CNS--Meet Maryland's newest stops on the National Underground Railroad to Freedom

B&O No. 25 "William Mason." Used by President Abraham Lincoln for his inauguration before the Civil War. Photo courtesy of the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore.

National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom adds four Maryland sites

With the collaboration of Maryland's historians and government agencies, four new locations have been added to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom bringing Maryland's total to over 90 designated listings.

BY CATHERINE WILSON - DEC. 2021

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom has added four new sites in Maryland as part of its mission to preserve the history of those who sought freedom from slavery.

These latest Underground Railroad sites provide further insight into Maryland’s slavery history by reconstructing the stories of freedom seekers using research to safeguard the past for future generations, according to several researchers and network representatives.

Historically, freedom seekers were enslaved people who sought freedom through escape. The network recognizes the journey that freedom seekers took using the Underground Railroad, and those who aided their escape.

“We are empowering communities and descendants to tell their stories,” National Program Manager for the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Diane Miller told Capital News Service.

The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom aims to remember and recognize the history of enslaved people who ventured to escape slavery, and those who aided their journey toward freedom, Miller said.

Since its inception in 1998, the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom has been responsible for inducting nearly 700 sites, programs and facilities in several states and territories across the country.

As of this fall, Maryland holds over 90 National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listings, according to the Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism.

Maryland’s sizable contribution to the network is in large part due to its history of having a significant free Black population and its proximity to border states that didn’t utilize slave labor, making freedom more accessible than other states.

The state has an extensive history in its association with the Underground Railroad.

Prominent abolitionist figure Harriet Tubman escaped slavery in Maryland and went on to aid several other slaves to freedom using Underground Railroad sites. Her contributions to the liberation of slaves from bondage in the state makes Maryland a notable destination for those looking to learn more about the Underground Railroad.

Among Maryland’s submissions for fall 2021, only four passed the network’s rigorous test for consideration — the Elkridge Furnace at Patapsco Valley State Park in Howard County, the Eliza Parker Escape Site at Belle Vue Farm in Harford County, the Henry Massey Escape Site at Stoopley Gibson Manor in Kent Island and the Mount Clare Railroad Station in Baltimore.

Historians seeking nominations to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom work with site managers to prepare applications that use primary sources linking the site to the Underground Railroad. Primary sources often include newspapers containing runaway slave ads, diaries of freedom seekers, and family documents.

“It’s a bit like being a detective because you’re finding bits and pieces of information and a whole bunch of different sources (that) you have to kind of put together to make sense of it,” Miller said.

Applicants meet with regional coordinators, and if a site meets the criteria, the documents are then passed to a review committee for decision. Sites that can prove their legitimacy through historical evidence and earn a majority vote by members of the review committee are accepted into the network, according to Miller.

The four new sites inducted into the National Underground Network to Freedom were made possible by the “Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism’s ‘Four Fellowships for 400: Sharing Maryland’s Underground Railroad Stories’ project. The project partnered with the Legacy of Slavery program at the Maryland State Archives and was funded by a grant from the 400 Years of African American History Commission,” a press release issued Nov. 1 by the Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism said.

The Legacy of Slavery program at the Maryland State Archives, a research program recognized by the network, provided research fellows with the necessary tools to find records that would link freedom seekers to Underground Railroad sites, Legacy of Slavery Program Director Chris Haley told Capital News Service.

In addition to Underground Railroad sites, the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom accepts programs and facilities that work to educate the public on the history of slavery.

The Maryland State Archives is a valuable resource for those researching potential sites, and is recognized as one of the facilities included as part of the network.

“The Network to Freedom requires the fellows to do research, and hopefully come up with (evidence) in order to confirm either a Network to Freedom site, or research facility,” Haley said.

The original structure of Mount Clare Station is now part of the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. Research by Executive Director of the B&O Railroad Museum Anna Kresmer, Jonathan Goldman, the chief curator for the museum and their team uncovered evidence of over 20 freedom seekers who passed through the station on their way to freedom.

Mount Clare Railroad Station - Baltimore

The Mount Clare Railroad Station was the only actual railroad to be inducted into the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom in Maryland during the most recent application season. Its addition calls attention to the important role of railroad stations as a mode of transportation for freedom seekers.

The B&O Railroad connecting Baltimore to Ohio was one of the United States’ first commercial railroads and considered to be the birthplace of the American railroad, according to the B&O Railroad Museum’s website.

At least 20 freedom seekers used the B&O Railroad system to escape slavery, and there were eight known freedom seekers who went through Mount Clare Station on their journey to freedom.

One such freedom seeker to pass through Mt. Clare Station site was well-known figure Henry “Box” Brown, who shipped himself in a box as he moved through the East Coast to Philadelphia. B&O Railroad Museum Executive Director Kris Hoellen describes the journey as grueling and harrowing, and a perfect example of the creative methods freedom seekers used to escape.

The B&O Railroad Museum is planning an immersive exhibit honoring the freedom seekers who travelled on the railroad system, expected to be unveiled in spring 2022. The exhibit will feature the stories of freedom seekers and the impact the railroad had on their escape from the institution of slavery.

“We’re very honored, proud and humbled all at the same time, and excited to give voice to these stories that have not had a voice in the past,” Hoellen said.

Goldman worked with several other researchers for a year to research and produce a 63-page document that led to the recent addition of Mount Clare Railroad Station to the Network of Freedom.

“Our archivist (Anna Kresmer) said it was the equivalent of doing (her) dissertation,” Executive Director of the B&O Railroad Museum Kris Hoellen said. “It was like peeling back the layers of an onion in the sense that they would find more information and it would lead to other pieces of the story,” she said.

Matthew LaRoche, a graduate student assistant for the special collection and university archives at the University of Maryland College Park, was one of four recipients to be awarded a fellowship.

LaRoche contributed to the research and writing process of two sites inducted into the network — the Parker and Massey sites.

Eliza Parker Escape Site at Belle Vue Farm - Harford County

Purchased by Harford County, Belle Vue Farm is the site from which Eliza Parker and her family escaped. They eventually made it to Pennsylvania, where they lived with several other escaped slaves, according to University of Maryland graduate student Matthew LaRoche, who worked on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom application.

LaRoche discovered that the slave owners of the men the Parkers were living with were determined to recapture the runaway slaves. A violent standoff occurred during the apprehending of these men and Parker sounded the alarm for reinforcements.

The exchange ultimately resulted in a trial for treason, however, Parker was not among those accused and tried for the crime. While no one involved was ever convicted of treason, the judicial proceedings put the legitimacy and effectiveness of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 on trial, according to LaRoche.

“(The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom) is the gold standard for Underground Railroad research. So having a site that you can document that will be accepted into this program is a really remarkable thing for the site,” LaRoche said.p>

Across the three sites that LaRoche worked on, he wrote 120 pages over the course of seven months. However, one site didn’t make the cut. For many sites looking to be added to the network, some don’t make it the first go around.

Henry Massey Escape Site at Stoopley Gibson Manor - Kent Island

Stoopley Gibson Manor, on Kent Island, stands along the Chester River. The plantation was owned by the Bright family, who owned several slaves from 1730 to 1868, including Henry Massey.

Massey managed to escape from the plantation in 1849, however, he was apprehended in Pennsylvania and brought back to Stoopley Gibson Manor in September 1854.

Researcher Matthew LaRoche found the first mention of Massey in a 1856 abolitionist manifesto. The document contained all of two sentences about Massey and listed him as a victim of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required fugitive slaves to be returned to their masters upon capture.

For LaRoche, documenting and having access to historical resources is important in helping to preserve and promote sites.

The fourth Maryland site receiving the honor of being inducted into the National Underground Railroad to Freedom this year is the Elkridge Furnace.

The research consisting of several runaway slave advertisements that yielded a 15-page application proving the legitimacy of the site as part of the Underground Railroad was written by Sophie Hess, a doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland.

“(What’s) really important about doing these sort of Underground Railroad projects is really centering and recovering stories of people who risked their own lives to resist slavery in an attempt to gain freedom,” Hess said.

Elkridge Furnace at Patapsco Valley State Park - Howard County

Resting behind what is now the historical Elkridge Furnace Inn & Garden House at Patapsco Valley State Park in Howard County is what remains of Elkridge Furnace. The land holding several industrial sites was owned by Caleb Dorsey in the mid-1700s, including Elkridge Furnace, which produced iron using ore found on the property near the Patapsco River Valley. The lucrative business venture, relying on slave and convict labor, was responsible for turning out goods like nails and horseshoes.

Historical documentation has determined that at least seven known slaves attempted an escape from the backbreaking labor and the blistering heat they were forced to work in to operate Elkridge Furnace, according to Robert Bailey, a historic planner for the Maryland Park Service’s Department of Natural Resources.

Using detailed descriptions of escaped slaves in fugitive slave ads, researchers can piece together some of the facts of a person’s story to recreate who they were and where they came from. One slave who ran away was depicted having scars consistant with tribes in West Africa and it was interpreted by historians that he was taken directly from Africa and sold into slavery.

As for the site’s future, Bailey believes that with its new designation to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom there will be steps taken to make the location, which strays from the beaten path, more accessible for those who wish to visit.

With the addition of four sites to the National Underground Network to Freedom, Maryland has more than 90 sites, programs and facilities recognized by the Network, according to a Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism press release.

“Adding more of these Network to Freedom sites allows visitors to learn more about the Underground Railroad and to hear stories that may not have ever been told before,” said Tom Riford, the assistant secretary for the Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism, Film and the Arts.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Maryland’s lucrative tourism industry took a crippling hit and lost more than 150,000 members of its workforce, Riford told Capital News Service.

Now that the COVID-19 restrictions have relaxed, the state’s tourism industry has begun to recover from the loss, including hiring more employees. But there is still much to be done to restore it, Riford said.

Riford is aiming to reach 100 Underground Network sites in the near future.

“We continue to look for more sites that can be certified as Network to Freedom sites to help showcase Maryland as what it is really known as the most powerful Underground Railroad storytelling destination in the entire world,” Riford said.