Manifest Courage Saving Thousands…
There is a dramatic and important story hidden away on the beautiful, serene backroads of Chester County, Pennsylvania, yet one that is not immediately apparent in the countryside, and one that has not been completely revealed. It is the story of African Americans, freedom seekers, and the operatives of Underground Railroad in Southeastern Pennsylvania where the manifest courage of hundreds of lives risked, meant thousands were saved. There are many locations throughout the region that are relevant to this story, along a route that could often mean the difference between bondage and freedom, or even life or death.
Drawing the Line…
The story begins with a monumental step in the state’s history in 1780, when legislators in Pennsylvania began blazing a trail to end slavery in the state and ultimately, in the nation.
The Gradual Abolition of Slavery Act stopped the importation of all American Americans into the state to become enslaved, required all enslaved individuals to be registered, and established that all children born in Pennsylvania were free regardless of race or parentage. While those who were enslaved before 1780 remained in bondage, the Act was the first step to abolishing the practice entirely.
As a result, the Mason-Dixon line which separated Pennsylvania from Maryland which lies at the edge of Chester County, as does the border between Delaware and Pennsylvania, became the de facto line between enslavement and freedom; between the slave states and the free states.
Seeking Out a New Life…
For freedom seekers, Pennsylvania for the most part represented the start of a new life. And so many chose to settle in Chester County, they made up about 30% of the population of Pocopson Township in the 1860 census, as compared to 2% in all of Pennsylvania.
Yet, many remained in danger from bounty hunters who roamed the region looking for any African Americans, whether freedom seekers or free, they could capture and sell back into slavery in the South for a profit. This kept the tireless work of African American abolitionists in Chester County mostly working through their churches, clandestine and undocumented for the most part, to maintain their own freedom.
Hiding in Plain Sight…
The largest population of Quakers in the United States at the time – members of the Society of Friends who considered slavery both morally and religiously reprehensible – actively joined in supporting freedom seekers making the perilous journey from enslavement in the South to their farms and towns “just over the line” in Pennsylvania.
As many as freedom seekers as possible were put to work on Quaker and other farms – in other words – hidden in plain sight, where they could not be distinguished from other free African Americans already residing in the area.
Conducting to Freedom…
Arriving at a “station” on the Underground Railroad, a network of buildings, codes, disguises, routes and transportation, freedom seekers were hidden, fed, clothed, and otherwise taken care of, before a “conductor” brought them to another station – the home of another Quaker, African American, or other abolitionist willing to risk their life to move the freedom seekers further north toward Canada and ultimate freedom.
Courage Under Cloak of Night…
The Pennsylvania Byway’s namesake was one of the most prolific and courageous conductors on the Underground Railroad. Born into slavery in Maryland in 1822, Harriet Tubman fled her captors in 1849, traveling under the cloak of night by herself. Instead of enjoying her new life in Philadelphia, she spent the next decade making treacherous journeys, risking life and limb, to bring her family and friends to freedom, going back to Maryland 13 times to guide more than 70 African Americans to freedom. Hiding by day and traveling by night through open fields, rivers, swamps, and woodlands, Tubman stealthily guided her charges through Maryland and Delaware without being caught.
The Byway, which was part of Tubman’s actual path through Chester County, celebrates Tubman’s life and legacy. The story along and nearby the route is told in museums, properties on the National Register of Historic Places documented as having served as “stations,” African Union and African Methodist Episcopal churches, a network of Friends Meeting Houses, where slavery and abolition were debated, sometimes with great animosity, and on the land where the freedom seekers walked.
Trace the Route Thousands Took to Freedom…
Before the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway was officially designated in Pennsylvania in 2022 to tell the story of the Underground Railroad in Chester County, the most direct path from enslavement to freedom, stopped at the Pennsylvania line. With the continuation of the Byway into Pennsylvania, one can begin the journey near Harriet Tubman’s birthplace in Maryland, travel on the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway in that state, continue on the path she took through Delaware, on the Delaware Byway of the same name, and continue into Pennsylvania, on a route that she took many times.
Yet, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway is not just the story of one courageous woman. It traces the route that thousands of others took to freedom as part of the struggle of African Americans for human rights and dignity that has continued since the founding of the country. These actions were the start of the Civil Rights movement in America, the continuing quest for equality, freedom, and justice for all, that continues to this very day.