The Underground Railroad
Date: Tue, 6 Feb 1996
From: Mark Huddle
Subject: The Underground Railroad
I am currently preparing an historiograhical piece on the Underground Railroad. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share the titles of their favorite books, essays, and/or articles on the topic? I would be very interested to hear what works people feel to be the most important.
Thanks very much,
Mark Huddle
Department of History
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
Email: mhuddle@uga.cc.uga.edu
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 1996
From: Michael Chesson
Subject: Re: The Underground Railroad
Check out Larry Gara's somewhat neglected "The Liberty Line: The Legend of the Underground Railroad." Too often when writing and teaching about this topic, and many others, we do so with our hearts rather than our heads. Gara pointed out a generation ago that much of what we supposedly know is based on a mixture of myth, folklore, pride in ancestry, and wishful thinking. Few slaves actually escaped, most did so by their own efforts, or helped by other blacks, and the supposed secret network was neither as extensive nor as well-organized as some of the late 19th century sources would have it.
Michael Chesson, U/Mass-Boston
omohundro@aol.com
Date: Thu, 8 Feb 1996
From: Joan C. Browning
Subject: Re: The Underground Railroad
Amen to Michael Chesson's caution about mythology of the Underground Railroad. When researching an article for the Journal of the Greenbrier Historical Society, I tried to verify a wide-spread local tale about a church in Ronceverte, West Virginia, serving as a stop on the underground railroad. The local tale is complete with that one structure in that one spot, not a loosely defined "congregation".
The structure was not organized until 1878, and Ronceverte wasn't even settled until around that time. In other words, this myth is comforting to locals, but totally not true.
Enjoying all the dicussion ...
Joan C. Browning
Ronceverte WV
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996
From: Philip J. Schwarz
Subject: Re: Underground Railroad
I'd like to add to Mike Chesson's very valid note of caution about UGRR stories. If you need an example of how interesting claims for UGRR involvement can get, go to the General James Taylor house in Covington, KY, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. Stamped in steel (cast iron?) on the historical marker near the street is the revelation that Taylor's house was a center of UGRR activities. The obvious implication of the sign is that Taylor was a "conductor." But Taylor owned over a dozen slaves. Some conductor. However, Taylor slaves could have been conductors. The Rev. Anthony Binga and thirteen other people escaped from Taylor to Amherstburg, Ontario, in 1835. (Binga moved to live with his son here in Richmond in the early twentieth century.) Binga's story is briefly told in Siebert's book; the interview of another person in the group is in Blassingame's _Slave Testimony_, 442-3.
The moral of the story is to follow the conductor.
--Phil Schwarz
Philip J. Schwarz
Department of History
Virginia Commonwealth University
Box 842001
Richmond, VA 23284-2001
FAX: (804) 828-7085
VOICE: (804) 828-1635
pschwarz@felix.vcu.edu
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996
From: Joe Bauman
Subject: Re: Underground Railroad and "Old Peter"
Speaking of the Underground Railroad: I own a daguerreotype of an elderly black man who is identified as "Old Peter," supposed to be nearly 100 years old, and who supposedly escaped to the home of the Quaker Slater Brown. The handwriting and paper look old. I was told when I bought it many years ago that this man was written about in some local history (or maybe a newspaper like the Liberator?), but I have never been able to locate any such account. Can anybody in H-South help me?
Thank you,
Joe Bauman
bau@desnews.com
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