newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ERIC MODEL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

JOURNEYS INTO NEW JERSEY

An interesting and important part of our still evolving national narrative is the story of the Underground Railroad. Part of that narrative occurred right here in New Jersey.

The Underground Railroad (UGRR) was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th century black slaves to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists who were sympathetic to their cause.

Called the Liberty Line, this loosely-organized system was actually neither" underground," nor a "railroad." The escape network was solely "underground" in the sense of being an underground resistance. The network was known as a "railroad" by way of the use of rail terminology in the code.

Individuals were often organized in small, independent groups, which helped to maintain secrecy since some knew of connecting "stations" along the route but few details of their immediate area. Escaped slaves would move along the route from one way station to the next, steadily making their way north.

"Conductors" on the railroad came from various backgrounds and included free-born blacks, white abolitionists, former slaves (either escaped or manumitted), and Native Americans. Churches also often played a role, especially Quakers, Congregationalists, Weslyans, and Reformed Presbyterians. Also certain sects of mainstream denominations such as branches of the Methodist church and American Baptists were involved.

Created in the early nineteenth century, the UGRR was at its height between 1850 and 1860. One estimate suggests that by 1850, 100,000 slaves had escaped via the "Railroad."

Canada was a popular destination with over 30,000 people arriving there to escape enslavement via the network at its peak, though U.S. Census figures only account for 6,000.

New Jersey was an integral part of the Eastern corridor of the UGRR. It received fugitives mainly from the Atlantic coastline states of Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. Its proximity to the slave states of Delaware and Maryland, as well as its location between two of the most active UGRR metropolitan centers – Philadelphia and New York City – made it an important part of the network.

New Jersey is also identified with the Underground Railroad's two most celebrated figures. One, the legendary Harriet Tubman, spent the summers between 1849 and 1852 as a hotel worker in Cape May, earning money to finance her forays into her native Maryland Eastern Shore to guide fugitives slaves to freedom.

The other, William Still, was a native New Jerseyan who was distinguished by being both the most important UGRR operative in Philadelphia and the author of the 1872 classic The Underground Railroad, a study, which offers accounts of the flights of the fugitives he assisted in Philadelphia.

Finally, no other northern state exceeded New Jersey in the number of all-black communities that served as UGRR sanctuaries for southern fugitive slaves.

One such place is Lawnside, a borough in Camden County.

A community of approximately 2,600 (2000 Census), the land that became Lawnside was purchased by Abolitionists for freed and escaped slaves, as well as other African Americans, in 1840.

Lawnside was incorporated as a municipality in 1926, the only all-black community in New Jersey, and possibly in the North, to have such a status. (With its first election, Lawnside became the first independent self-governing African American community north of the Mason-Dixon line).

These days, the story of the UGRR locally can be experienced and recalled at the Peter Mott House. This house, formerly known as Snow Hill and Free Haven, was built around 1844. It is considered a precious Underground Railroad site.

In fact, it was one of the few UGRR stations that was owned and operated by an African American, and it is probably the only site of its kind in the nation: A black-owned and – operated UGRR station in an all-black town.

Peter Mott (1807? - 1888), whom the house is now named after, was a free black farmer, possibly a fugitive slave from Delaware, who also served as the pastor of Lawnside's historic Mt. Pisgah AME Church.

For more information on the Underground Railroad at Lawnside, contact the Peter Mott House, 26 Kings Court; Lawnside, NJ 08045; (856) 546-8850.

Some additional readings on the topics (Courtesy of the New Jersey Historical Commission), you might consider:

Blockson, Charles L.; The Underground Railroad; New York: Berkley Books, 1987.

A collection of first-person narratives, grouped along state lines, that describes the experiences of runaway slaves who used the Underground Railroad. A brief discussion of New Jersey's UGRR is found in the chapter titled "Free Middle Atlantic."

Siebert, Wilbur H.; The Underground Railroad: From Slavery to Freedom. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1898; Reprint, New York: Arno Press & the New York Times, 1967.

A pioneering study of the Underground Railroad that sheds light on its overall operation. It indicates the major routes used by UGRR fugitives in New Jersey and lists in its appendix New Jersey UGRR operatives county-by-county.

Still, William; The Underground Railroad. 1872; Reprint, Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company, 1970.

This classic study of the UGRR draws on Still's records of fugitives he aided in Philadelphia, which was a major UGRR center. In all probability, some of these runaways subsequently passed through New Jersey on their journey farther north.

Wright, Giles R.; Afro-Americans in New Jersey: A Short History. Trenton: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1988.

An overview of New Jersey's black past that contains a brief discussion of the state's UGRR, as well as the first published map of New Jersey's main UGRR routes. The above and more were referenced at an excellent publication of the New Jersey Historical Society entitled: "Steal Away, Steal Away – A Guide to the Underground Railroad in New Jersey (PDF)."

Eric Model explores the "offbeat, off the beaten path overlooked and forgotten" on SIRIUS-XM Radio and at journeysinto.com.