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Recommended Works Concerning Slavery and the Underground Railroad in the Kennett Area

 

Charles Blockson, The Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania (Jacksonville, N. Caro.: Flame International, 1981)

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Charles Blockson, ed., The Underground Railroad: First-Person Narratives of Escapes to Freedom in the North (New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1987)

      A collection of first-hand stories of escapes from slavery, including one of Blockson’s forebears. 

 

Fergus Bordewich, Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America (New York: Harper Collins, 2005)

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Robert Churchill, The Underground Railroad and the Geography of Violence in Antebellum America (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020)

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Catherine Clinton, Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom (Boston: Little, Brown, 2004)

     Serious, scholarly biography of Harriet Tubman

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Andrew Diemer, Vigilance: The Life of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad (New York: Knopf, 2022)

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Diggins, Milt

Stealing Freedom Along the Mason-Dixon Line:   2015   Johns Hopkins U. Press

     Concerning “Thomas McCreary, the Notorious Slave Catcher from Baltimore MD”

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Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of Frederick Douglass (1845; Garden City, N. Y.: Dover Press, 1995)

     One of the most influential slave autobiographies by the man who might be considered the most important African-American of the 19th C.

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Douglass, Frederick

On Slavery and the Civil War 2003  Dover

     A selection of his writings

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Drake, Thomas

Quakers and Slavery in America 1950  Yale U. Press

     Scholarly examination of the evolution of anti-slavery beliefs among Quakers.

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Dugan, M.L. & Ella J. Sestrich

East Linden Street: Abolition, Industry, & Diversity in Kennett Square, PA  2008  KURC

     A brief work on a Kennett Square street that has been integrated for over 160 years, with emphasis on its abolitionist background.

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Eric Foner, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (New York: W. W. Norton, 2015)

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John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger, Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999)

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Larry Gara, The Liberty Line: The Legend of the Underground Railroad (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1961)

     An attempt to separate UGRR myth from verifiable facts; available as e-book from Kindle

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Gooch, Cheryl (ed)

On Africa’s Lands  2014  Lincoln University Press

     “The forgotten stories of two Lincoln-educated missionaries in Liberia.” 

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Griest, Ellwood

John and Mary; or the Fugitive Slaves, A Tale of South-Eastern Pennsylvania  1873

Lancaster Inquirer; reprinted electronically by UNC-Chapel Hill

     A fictional tale, written shortly after the Civil War, of freedom-seekers and those who helped them in this region.  Available online without charge.

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Jacobs, Norma (ed)

Quaker Roots: the Story of the Western Quarterly Meeting of Philadelphia Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends  1980  Western Quarterly Meeting

     Selections dealing with the meeting houses of SE PA and MD, many of which were involved in the UGRR.  Available at London Grove Meeting--$5.00

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Jackson, Maurice

Let This Voice Be Heard: Anthony Benezet, Father of Atlantic Abolitionism  2009  U. Penn Press

     1st great publicist of ant-slavery writing in America, in 18th C. Philadelphia.

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Kashatus, William

Just Over the Line: Chester County and the UGRR  2002  Chester County Historical Society

     Examination of the UGRR in early-mid 19th C in northern Delaware and Chester County

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Katz, Jonathan

Resistance at Christiana: the Fugitive Slave Rebellion  1974  Cromwell

     The story of the small battle that occurred in nearby Christiana, Lancaster Cty, when fugitive slaves resisted and repulsed an attempt to recapture them.

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Mark Lanyon, Abolition and the Underground Railroad in Chester County, Pennsylvania (Charleston, S. C.: History Press, 2022)

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William Lashatus, William Still: The Underground Railroad and the Angel at Philadelphia (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2021)

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Cheryl LaRoche, The Geography of Resistance: Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014)

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Larson, Kate Clifford

Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero  2004  Ballantine Books

     The most scholarly biography of the life and work of Harriet Tubman

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McGowan, James

Station Master of the Underground Railroad: the Life and Letters of Thomas Garrett  Revised edition: 2005  McFarland 

     The only biography of the most important stationmaster of the UGRR on the east coast.

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Gary Nash, Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia’s Black Community, 1720-1840 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988)

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Richard Newman, Freedom’s Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers (New York: New York University Press, 2008)

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Marcus Rediker, The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist (Boston: Beacon Press, 2017)

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Russo, MH, and PA

Hinsonville: a Community at the Crossroads  2005  Rosemont Publishing

     Story of an African-American Village in Chester County

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Thomas Slaughter, Bloody Dawn: The Christiana Riot and Racial Violence in the Antebellum North (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991)

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Smedley, R. C

The History of the Underground Railroad in Chester & Neighboring Counties 1883;  2005

Stackpole Books has republished this work

     Accounts of persons and UGRR activities gathered in the 1870s, less than a generation after the UGRR was intensely active in SE PA.  This is probably the most important work on the UGRR for this area

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Still, William

The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts  1872;  2007  Porter & Coates;

New edited version by Dover Books

     Written shortly after the Civil War by one of the most important agents of the UGRR and a chronicler of original UGRR stories without peer. The Dover edition is about half the length of the original.  A Kindle e-version is also available.

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Taylor, Frances C.

The Trackless Trail  1976  Privately published

     Very readable pamphlet of DE/Chester County UGRR, based largely on Smedley

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Taylor, Frances C.

The Trackless Trail Leads On  1995  Privately published

     Very readable pamphlet of DE/Chester County UGRR, based largely on Smedley.

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Tobin, Jacqueline

From Midnight to Dawn: the Last Tracks of the Underground Railroad  2008  Knopf, Doubleday

     Portrayals of figures involved in UGRR and abolition, including Mary Ann Shadd Cary

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Truth, Sojourner

The Narrative of Sojourner Truth 1850;  1997  Dover Press reprint

     1st-hand account of the life of former slave, one of the most important abolitionists and speakers for progressive reform in the 19th C.

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Timothy Walker, ed., Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2021)

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Abolitionism and Related Developments

 

David Blight, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2021)

 

Barbara Fields, Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland during the Nineteenth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985)

 

Gabrielle Foreman, Jim Casey, and Sarah Patterson, eds., The Colored Conventions Movement: Black Organizing in the Nineteenth Century (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021)

 

Bruce Levine, Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2021)

 

Leon Litwack, North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790-1860 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961)

 

Manisha Sinha, The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016)

 

William Williams, Slavery and Freedom in Delaware, 1639-1865 (Wilmington, Del.: SR Books, 1996)

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For Younger Readers

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Angeli, Margaret

Thee, Hannah 1940

Illustrated book w poems about UGRR activity among 19th C Quakers  For young readers

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Guccione, Leslie Davis

Come Morning  1995  Carolrhoda Books

     Fictional story of young people helping out with UGRR activity in the vicinity of what is now Hagley Museum

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Rossi, Ann

Freedom Struggle: the Anti-Slavery Movement in America, 1830-1865  2005  National Geographic

     Slender but useful introduction to the issue.

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Taylor, M.W.

Harriet Tubman, Antislavery Activist 1990

     Account of the extraordinary life of the UGRR’s most famous conductor. 

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Winter, Jeanette

Follow the Drinking Gourd 1992  Dragonfly Books

     Illustrated book with poems about UGRR activity.  For young readers.

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