University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 32, May 22


          Exhibit shows state's role in Underground Railroad
                                   
     The University of Delaware Library will present a new
exhibition-containing books, pamphlets, maps and other
documents-about "The Underground Railroad in Delaware."
     The information will be displayed on the first floor of
the Morris Library from June 9 to Oct. 6.
     Before the Civil War, Delaware was an important link in
the Underground Railroad system helping runaway slaves
travel to freedom in Canada.
     Situated between the Southern slave-holding states and
the Northern anti-slave states, Delaware was traveled by
hundreds of escaping slaves each year.
     They were aided by rescuers who, for religious or moral
reasons, opposed slavery and defied the Fugitive Slave Laws.
     Beginning in 1793, the federal government passed a
series of laws allowing slaveholders to seize fugitive
slaves in free states and return them to slavery.
     The same year, however, the Emancipation Act in Canada
not only outlawed the importation of slaves into that
country, but also limited the ability of slaveholders to
take back runaways.
     Those who most actively assisted slaves to escape were
members of the free black community, Northern abolitionists,
and religious groups (particularly the Quakers and members
of African-American congregations).
     Estimates of the number of slaves who reached freedom
vary greatly, from 40,000 to 100,000, during the 60 years
before the Civil War.
     Though neither underground nor a railroad, the system
was named because its activities had to be carried out in
secret and because railway terms were used to refer to the
conduct of the system.
     Various routes were named lines; stopping places were
called stations; those who aided along the way were
conductors; and the slaves were known as packages or
freight.
     One of the most important conductors in the system was
Thomas Garrett, a Quaker from Wilmington.
     After the escapees traveled north through rural
Maryland and Delaware, Garrett arranged their passage, often
by steamboat, to Philadelphia, which had a central station
run by a large free-black religious community and the
strongly abolitionist Quakers.
     Garrett was often aided by Harriet Tubman, possibly the
most famous black conductor on the railroad.
     Among the Underground Railroad stations in Delaware
were Wild Cat Manor and Great Geneva in Camden, owned by the
Quaker Hunn family; Star Hill African Methodist Episcopal
Church in Star Hill, a small rural free African-American
church; Appoquinimink Friends Meeting House in Odessa; the
John Dickinson Plantation in Dover; the Clearfield Farm,
owned by the Corbet family in Smyrna; and the Mother African
Union Protestant Church and Garrett's home, both in
Wilmington.
     "Delaware played an important role in the Underground
Railroad. The library collection documents this fascinating
but little-known part of our history" Susan Brynteson,
director of libraries, said.
     The exhibition was curated by Ruth Hicks and Iris
Snyder, staff members of the University of Delaware
library.