The Underground Railroad is among the most remarkable escape stories in history, a fundamental lesson for all Americans. We revere figures like Harriet Tubman, who risked her repeatedly to lead the enslaved to freedom. However, a common misconception persists regarding the route used by those seeking escape – that the Underground Railroad was primarily a land-based route. Recent scholarship reveals that for many enslaved individuals, the path to freedom was often by sea rather than by land.
I learned more in a recent call with Dr. Timothy Walker, scholar and professor at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, who is speaking at the Newport Historical Society on February 6. Click here for details. Walker’s 2021 book, Sailing to Freedom, adds to a growing body of research that shows how many enslaved reached the North by sea, rather than by land.
Trained as an early modern Europeanist and maritime historian, Walker focuses on overseas colonization, particularly that of the Portuguese. Upon moving to New Bedford, he discovered that the Whaling City was a key destination on the Underground Railroad.
“I knew a lot about the whaling history of New Bedford, but I didn’t know it was a destination on the Underground Railroad, a terminal point,” he explained. “It had a large population of free Black people living and working there before the Civil War. It makes sense, because the whaling business was in the hands of Quakers, who were abolitionists and encouraged people to work in New Bedford, especially if they had maritime skills. They always needed mariners for the whaling ships and workers on the docks.”
“We had assumed people were arriving in New Bedford by land, because that’s how the Underground Railroad was taught,” said Walker. “I never really thought about the Underground Railroad as a passage by sea until I moved to Boston for graduate school. I also started sailing, and worked on large, traditionally rigged vessels in Mystic, CT. That gave me a unique insight.”
Because escape was illegal and could expose those who aided in the venture, fear of arrest meant that many stories of escape were never recorded. It’s difficult to know the actual number of escapees in the pre-Civil War period, although historians estimate the number to be around 100,000.
“Once we started looking into the fact of enslaved people escaping by sea, it all started to made sense,” Walker continued. “Much of the labor in Southern ports before the Civil War was enslaved labor. They understood how ports worked, how ships worked, how to evade capture, how to hide amongst cargo, and how to make friends with Northern crew members who might help them.”
In his research, Walker discovered additional evidence to support the idea that large numbers of enslaved African Americans escaped by sea.
“You have thousands of runaway slave ads that mention escape by sea that terrestrial historians had ignored,” he said. “You have all kinds of laws and ordinances from port cities in the South trying to inhibit people escaping by sea. You have statements by public officials that show that they were aware that ports were a sieve for people escaping by water. Hardly any of this story finds its way into the salient narrative about the Underground Railroad until relatively recently.”
“Anyone who tried to escape from the far South, almost had to do it by water,” continued Walker. “If you tried to do it by land, you’d get caught and re-enslaved. Of all of the documented successful (land) escapes on the Underground Railroad, almost all of them begin within a few day’s walk to a free state. People were escaping from places like Northern Kentucky, eastern Missouri, and northern Virginia.
Walker credits a team of historians and New Bedford Historical Society President Lee Blake with uncovering much of the history. “She’s the motivating force behind the recovery and celebration of the histories of people of color in New Bedford.” Since 2011, Walker has shared the story with classroom teachers through “Landmarks of American History,” a program for K-12 educators sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Walker’s talk at the Newport Historical Society includes a pre-talk reception. Click here to purchase tickets.
