Local: Slavery's legacy is written all over North Jersey, if you know where to look Ridgedale Avenue, MadisonĪ clearer “line” along the Underground Railroad can be seen 20 miles southwest of Paterson, through the original Rose City. History: If you're watching 'The Underground Railroad' miniseries on Amazon, you need to visit these sitesĬolumn: What I learned writing about North Jersey's hidden slave sites | Julia Martin Huntoon also used the cellar of his home in a pinch, according to city records. Together, they created an operation to ferry runaways who passed through Paterson through a hideout in the basement of the factory, which was demolished in the 1980s. The two formed a network with the Godwin Street African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Josiah Huntoon, who owned the Excelsior Coffee and Spice Factory on Broadway, put his money and his business behind abolitionism in the 1850s with his friend William Van Rensalier. Tubman, possibly the most famous of all the known "conductors" for the emancipation network and credited with guiding some 70 enslaved people to freedom, was the subject of a 2019 feature film that revived interest and awareness in the Underground Railroad.įurther reviving interest is the 10-part miniseries based on Colson Whitehead's novel "The Underground Railroad," which has been released on Amazon.Īnother route north deviated from the path through Newark, Jersey City or Hoboken and into New York City by heading through Paterson. From there, they could travel toward the Great Lakes region and freedom in Canada, which abolished slavery in 1834. There are also signs that some routes went through rural Bergen County. Though records are few, due to the Underground Railroad’s secretive nature, one likely route went through Morris, Passaic and Sussex counties and through New York state, area records show. Moreover, they never adopted a personal liberty law in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. In 1826, state legislators adopted a law requiring the return of fugitive slaves to their owners. Though the state boasts a higher concentration of Underground Railroad communities than most Northern states, the Garden State did not provide safe harbor. View Gallery: New Jersey church, now a pet groomer, once a stop on the Underground Railroad Some were less traveled, but the option of a serpentine route did come in handy for slaves trying to avoid detection among the denser areas of New Jersey. It was one of the hundreds of routes that before the Civil War ferried enslaved people from the South through Northern states to Canada, west to Mexico via Texas or east to the Caribbean. One of the more well-known Underground Railroad routes, known as the Greenwich Line, was popularized by New Jersey native William Still’s 1872 book, “Underground Railroad Record.” It started south of Salem and ran up through Cherry Hill and Burlington on its way to Jersey City. The direct route brought runaways through Delaware and southern Pennsylvania to New York City between known harbor communities and safe houses documented by a New Jersey Historical Commission report at the turn of the 21st century. Outside of Harriet Tubman’s summertime stints working at Cape May hotels, New Jersey’s connection to the Underground Railroad generally sticks to the I-95 corridor. Watch Video: 'The Underground Railroad' stars hope series sparks conversation
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