Shaking was felt from Portland, Oregon to Prince Rupert, British Columbia. This is one of the most damaging earthquakes in the history of British Columbia, but damage was restricted because there were no heavily populated areas near the epicentre, where severe shaking occurred.
This earthquake is Canada's largest historic onshore earthquake.[3] However, the greatest earthquake in Canadian history recorded by seismometers was the 1949 Queen Charlotte earthquake, an interplate earthquake that occurred on the ocean bottom just off the rugged coast of Graham Island, which reached magnitude 8.1 on the moment magnitude scale.[4]
Contents
[hide]
1 Background and tectonics
2 Damage and casualties
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
Background and tectonics[edit]
The tectonics that caused the 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake are poorly known. No surface expression of the offset was noticed, most likely because the epicentre area is very remote and densely forested. A comprehensive examination and computer interpretation of seismic data from over 50 stations has shown that a possible explanation of the earthquake includes a strike-slip fault corresponding to the lengthy axis of Vancouver Island, known as the Beaufort Range Fault.[5] A fault running across Vancouver Island, corresponding to the projection of the underwater Nootka Fault on the British Columbia Coast, is also a possibility but an unlikely one because the earthquake showed no evidence of offsets along a series of highways that follows much of the eastern coastline of Vancouver Island, called Island Highway, and other roads between Courtenay and Campbell River. The estimated depth of the earthquake places it within the continental crust, not at the margin with the Cascadia subduction zone, and certainly not inside the subduction zone itself. Specifically, the earthquake's epicentre was positioned somewhere in the Forbidden Plateau region, in central Vancouver Island.
Damage and casualties[edit]
House failure in Comox
Though very destructive, the earthquake caused only two deaths: Jacob L. Kingston, aged 69, and Daniel Fidler, who was 50.[6] Kingston suffered a heart attack, while Fidler drowned when his dinghy was swamped by a wave.
In Vancouver, damage consisted of lofty buildings oscillating violently, and a piece of masonry fell from the local railway station. In addition, within the city, at least one gas line cracked and several power outages occurred. Fires broke out in several chimneys, and at least one swing-span bridge was fractured by the shaking. In the Hotel Vancouver, which housed the elderly and caught on fire, more than 500 war veterans' families fled the flames. One writer, George Finley, stated that the Lions' Gate Bridge "swayed like a leaf", coinciding with a "low, rumbling sound, like a deep growl."[6]
Damage to Bank of Montreal in Port Alberni.
The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake demolished 75% of the chimneys in the communities of Cumberland, Union Bay, and Courtenay and caused extensive damage in Comox, Port Alberni, and Powell River, on the eastern side of the Strait of Georgia.[3] Some chimneys were fractured in Victoria, and people in Victoria and Vancouver experienced great fright, with some seen fleeing into the streets.[3]
Landslides created by the earthquake were common throughout Vancouver Island.[7] Land subsidence resulted from the earthquake, most commonly around shorelines on the Strait of Georgia.[7] This included the bottom of Deep Bay which sank between 2.7 m (9 ft) and 25.6 m (84 ft).[8] These measurements were reported by the Canadian Hydrographic Service.[8] Also, a 3-metre (9.8 ft) ground shift occurred on Read Island.[8] Ships throughout the region were affected, and those on board them during the earthquake described it as similar to having run over a sand bar or striking a rock.[7] Undersea power lines were destroyed in the long narrow Alberni Inlet and near the city of Powell River.[7] All lighthouse keepers in the surrounding area felt the earthquake, and experienced damage including shattered windows and smashed dishes.[7] A tsunami struck the west coast of Texada Island with two waves, the first being 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) high and the second 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) high.[7] The earthquake caused a landslide near Mount Colonel Foster. One fortunate occurrence allowed researchers afterward to review the effects of the earthquake: an aerial photographic survey of Vancouver Island had commenced in 1946, soon after the earthquake, and these photographs were eventually studied by a geoscientist in the late 1970s.[7]
South of the Canada–United States border in Washington State, some chimneys fell at Eastsound on Orcas Island and a concrete mill was damaged at Port Angeles.[8] In Seattle, some damage occurred on upper floors of tall buildings, and one bridge was damaged. The shock was strongly felt at Bellingham, Olympia, Raymond, and Tacoma.[8] The earthquake was powerful enough to knock the needle off a seismograph at the University of Washington, and was sustained for about a minute even in Seattle.
The earthquake caused significant movement among structures, moving one 300-foot (91 m) wall about 35 feet (11 m) and caused one home to shift for 5 feet (1.5 m) off its foundation.[6] The total affected area in Canada and the United States was about 260,000 km2 (100,000 sq mi).[8]
See also[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake.
List of deadly earthquakes since 1900
List of earthquakes in 1946
List of earthquakes in Canada
List of earthquakes in the United States
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Engdahl, E. R.; Vallaseñor, A. (2002), "Global seismicity: 1900–1999", International Handbook of Earthquake & Engineering Seismology (PDF), Part A, Volume 81A (First ed.), Academic Press, p. 678, ISBN 978-0124406520
Jump up ^ National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS), Significant Earthquake Database, National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA, doi:10.7289/V5TD9V7K
^ Jump up to: a b c d e The M7.3 Vancouver Island Earthquake of 1946 Retrieved on 2008-06-11
Jump up ^ The Magnitude 8.1 Queen Charlotte Island Earthquake of August 22, 1949 Retrieved on 2008-06-11
Jump up ^ W. F. Slawson; J. C. Savage (October 1979). "Geodetic deformation associated with the 1946 Vancouver Island, Canada, earthquake". Bulletin of the Seismology Association of America. 69 (5): 1487–1496. Retrieved 7 January 2009.
^ Jump up to: a b c "Damage Considerable In Coastal Area of Sunday Quake". Ellensburg Daily Record. June 24, 1946. Retrieved January 6, 2009.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g M Gunn, Angus (2008). Encyclopedia of Disasters. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 399. ISBN 978-0-313-34002-4. Retrieved 31 July 2010.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Washington: Earthquake History". USGS. 2008-07-16. Archived from the original on 9 January 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-08.
External links[edit]
The International Seismological Centre has a bibliography and authoritative data for this event.
[show]
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← Earthquakes in 1946 →
Aleutian Islands (8.6, April 1) †
Varto–Hınıs (5.9, May 31) †
Vancouver Island (7.3, June 23)
Dominican Republic (8.1, Aug 4) ‡†
Hsinhua (6.1, Dec 5) †
Nankai (8.1, Dec 21) †
† indicates earthquake resulting in at least 30 deaths
‡ indicates the deadliest earthquake of the year
[show]
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Earthquakes in Canada
Historical
1663 Charlevoix
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1918 Vancouver Island
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1985 Nahanni
1988 Saguenay
1989 Ungava
1997 Cap-Rouge
21st Century
2000 Kipawa
2001 Nisqually
2007–2008 Nazko
2010 Central Canada
2012 Haida Gwaii
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Earthquakes in the United States
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1638 New Hampshire
1663 Charlevoix
1700 Cascadia
1755 Cape Ann
1811–12 New Madrid
1838 San Andreas
1857 Fort Tejon
1865 Memphis
1867 Manhattan, Kansas
1868 Hawaii
1868 Hayward
1872 Lone Pine
1872 North Cascades
1886 Charleston
1887 Sonora
1892 Laguna Salada
1892 Vacaville–Winters
1898 Mare Island
20th-century
1906 San Francisco
1906 Aleutian Islands
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1915 Pleasant Valley
1916 Irondale
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1925 Santa Barbara
1931 Valentine
1932 Eureka
1933 Long Beach
1935 Helena
1936 State Line
1940 El Centro
1940 New Hampshire
1944 Cornwall–Massena
1946 Aleutian Islands
1947 Wisconsin
1948 Desert Hot Springs
1949 Olympia
1952 Kern County
1957 Andreanof Islands
1957 San Francisco
1959 Hebgen Lake
1964 Alaska
1965 Rat Islands
1965 Puget Sound
1968 Illinois
1969 Santa Rosa
1971 San Fernando
1973 Point Mugu
1975 Near Islands
1975 Morris
1975 Hawaii
1979 Coyote Lake
1979 Imperial Valley
1980 Eureka
1983 Coalinga
1983 Borah Peak
1984 Morgan Hill
1986 North Palm Springs
1986 Chalfant Valley
1987 Whittier Narrows
1989 Loma Prieta
1990 Upland
1991 Sierra Madre
1992 Cape Mendocino
1992 Landers
1992 Big Bear
1993 Scotts Mills
1993 Klamath Falls
1994 Northridge
1995 Marathon
1996 Duvall
1998 Pymatuning
1999 Hector Mine
2000 Yountville
21st-century
2001 Nisqually
2002 Denali
2003 Alabama
2003 San Simeon
2006 Gulf of Mexico
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2008 Illinois
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2010 Eureka
2010 Baja California
2010 Indiana
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2014 Aleutian Islands
2014 Southeast Alaska
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2018 Alaska
Swarms
2001 Enola
2008 Reno
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2012 Brawley
2009–18 Oklahoma
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1700 Cascadia (8.7 – 9.2)
1872 North Cascades (6.5 – 7.0)
1946 Vancouver Island (7.3)
1949 Olympia (6.7)
1965 Puget Sound (6.7)
1996 Duvall (5.1)
2001 Nisqually (6.8)
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text:
Underground Railroad
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For train transportation used underground, see Rapid transit.
For other uses, see Underground Railroad (disambiguation).
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad by artist Charles T. Webber, 1893
Date
Late 1700s-1865
Location
Northern United States with routes to Canada, Mexico, and Caribbean Sea[1]
Participants
abolitionists and fugitive, runaway slaves
Outcome
The massive resettlement of former African American slaves outside the United States, until the Union victory at the end of the American Civil War and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery.
Deaths
?
Map of various Underground Railroad escape routes in the Northern United States and Canada
The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early-to-mid 19th century, and used by African-American slaves to escape into free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause.[2] The term is also applied to the abolitionists, both black and white, free and enslaved, who aided the fugitives.[3] Various other routes led to Mexico or overseas.[4] An earlier escape route running south toward Florida, then a Spanish possession (except 1763–83), existed from the late 17th century until Florida became a United States territory in 1821 (and ending the safe haven for escaped slaves was the main reason it changed nationality).[5] However, the network now generally known as the Underground Railroad was formed in the late 1700s, and reached its height between 1850 and 1860.[6] One estimate suggests that by 1850, 100,000 slaves had escaped via the "Railroad".[6]
British North America (present-day Canada), where slavery was prohibited, was a popular destination, as its long border gave many points of access. Most former slaves settled in Ontario. More than 30,000 people were said to have escaped there via the network during its 20-year peak period,[7] although U.S. Census figures account for only 6,000.[8] Numerous fugitives' stories are documented in the 1872 book The Underground Railroad Records by William Still, an abolitionist who then headed the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee.[9]
Contents
[hide]
1 Political background
2 Structure
3 Route
3.1 Traveling conditions
3.2 Terminology
3.3 National Underground Railroad Network
4 Folklore
5 Legal and political
6 Criticism
7 Arrival in Canada
8 Notable people
9 Related events
10 Inspirations for fiction
11 Contemporary literature
12 See also
13 Notes
14 References
15 Further reading
15.1 Folklore and myth
16 External links
Political background[edit]
At its peak, nearly 1,000 slaves per year escaped from slave-holding states using the Underground Railroad – more than 5,000 court cases for escaped slaves were recorded – many fewer than the natural increase of the enslaved population. The resulting economic impact was minuscule, but the psychological influence on slaveholders was immense. Under the original Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, officials from free states were required to assist slaveholders or their agents who recaptured runaway slaves, but citizens and governments of many free states ignored the law, and the Underground Railroad thrived.
With heavy lobbying by southern politicians, the Compromise of 1850 was passed by Congress after the Mexican–American War. It stipulated a more stringent Fugitive Slave Law; ostensibly, the compromise addressed regional problems by compelling officials of free states to assist slave catchers, granting them immunity to operate in free states.[10] Because the law required sparse documentation to claim a person was a fugitive, slave catchers also kidnapped free blacks, especially children, and sold them into slavery.[11] Southern politicians often exaggerated the number of escaped slaves and often blamed these escapes on Northerners interfering with Southern property rights.[12] The law deprived suspected slaves of the right to defend themselves in court, making it difficult to prove free status. In a de facto bribe,[13] judges were paid a higher fee ($10) for a decision that confirmed a suspect as a slave than for one ruling that the suspect was free ($5). Many Northerners who might have ignored slave issues in the South were confronted by local challenges that bound them to support slavery. This was a primary grievance cited by the Union during the American Civil War,[14] and the perception that Northern States ignored the fugitive slave law was a major justification for secession.[15]
Structure[edit]
See also: Vigilance committee
Harriet Tubman (photo H. B. Lindsley), c. 1870. A worker on the Underground Railroad, Tubman made 13 trips to the South, helping to free over 70 people. She led people to the northern free states and Canada. This helped Harriet Tubman gain the name "Moses of Her People".[16]
Quaker abolitionist Levi Coffin and his wife Catherine helped more than 2,000 slaves escape to freedom.
The escape network was not literally underground nor a railroad. It was figuratively "underground" in the sense of being an underground resistance. It was known as a "railroad" by way of the use of rail terminology in the code.[17] The Underground Railroad consisted of meeting points, secret routes, transportation, and safe houses, and personal assistance provided by abolitionist sympathizers. Participants generally organized in small, independent groups; this helped to maintain secrecy because individuals knew some connecting "stations" along the route but knew few details of their immediate area. Escaped slaves would move north along the route from one way station to the next. "Conductors" on the railroad came from various backgrounds and included free-born blacks, white abolitionists, former slaves (either escaped or manumitted), and Native Americans.[18] Church clergy and congregations often played a role, especially the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Congregationalists, Wesleyans, and Reformed Presbyterians, as well as certain sects of mainstream denominations such as branches of the Methodist church and American Baptists. Without the presence and support of free black residents, there would have been almost no chance for fugitive slaves to pass into freedom unmolested.[19]
Route[edit]
To reduce the risk of infiltration, many people associated with the Underground Railroad knew only their part of the operation and not of the whole scheme. "Conductors" led or transported the fugitives from station to station. A conductor sometimes pretended to be a slave in order to enter a plantation. Once a part of a plantation, the conductor would direct the runaways to the North. Slaves traveled at night, about 10–20 miles (16–32 km) to each station. They rested, and then a message was sent to the next station to let the station master know the runaways 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 barns, under church floors, or in hiding places in caves and hollowed-out riverbanks.
The resting spots where the runaways 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 as the "River Jordan", which marked the boundary between slave states and free states.[20]
Struggle for freedom in a Maryland barn. Engraving from William Still's The Underground Rail Road, p. 50[21]
Traveling conditions[edit]
Eastman Johnson, A Ride for Liberty – The Fugitive Slaves, oil on paperboard, 22 × 26.25 inches, circa 1862, Brooklyn Museum
Although the fugitives sometimes traveled on boat or train,[22] they usually traveled on foot or by wagon in groups of one to three slaves. Some groups were considerably larger. Abolitionist Charles Turner Torrey and his colleagues rented horses and wagons and often transported as many as 15 or 20 slaves at a time.[23]
Routes were often purposely indirect to confuse pursuers. Most escapes were by individuals or small groups; occasionally, there were mass escapes, such as with the Pearl incident. The journey was often considered particularly difficult and dangerous for women or children. Children were sometimes hard to keep quiet or were unable to keep up with a group. In addition, enslaved women were rarely allowed to leave the plantation, making it harder for them to escape in the same ways that men could.[24] Although escaping was harder for women, some women were successful. One of the most famous and successful conductors (people who secretly traveled into slave states to rescue those seeking freedom) was Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave woman.[25][26]
Due to the risk of discovery, information about routes and safe havens was passed along by word of mouth. Southern newspapers of the day were often filled with pages of notices soliciting information about escaped slaves and offering sizable rewards for their capture and return. Federal marshals and professional bounty hunters known as slave catchers pursued fugitives as far as the Canada–US border.[27]
Fugitives were not the only black people at risk from slavecatchers. With demand for slaves high in the Deep South as cotton was developed, strong, healthy blacks in their prime working and reproductive years were seen and treated as highly valuable commodities. Both former slaves and free blacks were sometimes kidnapped and sold into slavery, as was Solomon Northup of Saratoga Springs, New York. "Certificates of freedom," signed, notarized statements attesting to the free status of individual blacks also known as free papers, could easily be destroyed or stolen, so provided little protection to bearers.
Some buildings, such as the Crenshaw House in far southeastern Illinois, are known sites where free blacks were sold into slavery, known as the "Reverse Underground Railroad". Under the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, when suspected fugitives were seized and brought to a special magistrate known as a commissioner, they had no right to a jury trial and could not testify in their own behalf. Technically, they were guilty of no crime. The marshal or private slave-catcher needed only to swear an oath to acquire a writ of replevin for the return of property.
Congress was dominated by southern Congressmen, as apportionment was based on three-fifths of the number of slaves being counted in population totals. They passed the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 because of frustration at having fugitive slaves helped by the public and even official institutions outside the South. In some parts of the North, slave-catchers needed police protection to exercise their federal authority. Opposition to slavery did not mean that all states welcomed free blacks. For instance, Indiana, whose area along the Ohio River was settled by Southerners, passed a constitutional amendment that barred free blacks from settling in that state.
Terminology[edit]
Members of the Underground Railroad often used specific terms, based on the metaphor of the railway. For example:
People who helped slaves find the railroad were "agents" (or "shepherds")
Guides were known as "conductors"
Hiding places were "stations" or "way stations"
"Station masters" hid slaves in their homes
Escaped slaves were referred to as "passengers" or "cargo"
Slaves would obtain a "ticket"
Similar to common gospel lore, the "wheels would keep on turning"
Financial benefactors of the Railroad were known as "stockholders"[28]
The Big Dipper (whose "bowl" points to the North Star) was known as the drinkin' gourd. The Railroad was often known as the "freedom train" or "Gospel train", which headed towards "Heaven" or "the Promised Land", i.e., Canada.[29]
William Still,[30] sometimes called "The Father of the Underground Railroad", helped hundreds of slaves to 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 escaped slaves 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 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 train 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 to the North or to Canada, where slavery had been abolished during the 1830s.[31]
National Underground Railroad Network[edit]
Following upon legislation passed in 1990, in 1997, Congress passed H.R. 1635, which President Bill Clinton signed into law, and which authorized the United States National Park Service to establish the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program to identify associated sites, as well as preserve them and popularize the Underground Railroad and stories of people involved in it. The National Park Service has designated many sites within the network, posted stories about people and places, sponsors an essay contest, and holds a national conference about the Underground Railroad in May or June each year.[32]
Folklore[edit]
Main articles: Quilts of the Underground Railroad and Songs of the Underground Railroad
Since the 1980s, claims have arisen that quilt designs were used to signal and direct slaves to escape routes and assistance. According to advocates of the quilt theory, ten quilt patterns were used to direct slaves to take particular actions. The quilts were placed one at a time on a fence as a means of nonverbal communication to alert escaping slaves. The code had a dual meaning: first to signal slaves to prepare to escape, and second to give clues and indicate directions on the journey.[33]
The quilt design theory is disputed. The first published work documenting an oral history source was in 1999, and the first publication of this theory is believed to be a 1980 children's book.[34] Quilt historians and scholars of pre-Civil-War America have disputed this legend.[35] There is no contemporary evidence of any sort of quilt code, and quilt historians such as Pat Cummings and Barbara Brackman have raised serious questions about the idea. In addition, Underground Railroad historian Giles Wright has published a pamphlet debunking the quilt code.
Similarly, some popular, nonacademic sources claim that spirituals and other songs, such as "Steal Away" or "Follow the Drinking Gourd", contained coded information and helped individuals navigate the railroad. They have offered little evidence to support their claims. Scholars tend to believe that while the slave songs may certainly have expressed hope for deliverance from the sorrows of this world, these songs did not present literal help for runaway slaves.[36]
The Underground Railroad inspired cultural works. For example, "Song of the Free", written in 1860 about a man fleeing slavery in Tennessee by escaping to Canada, was composed to the tune of "Oh! Susanna". Every stanza ends with a reference to Canada as the land "where colored men are free". Slavery in Upper Canada (now Ontario) was outlawed in 1793; in 1819, John Robinson, the Attorney General of Upper Canada, declared that by residing in Canada, black residents were set free, and that Canadian courts would[37] protect their freedom. Slavery in Canada as a whole had been in rapid decline after an 1803 court ruling, and was finally abolished outright in 1834.
Legal and political[edit]
When frictions between North and South culminated in the Civil War, many blacks, slave and free, fought for the Union Army.[38] Following Union victory in the Civil War, on December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution outlawed slavery.[39] Following its passage, in some cases the Underground Railroad operated in the opposite direction, as fugitives returned to the United States.[40]
Criticism[edit]
Frederick Douglass, writer, statesman, and an escaped slave, wrote critically of the Underground Railroad in his seminal autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave:
I have never approved of the very public manner in which some of our western friends have conducted what they call the Underground Railroad, but which I think, by their open declarations, has been made most emphatically the upperground railroad.
He went on to say that, although he honors the movement, he feels that the efforts serve more to enlighten the slave-owners than the slaves, making them more watchful and making it more difficult for future slaves to escape.[41]
Arrival in Canada[edit]
International Underground Railroad Memorial in Windsor, Ontario
John Brown participated in the Underground Railroad.
Estimates vary widely, but at least 30,000 slaves, and potentially more than 100,000, escaped to Canada via the Underground Railroad.[7] The largest group settled in Upper Canada (Ontario), called Canada West from 1841.[42] Numerous Black Canadian communities developed in Southern Ontario. These were generally in the triangular region bounded by Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Windsor. Several rural villages made up mostly of ex-slaves were established in Kent and Essex counties.
Fort Malden in Amherstburg, Ontario, was deemed the "chief place of entry" for slaves seeking to enter Canada. The abolitionist Levi Coffin supported this assessment, describing Fort Malden as "the great landing place, the principle terminus of the underground railroad of the west."[43] After 1850, approximately thirty fugitive slaves a day were crossing over to Fort Malden by steamboat.[44]:15 The Sultana was one of such ships and made "frequent round trips" between Great Lakes ports. Its captain, C.W. Appleby, a celebrated mariner, facilitated the conveyance of several fugitive slaves from various Lake Erie ports to Fort Malden.[44]:110
Another important center of population was Nova Scotia, for example Africville and other villages near Halifax (see Black Nova Scotians). Many of these settlements were started by Black Loyalists after the American Revolutionary War. Important black settlements also developed in other parts of British North America (now parts of Canada). These included Lower Canada (present-day Quebec) and Vancouver Island, where Governor James Douglas encouraged black immigration because of his opposition to slavery. He also hoped a significant black community would form a bulwark against those who wished to unite the island with the United States.[citation needed]
Upon arriving at their destinations, many fugitives were disappointed, as life in Canada was difficult. While the British colonies had no slavery after 1834, discrimination was still common. Many of the new arrivals had to compete with mass European immigration for jobs, and overt racism was common. For example, in reaction to Black Loyalists being settled in eastern Canada by the Crown, the city of Saint John, New Brunswick, amended its charter in 1785 specifically to exclude blacks from practicing a trade, selling goods, fishing in the harbour, or becoming freemen; these provisions stood until 1870.[45]
With the outbreak of the Civil War in the U.S., many black refugees left Canada to enlist in the Union Army. While some later returned to Canada, many remained in the United States. Thousands of others returned to the American South after the war ended. The desire to reconnect with friends and family was strong, and most were hopeful about the changes emancipation and Reconstruction would bring.
Notable people[edit]
Henry Box Brown
John Brown
Owen Brown
Samuel Burris
Obadiah Bush
Levi Coffin
Elizabeth Rous Comstock
George Corson[46][47]
Moses Dickson[48]
Frederick Douglass[49][50]
Asa Drury
Calvin Fairbank
Matilda Joslyn Gage
Thomas Galt[51]
Thomas Garrett[52]
William Lloyd Garrison
Sydney Howard Gay[53]
Josiah Bushnell Grinnell
Laura Smith Haviland[54]
Lewis Hayden[55]
Josiah Henson[56]
Roger Hooker Leavitt
Isaac Hopper[57]
John Hunn[58]
Jermain Wesley Loguen[59]
Samuel Joseph May[60]
John Berry Meachum
Mary Meachum[61]
William M. Mitchell[62]
James Mott[63]
Lucretia Coffin Mott[63]
Solomon Northup[64]
John Parker[65]
John Wesley Posey[66]
Amy and Isaac Post
John Rankin[67]
Alexander Milton Ross
David Ruggles[68]
Gerrit Smith[69]
George Luther Stearns
William Still[70]
Lewis Tappan[71]
Charles Turner Torrey[72]
William Troy
Sojourner Truth
Harriet Tubman[73]
Jonathan Walker
John Greenleaf Whittier
Martha Coffin Wright
Joseph Parrish Thompson
Related events[edit]
1776 – Declaration of Independence
1793 – Act Against Slavery
1800 – Second Great Awakening
1820 – Missouri Compromise
1850 – Compromise of 1850
1850 – Fugitive Slave Act
1851 – Jerry Rescue
1854 – Kansas–Nebraska Act
1857 – Dred Scott decision
1858 – Oberlin–Wellington Rescue
1860 – Abraham Lincoln of Illinois elected the first Republican U.S. President
1861 through 1865 – American Civil War
1863 – Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln
1865 – Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Inspirations for fiction[edit]
The Underground Railroad was the inspiration for a faction in Fallout 4, the Railroad, consisting of safehouses for synthetic humanoids who escaped another faction known as the Institute.
The Underground Railroad is a 2016 novel by Colson Whitehead. It won the 2016 National Book Award and the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[74]
Underground is an American television series that premiered in 2016, on WGN America.
Contemporary literature[edit]
David Walker (1829) Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852) Uncle Tom's Cabin
Caroline Lee Hentz (1854) The Planter's Northern Bride
William M. Mitchell (1860) The Under-Ground Railroad[75]
Sarah Hopkins Bradford (1869) Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman; (1896) Harriet Tubman, Moses of Her People
See also[edit]
African American portal
Ausable Chasm, NY, home of the North Star Underground Railroad Museum
Bilger's Rocks
Fort Mose Historic State Park
List of Underground Railroad sites
Reverse Underground Railroad
Slave codes
The Holocaust in Norway#Escape to Sweden, an "underground railroad" during the Holocaust in Norway
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ National Geographic Society
Jump up ^ "Underground Railroad". dictionary.com. Retrieved July 17, 2011. 'A network of houses and other places abolitionists used to help enslaved Africans escape to freedom in the northern states or in Canada...' —American Heritage Dictionary
Jump up ^ "The Underground Railroad". Public Broadcasting Service. Retrieved July 25, 2007.
Jump up ^ "Purpose and Background". Taking the Train to Freedom. National Park Service. Retrieved July 17, 2011
Jump up ^ Smith, Bruce (March 18, 2012). "For a century, Underground Railroad ran south". Google News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on March 21, 2012. Retrieved March 23, 2012.
^ Jump up to: a b Vox, Lisa, "How Did Slaves Resist Slavery?", African-American History, About.com, Retrieved July 17, 2011.
^ Jump up to: a b "Settling Canada Underground Railroad". Historica. Between 1840 and 1860, more than 30,000 American slaves came secretly to Canada and freedom
Jump up ^ "From slavery to freedom" Archived July 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine., The Grapevine, pp. 3–5.
Jump up ^ Jr, Deborah Gray White, Mia Bay, Waldo E. Martin (2013). Freedom on My Mind: A History of African Americans, with documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. p. 287. ISBN 978-0-312-64883-1.
Jump up ^ Potter, David, 1976 pp. 132–139
Jump up ^ Bordewich, Fergus, 2005, p. 324
Jump up ^ Gara, Larry. Underground Railroad. National Park Service. p. 8.
Jump up ^ Douglass, Frederick (July 5, 1852), "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro", History Is a Weapon, Retrieved July 17, 2011.
Jump up ^ Potter, David, 1976, p. 139
Jump up ^ "Avalon Project - Confederate States of America - Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union". Avalon.law.yale.edu. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
Jump up ^ Larson, p. xvii.
Jump up ^ Blight, David, 2004, p. 3
Jump up ^ Society, National Geographic (2011-11-16). "The Underground Railroad". National Geographic Society. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
Jump up ^ Pinsker, Matthew (2000). Vigilance in Pennsylvania: Underground Railroad Activities in the Keystone State, 1837–1861. Lancaster: PHMC.
Jump up ^ "Underground Railroad Codes" (PDF). Myths and Codes of the Underground Railroad. Safe Passage. Greater Cincinnati Television Educational Foundation. p. 20. Retrieved June 29, 2013.
Jump up ^ Dictated by Robert Jackson a.k.a. Wesley Harris on 2 November 1853. "Engravings by Bensell, Schell, and others."
Jump up ^ Bordewich, Fergus, 2005, p. 236
Jump up ^ Torrey, E. Fuller (2013). The Martyrdom of Abolitionist Charles Torrey. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
Jump up ^ Blackett, Richard (October 2014). "The Underground Railroad and the Struggle Against Slavery". History Workshop Journal. 78 (1): 279. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
Jump up ^ Wellington, Darryl Lorenzo (January 20, 2004). "The most famous abductor on the Underground Railroad". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
Jump up ^ "Underground Railroad - Black History - HISTORY.com". HISTORY.com. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
Jump up ^ Potter, David, 1976, p. 133
Jump up ^ Blight, David, 2004, p. 98
Jump up ^ "History - National Underground Railroad Freedom Center". Freedomcenter.org. Retrieved 2016-06-07.
Jump up ^ Blight, David, 2004, p. 175
Jump up ^ Still, William (1872). The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts. ASIN B00264GNTU.
Jump up ^ https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm
Jump up ^ Williams, Ozella McDaniels, 1999.
Jump up ^ Aronson, Marc (April 1, 2007). "History That Never Happened". School Library Journal. Retrieved March 31, 2011.
Jump up ^ Stukin, Stacie. "Unravelling the Myth of Quilts and the Underground Railroad". Time.com. Time. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
Jump up ^ Kelley, James (April 2008). "Song, Story, or History: Resisting Claims of a Coded Message in the African American Spiritual 'Follow the Drinking Gourd'". The Journal of Popular Culture. 41 (2): 262–280. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2008.00502.x.
Jump up ^ "Black History-From Slavery to Settlement". Archives.gov.on.ca. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
Jump up ^ Mark Lardas, African American Soldier in the Civil War: USCT, 1862-66
Jump up ^ Ann Heinrichs, The Underground Railroad
Jump up ^ Gindy, Gaye E. (2008). The Underground Railroad and Sylvania's Historic Lathrop House. p. 20. ISBN 9781434367617.
Jump up ^ Douglass, Frederick. (1845) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Dover Publications. Chapter 11.
Jump up ^ Bordewich, Fergus, 2005, p. 379
Jump up ^ Fred Landon, "Amherstburg, Terminus of the Underground Railroad," The Journal of Negro History 10, no.1 (1925): 5.
^ Jump up to: a b Tom Calarco, Places of the Underground Railroad: A Geographical Guide (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2011)
Jump up ^ "Arrival of the Black Loyalists: Saint John's Black Community" Archived May 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine., Heritage Resources Saint John
Jump up ^ William Still, "George Corson," The Underground Rail Road, (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872), pp. 721-23.
Jump up ^ "Letters: Underground Railroad site threatened in Montco". Articles.philly.com. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
Jump up ^ Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr, Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Oxford University Press, 1999 ISBN 978-0195170559
Jump up ^ "Aboard the Underground Railroad" - Boston African American NHS. Nps.gov (1962-09-05). Retrieved on 2013-08-16.
Jump up ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on November 24, 2011. Retrieved December 3, 2011.
Jump up ^ "For the People: A Newsletter of the Abraham Lincoln Association v.8 number 1 Spring 2006, Springfield, Illinois" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-10-25.
Jump up ^ Foner pg. 155-159
Jump up ^ Foner pg. 9-10
Jump up ^ Carlarco pg. 144-152
Jump up ^ Calarco p. 153
Jump up ^ Calarco p. 290
Jump up ^ Foner pg. 57-58, 88-90
Jump up ^ Foner p 156
Jump up ^ Foner p. 180
Jump up ^ Foner pg. 146-147
Jump up ^ "Mary Meachum and the Underground Railroad". St. Louis Public Radio. October 9, 2012. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
Jump up ^ Calarco pg. 210–211
^ Jump up to: a b Foner p. 143
Jump up ^ Calarco pg. 222-224
Jump up ^ Calarco pg. 225-228
Jump up ^ Calarco pg. 236-238
Jump up ^ Calarco pg. 242-250
Jump up ^ Foner pg. 2-3
Jump up ^ Foner pg. 58-59 123-124
Jump up ^ Foner p. 13
Jump up ^ Foner p. 8
Jump up ^ Foner pg. 87-88
Jump up ^ Foner pg. 190-94
Jump up ^ "The 2017 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Fiction". pulitzer.org. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
Jump up ^ Mitchell, William (1860). The Under-Ground Railroad. W. Tweedie. Wikisource. [scan]
References[edit]
Blight, David W. (2004). Passages to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in History and Memory. Smithsonian Books. ISBN 1-58834-157-7.
Bordewich, Fergus M. (2005). Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-052430-8.
Calarco, Tom (2008). People of the Underground Railroad: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313339244.
Chadwick, Bruce (2000). Traveling the Underground Railroad: A Visitor's Guide to More Than 300 Sites. Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-2093-0.
Frost, Karolyn Smardz; Osei, Kwasi (2007). I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-16481-2.
Foner, Eric (2015). Gateway To Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad. New York, NY: Norton. ISBN 0393244075
Forbes, Ella (1998) But We Have No Country: The 1851 Christiana Pennsylvania Resistance. Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers.
Griffler, Keith P.(2004) Front Line of Freedom: African Americans and the Forging of the Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2298-8.
Hagedorn, Ann (2004). Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-87066-5.
Hendrick, George; Willene Hendrick (2010), Black refugees in Canada: accounts of escape during the era of slavery, McFarland & Co, ISBN 9780786447336
Hendrick, George, & Hendrick, Willene (2003). Fleeing for Freedom: Stories of the Underground Railroad As Told by Levi Coffin and William Still. Ivan R. Dee Publisher. ISBN 1-56663-546-2. CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
Hudson, J. Blaine (2002). Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in the Kentucky Borderland. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-1345-X.
LaRoche, Cheryl Janifer (2014). Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Potter, David M. (1976). The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861. ISBN 0-06-131929-5.
"Operating the Underground Railroad". National Park Service.
"Part 4: 1831-1865 Narrative, The Underground Railroad". Africans in America c.1780 - 1862: Judgment Day. PBS.
Further reading[edit]
Library resources about
the Underground Railroad
Online books
Resources in your library
Resources in other libraries
Blackett, R.J.M. (2013). Making Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of Slavery. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Curtis, Anna L. (1941). Stories of the Underground Railroad. Archived from the original on March 31, 2012. CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link) (Stories about Thomas Garrett, a famous agent on the Underground Railroad)
Frost, Karolyn Smardz (2007). I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Larson, Kate Clifford (2004). Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-45627-0.
Still, William (1872). The Underground Railroad: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, &c., Narrating the Hardships, Hair-Breadth Escapes and Death Struggles of the Slaves in Their Efforts for Freedom, As Related by Themselves and Others, or Witnessed by the Author. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates. (Classic book documenting the Underground Railroad operations in Philadelphia).
Public domain ebook at Project Gutenberg
The Underground Railroad public domain audiobook at LibriVox
Folklore and myth[edit]
"Documentary Evidence is Missing on Underground Railroad Quilts". historyofquilts.com.
"New Jersey's Underground Railroad Myth-Buster: Giles Wright is on a Mission to Fine Tune Black History". Historic Camden County.
"Putting it in Perspective: The Symbolism of Underground Railroad quilts". quilthistory.com.
"Underground Railroad Quilts & Abolitionist Fairs". Womenfolk.com.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Underground Railroad.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Underground Railroad.
Underground Railroad Studies
Underground Railroad Timeline
Friends of the Underground Railroad
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Underground Railroad Research Institute at Georgetown College
Underground Railroad in Buffalo and Upstate New York: A bibliography by The Buffalo History Museum
[hide]
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Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856 book)
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Topics
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visitor center
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A Woman Called Moses (1978 miniseries)
Roots of Resistance (1989 documentary)
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Freedom: The Underground Railroad (2013 board game)
Underground (2016 TV series)
See also: Slavery in the United States and Slavery in Canada
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Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Underground_Railroad&oldid=822308299"
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