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“I had come up through the Champlain Canal, and then gone through Clinton and Franklin County.” “I was headed to Ogdensburg, on my way north to Canada from South Carolina,” an actor declares in a re-enactment exhibit at the North Star Museum. Photo: Ryan Finnerty.Īlthough details can be hard to piece together, some stories of those who passed through the North Country to freedom have been recovered.Īn article written in 1837 by Vermont-born abolitionist Alvan Stewart for an anti-slavery newspaper recounts the story of an anonymous man who travelled through the North Country on his way to Canada.
This farm house outside of Peru was one of the final "stations" on the Underground Railroad before the Canadian border.
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Drinking gourd was code for the Big Dipper – a celestial constellation that can be used to identify the North Star.
Underground railroad story how to#
One such tune called Follow the Drinking Gourd referenced landmarks like certain rivers and offered hints for how to identify friendly conductors. They worked as a kind of secret oral map with coded lyrics guiding freedom seekers on their journey north. To find their way, escapees used folk songs learned on the southern plantations. Two escape routes followed Lake Champlain: one through Vermont and another running from Albany to Rouse’s Point along the lake’s western shore. Standing before a map, Madison explains the various routes freedom-seekers would have followed to reach Canada.Ī western path originating in Pennsylvania went through Buffalo, up to Watertown, and crossed the St. It’s packed with maps, faded newspaper articles, and portraits of notable members of the North Country section of the covert network. The North Star Underground Railroad Museum fills up the bottom floor of an old 19 th Century house. Terrible things could happen to you, your family, and friends if they suspected them of helping as well.”Ī dangerous last stop before freedom in Canada “If you were caught helping someone get to freedom,” Madison noted, “you could lose your property, you could be jailed, you could be fined. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required that escaped slaves be returned to their former owners – and carried stiff penalties for anyone who aided them. Involvement in the Underground Railroad was extremely dangerous for everyone, black or white. While many went north to Canada, others journeyed south to Mexico and the Caribbean. Jacqueline Young describes the routes escaped slaves would take to freedom. “And if we spent $2.50 per person, he would have helped over 400 people.”Įxact numbers are nearly impossible to come by in historical records because those helping escaped slaves often avoided keeping a paper trail. “He talked about helping people get to freedom and he thinks he spent about $1000 doing that,” Madison explained. But his later writings provide an estimate. There is no way to know with certainty exactly how many people Keese Smith aided while working as a conductor. The abolitionist Quaker purchased the property in 1851 and quickly established one of the barns as a hiding place for runaway slaves headed to Canada. One exhibit is dedicated to the former owner of that historic Peru farmhouse, a man named Stephen Keese Smith. The group operates a museum in Keeseville, in the Champlain Valley south of Plattsburgh. It features the stories from both sides of the Underground Railroad: Black passengers and white conductors. This is the history that Madison and the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association are dedicated to preserving.
Underground railroad story full#
The railroad moniker was part of a secret code: safe places to stay were called stations and the owners of those properties were known as conductors.Ī full journey on the Underground Railroad typically took several months. Photo: Ryan Finnerty.Įscapees typically traveled by foot or water. A map of various Underground Railroad routes that traversed New York and Vermont.
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