The quiet recital of the facts has all the charm of romance to the passengers on the Underground Railroad: whether travelling by night in a procession of covered wagons, or boldly by day in disguises; whether boxed up as so much freight, or riding on passes unhesitatingly given by abolitionist directors of railroads; the fugitives in these pages rejoice in their prospect of liberty. The road sign near Oberlin, of a tiger chasing a negro, was a white man's joke; but it was a negro who said, apropos of his master's discouraging account of Canada: "They put some extract onto it to keep us from comin'"; and neither Whittier in his poems, nor Harriet Beecher Stowe in her novels, imagined a more picturesque incident than the crossing of the Detroit River by Fairfield's "gang" of twenty-eight rescued souls singing, "I'm on my way to Canada, where colored men are free," to the joyful accompaniment of their firearms.

To the settlements of fugitives in Canada Professor Siebert has given more labor than appears in his book; for his own visits supplement the accounts of earlier investigators; and we have here the first complete account of the reception of the negroes in Canada and their progress in civilization.

Upon the general question of the political effects of the Underground Railroad, the book adds much to our information, by its discussion of the probable numbers of fugitives, and of the alarm caused in the slave states by their departure. The census figures of 1850 and 1860 are shown to be wilfully false; and the escape of thousands of persons seems established beyond cavil. Into the constitutional question of the right to take fugitives, the book goes with less minuteness, since it is intended to be a contribution to knowledge, and not an addition to the abundant literature on the legal side of slavery.

It has been the effort of Professor Siebert to furnish the means for settling the following questions: the origin of the system of aid to the fugitives, popularly called the Underground Railroad; the degree of formal organization; methods of procedure; geographical extent and relations; the leaders and heroes of the movement; the behavior of the fugitives on their way; the effectiveness of the settlement in Canada; the numbers of fugitives; and the attitude of courts and communities. On all these questions he furnishes new light; and he appears to prove his concluding statement that "the Underground Railroad was one of the greatest forces which brought on the Civil War and thus destroyed slavery."

[CONTENTS]

CHAPTER I
Sources of the History of the Underground Railroad
PAGE
The Underground Road as a subject for research[1]
Obscurity of the subject[2]
Books dealing with the subject[2]
Magazine articles on the Underground Railroad[5]
Newspaper articles on the subject[6]
Scarcity of contemporaneous documents[7]
Reminiscences the chief source[11]
The value of reminiscences illustrated[12]
CHAPTER II
Origin and Growth of the Underground Road
Conditions under which the Underground Road originated[17]
The disappearance of slavery from the Northern states[17]
Early provisions for the return of fugitive slaves[19]
The fugitive slave clause in the Ordinance of 1787[20]
The fugitive slave clause in the United States Constitution[20]
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1793[21]
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850[22]
Desire for freedom among the slaves[25]
Knowledge of Canada among the slaves[27]
Some local factors in the origin of the underground movement[30]
The development of the movement in eastern Pennsylvania, in New Jersey, and in New York[33]
The development of the movement in the New England states[36]
The development of the movement in the West[37]
The naming of the Road[44]
CHAPTER III
The Methods of the Underground Railroad
Penalties for aiding fugitive slaves[47]
Social contempt suffered by abolitionists[48]
Espionage practised upon abolitionists[50]
Rewards for the capture of fugitives and the kidnapping of abolitionists[52]
Devices to secure secrecy[54]
Service at night[54]
Methods of communication[56]
Methods of conveyance[59]
Zigzag and variable routes[61]
Places of concealment[62]
Disguises[64]
Informality of management[67]
Colored and white agents[69]
City vigilance committees[70]
Supplies for fugitives[76]
Transportation of fugitives by rail[78]
Transportation of fugitives by water[81]
Rescue of fugitives under arrest[83]
CHAPTER IV
Underground Agents, Station-Keepers, or Conductors
Underground agents, station-keepers, or conductors[87]
Their hospitality[87]
Their principles[89]
Their nationality[90]
Their church connections[93]
Their party affinities[99]
Their local standing[101]
Prosecutions of underground operators[101]
Defensive League of Freedom proposed[103]
Persons of prominence among underground helpers[104]
CHAPTER V
Study of the Map of the Underground Railroad System
Geographical extent of underground lines[113]
Location and distribution of stations[114]
Southern routes[116]
Lines of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York[120]
Routes of the New England states[128]
Lines within the old Northwest Territory[134]
Noteworthy features of the general map[139]
Complex routes[141]
Broken lines and isolated place names[141]
River routes[142]
Routes by rail[142]
Routes by sea[144]
Terminal stations[145]
Lines of lake travel[147]
Canadian ports[148]
CHAPTER VI
Abduction of Slaves from the South
Aversion among underground helpers to abduction of slaves[150]
Abductions by negroes living along the northern border of the slave states[151]
Abductions by Canadian refugees[152]
Abductions by white persons in the South[153]
Abductions by white persons of the North[154]
The Missouri raid of John Brown[162]
John Brown's great plan[166]
Abductions attempted in response to appeals[168]
Devotees of abduction[178]
CHAPTER VII
Life of the Colored Refugees in Canada
Slavery question in Canada[190]
Flight of slaves to Canada[192]
Refugees representative of the slave class[195]
Misinformation about Canada among slaves[197]
Hardships borne by Canadian refugees[198]
Efforts toward immediate relief for fugitives[199]
Attitude of the Canadian government[201]
Conditions favorable to their settlement in Canada[203]
Sparseness of population[203]
Uncleared lands[204]
Encouragement of agricultural colonies among refugees[205]
Dawn Settlement[205]
Elgin Settlement[207]
Refugees' Home Settlement[209]
Alleged disadvantages of the colonies[211]
Their advantages[212]
Refugee settlers in Canadian towns[217]
Census of Canadian refugees[220]
Occupations of Canadian refugees[223]
Progress made by Canadian refugees[224]
Domestic life of the refugees[227]
School privileges[228]
Organizations for self-improvement[230]
Churches[231]
Rescue of friends from slavery[231]
Ownership of property[232]
Rights of citizenship[233]
Character as citizens[233]
CHAPTER VIII
Fugitive Settlers in the Northern States
Number of fugitive settlers in the North[235]
The Northern states an unsafe refuge for runaway slaves[237]
Reclamation of fugitives in the free states[239]
Protection of fugitives in the free states[242]
Object of the personal liberty laws[245]
Effect of the law of 1850 on fugitive settlers[246]
Underground operators among fugitives of the free states[251]
CHAPTER IX
Prosecutions of Underground Railroad Men
Enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793[254]
Grounds on which the constitutionality of the measure was questioned[254]
Denial of trial by jury to the fugitive slave[255]
Summary mode of arrest[257]
The question of concurrent jurisdiction between the federal and state governments in fugitive slave cases[259]
The law of 1793 versus the Ordinance of 1787[261]
Power of Congress to legislate concerning the extradition of fugitive slaves denied[263]
State officers relieved of the execution of the law by the Prigg decision, 1842[264]
Amendment of the law of 1793 by the law of 1850[265]
Constitutionality of the law of 1850 questioned[267]
First case under the law of 1850[268]
Authority of a United States commissioner[269]
Penalties imposed for aiding and abetting the escape of fugitives[273]
Trial on the charge of treason in the Christiana case, 1854[279]
Counsel for fugitive slaves[281]
Last case under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850[285]
Attempted revision of the law[285]
Destructive attacks upon the measure in Congress[286]
Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation[287]
Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Acts[288]
CHAPTER X
The Underground Railroad in Politics
Valuation of the Underground Railroad in its political aspect[290]
The question of the extradition of fugitive slaves in colonial times[290]
Importance of the question in the constitutional conventions[293]
Failure of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793[294]
Agitation for a more efficient measure[295]
Diplomatic negotiations for the extradition of colored refugees from Canada, 1826-1828[299]
The fugitive slave a missionary in the cause of freedom[300]
Slave-hunting in the free states[302]
Preparation for the abolition movement of 1830[303]
The Underground Railroad and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850[308]
The law in Congress[310]
The enforcement of the law of 1850[316]
The Underground Road and Uncle Tom's Cabin[321]
Political importance of the novel[323]
Sumner on the influence of escaped slaves in the North[324]
The spirit of nullification in the North[327]
The Glover rescue, Wisconsin, 1854[327]
The rendition of Burns, Boston, 1854[331]
The rescue of Addison White, Mechanicsburg, Ohio, 1857[334]
The Oberlin-Wellington rescue, 1858[335]
Obstruction of the Fugitive Slave Law by means of the personal liberty acts[337]
John Brown's attempt Lo free the slaves[338]
CHAPTER XI
Effect of the Underground Railroad
The Underground Road the means of relieving the South of many despairing slaves[340]
Loss sustained by slave-owners through underground channels[340]
The United States census reports on fugitive slaves[342]
Estimate of the number of slaves escaping into Ohio, 1830-1860[346]
Similar estimate for Philadelphia, 1830-1860[346]
Drain on the resources of the depot at Lawrence, Kansas, described in a letter of Col. J. Bowles, April 4, 1859[347]
Work of the Underground Railroad as compared with that of the American Colonization Society[350]
The violation of the Fugitive Slave Law a chief complaint of Southern states at the beginning of the Civil War[351]
Refusal of the Canadian government to yield up the fugitive Anderson, 1860[352]
Secession of the Southern states begun[353]
Conclusion of the fugitive slave controversy[355]
General effect and significance of the controversy[356]