Today Jay Hall talks about the Underground Railroad. American slavery began in 1619. The Underground Railroad started in the 1830’s as an organized, secret route to freedom. It was not underground it wasn’t a railroad. It was a network of routes and safehouses with “conductors” and “stations” and came right through Buffalo, NY.
Many people headed to Canada because that was freedom. They traveled only at night because that was the safest and they had to navigate using the sky.
There are still things today to remind us of this such as the Customs House that’s up in the Niagara Falls bridge. There is still part of the suspension bridge left that was used to bring slaves to Canada by railroad as well as the Robert Broderick Park near the Peace Bridge that was also used as a crossing for freedom seekers. We also have the Michigan Street Corridor with the Michigan Street Baptist Church which hid freedom seekers.
