The Underground Railroad: From Maryland to Canada

The trail starts in Dorchester County, Maryland. In October or November 1849 Harriet Tubman escaped for a second time, this time without her brothers. The Quaker community around Preston, near Poplar Neck, was probably her first stop. From there she likely followed the Choptank River northeast through Delaware and into Pennsylvania. Today the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Dorchester County commemorates her life in the area where her story begins.

Location precision: Her exact route is unknown; the pin marks the national historical park in Dorchester County.

Wilmington, Delaware, was the next link, and Thomas Garrett ran it openly. He worked as a stationmaster with William Still in Philadelphia, and he lived at 227 Shipley Street with no secret rooms, because the authorities knew what he did and never arrested him. Tubman passed through many times, and Garrett gave her money and shoes for her journeys. Later he said he had "only helped 2,700" people before the Civil War ended slavery.

Location precision: The pin marks Shipley Street in Wilmington; the exact house site is not confirmed here.

Across the Ohio River from Kentucky, the Rankin House stands on a hill above Ripley. Presbyterian minister John Rankin built it in 1828, and it became a stopping point for people who had crossed the river from the slave state. Rankin is estimated to have helped more than 2,000 people to freedom, often at great risk: slave catchers watched the house and some slave owners put a price on his head. Ohio bought it in 1938 as a historic site.

Visitor guidance: State historic site on the hill above Ripley.

Thousands of people escaped slavery by crossing the Ohio River to Cincinnati, and some stayed briefly before heading north to Canada. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, a museum in downtown Cincinnati, opened to the public on 3 August 2004. It tells the history of the Underground Railroad and also pays tribute to efforts to abolish human enslavement worldwide.

Visitor guidance: Museum in downtown Cincinnati.

Levi Coffin's brick house in Fountain City, Indiana, stood where three escape routes to the north converged, and it became known as the "Grand Central Station" of the Underground Railroad. It was built around 1838–39. Coffin demanded to see a search warrant and slave-ownership papers before letting anyone in, and the round trip to the county seat took 26 miles, so by the time slave-catchers returned, the fugitives had moved on. The house opened as a historic site in 1970.

Visitor guidance: Open to the public as a historic site.

Niagara was the last border to cross. The Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge was a border crossing between the United States and Canada, and three railway lines crossed it. In the years before the Civil War the Underground Railroad helped people escape across it to freedom in Canada. The bridge itself is long gone; this pin marks the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge nearby, on the same stretch of river.

Location precision: The original bridge was replaced; the pin marks the nearby Whirlpool Rapids Bridge, not the exact spot.

Freedom in Canada meant building a new life. Josiah Henson's Dawn settlement began in 1841 as a refuge and place of work for former slaves from the United States, on a 200-acre property. In 1842 Henson helped found the British-American Institute there. At its peak about 500 settlers lived at Dawn. Henson's autobiography later inspired the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, and today Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site in Dresden marks the settlement.

Visitor guidance: Historic site in Dresden, Ontario.