Dear Colleagues--For those who would like to pursue research on the UGRR, the
last issue of AFRO-AMERICANS IN NEW YORK LIFE AND HISTORY Vol. 25:No. 1 (January
2001), will be very useful. It contains an article by Milton Sernett on
researching the UGRR in NYS, with an excellent bibliography, as well as an
article by me, using newspapers for Oswego County to reconsider Lara Gara's
work. There are also several websites:
    1. Oswego County--www.oswego.edu/Acad_Dept/a_and_s/history/ugrr
    2. Western New York--http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/archives/urr/
    3. http://www.freedomtrail.org/
    4. http://www.cr.nps.gov/ugrr/network.htm
Lots more, but these will get anyone started.
    A team consisting of Milton Sernett and Douglas Armstrong from Syracuse
University, Helen Breitbeck from the Heritage Foundation of Oswego, and I have
just prepared a context statement for a Multiple Property Nomination for
Historic Resources Relating to the Freedom Trail, Abolitionism, and African
American American Life in Central New York, 1820-1870. A draft of this statement
will be on the Oswego website shortly, and we invite comments from all
interested parties. If this is accepted at the state and federal levels, anyone
in a 22-county area can then submit site nominations to the National Register of
Historic Places without having to justify why these movements are important.
    I think as we begin to do careful research--very careful research!--at the
local level, we will begin to realize that this movement was not so much one of
resident white males helping freedom-seeking African American males as it was
one of blacks and whites, men and women, of different regions, lifestyles, and
occupations, and colors, sharing similar goals but playing a variety of roles.
Fugitives are at the center of the freedom trail, their individual stories are
far more complex than most of us have ever imagined them to be.
    We need people everywhere--historians, genealogists, students, ordinary
citizens--who are willing and able to do the hard work of documentation so that
we begin to define this movement in terms that are far closer to what may
actually have happened than what we know now. Any volunteers!
    Yours in the struggle, Judy Wellman

"R. Scott Hanson" wrote:

> The Queens Historical Society in Flushing recently published a book
> called _Angels of Deliverance_ and their research team has just
> received additional funding for another larger book on the
> Underground Railroad. For info call: (718) 939-0647.
>
> R. Scott Hanson
> Ph.D. Candidate
> Committee on the History of Culture
> The University of Chicago
>
> >  >    Does anyone know of a definitive map of the  Underground Railroad
> >>stations in New York State?  I need to be able to  obtain rights or
> >>permission to use it for a book on NY women which will include  Harriet
> >>Tubman. Thanks so much, Antonia Petrash
> >
> >         I do not know how anyone else will respond to this posting, and
> >what I have to say reflects not at all on the project: I am delighted to
> >know that Harriet Tubman is being written about and that there is a
> >forthcoming book on New York women.  That is all to the good.
> >
> >         The request for a "definitive map of the Underground Railroad
> >stations," however, is a bit worrisome.  There are certainly spots where
> >fugitives from slavery were housed and some of those are well documented.
> >I could point to the very careful program underway in Oswego County or Milt
> >Sernett's fine forthcoming book (Syracuse University Press) that will give
> >a good deal of information about such things. And certainly, John Jones'
> >work in Elmira is exceedingly significant.
> >
> >         But a "definitive map" of such places is something of a
> >contradiction in terms.  The activity was illegal and conducted in a
> >clandestine manner for the protection of the fugitives and of those who
> >helped them.  It was not as if an escaping slave from Virginia was given a
> >triple A road map at New York's border.  There was no map, nor should we --
> >to my way of thinking -- endorse any particular route and way as definitive
> >because of the very nature of the activity.  If we "sanction" a particular
> >way, we imply that that was the route to be taken when in truth, those who
> >came into New York (and probably those who went elsewhere) were sent the
> >way that was best at that moment, or sent where someone had a contact who
> >could be trusted, or made his or her way as best he could.  It was
> >patchwork, it was often made up on the spot, and for the most part getting
> >near Lake Ontario or to Buffalo was the major goal.
> >
> >         Fugitives were certainly helped throughout New York.  Of that we
> >can be proud.  But there were here plenty of other people who would have
> >been indifferent to their cause, and some who would have gladly turned them
> >back and collected the reward.  Just look at the Jerry case in Syracuse to
> >see all the various sides at work.
> >
> >         So I do wish this project well, in fact, I look forward to it.  But
> >let's not certify a map or route or way without recognizing the complexity
> >of the situation and the risks for all concerned.
> >
> >                 Carol Kammen