Underground Railroad
John L. Hoh, Jr.
Latest Articles
In 1854 a fugitive slave was captured in Racine, Wisconsin, and imprisoned in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. An abolitionist named Sherman Booth led a group that broke into the prison and freed the slave, Joshua Glover. Today Booth Street and Glover Avenue in Milwaukee intersect to honor the brief contact between these two ...
Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard published a book entitled Hidden in Plain View : A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad. Now historians debate whether quilts were, in fact, used to aid fugitive slaves escape to the North. This introductory article explores some of the meanings attributed ...
William and Ellen Craft: A Craft-y Couple
William and Ellen Craft employed an ingenious method of escape. Ellen was a fair-skin African American and thus dressed as a white free male and her husband posed as "his" slave. Ingenious, no?
Thomas Garrett: Giving His All For Freedom (Part 2)
Thomas Garrett, a Quaker Abolitionist, loses his fortune in a lawsuit brought be a slave owner. After the Civil War, he is cheered when the 15th. Amendment is passed and eulogized by former slaves at his funeral less than a year later.
Thomas Garrett: Giving His All For Freedom (Part 1)
Thomas Garrett, a native of Pennsylvania who moved to Delaware, put his Quaker convictions to work in helping over 2700 slaves escape. He also lost his fortune in a court ruling when a slaveholder sued him and a partener in the Underground Railroad
Allan Pinkerton and his Secret Role in the Underground Railroad
Detective Allan Pinkerton is famous for his detective agency with the eyeball logo and tagline, "We Never Sleep." This logo gave us our term "private eye." What isn't as readily known is his role in the Underground Railroad and his story details both the high levels the movement reached as well ...
Some more on Ripley’s Underground Railroad Involvement
Some more thoughts on Ripley's role in the Underground Railroad as well as sites you may want to visit if you go to Ripley.
Other Ripley Homes That Served as Stations
Again we return to Ripley, Ohio, and its Underground Railroad movement. This article features some homes known to have served as stations but which I can find little information at this time. If I discover more, I can certainly write more later. But I want you to see how broad the ...
Interview with Al Oickle, Walker Biographer
This is an interview I conducted with Alvin Oickle, Jonathan Walker biographer who wrote "Jonathan Walker: The Man With the Branded Hand."
William Lloyd Garrison: The Liberator Roars
A look at the life of William Lloyd Garrison and his newspaper, the "Liberator." This controversial man was in the midst of a heated debate not only of slave emancipation but of what freed slaves could be in our country.