Columbia Underground Railroad Heritage

Columbia Underground Railroad Heritage. . A network of brave humanitarians aided thousands of freedom seekers at this river crossing. Among them was Robert Loney, born enslaved in Virginia circa 1815. Many members of his family are buried here. , "Abraham Johnson, a young slave, hearing that he was to be sold the next day, told his mother. Early in the night they, with his sister and child, fled to that well-known colored man on the Susquehanna River, Robert Loney, who ferried fugitives across the river and gave them into the care of William Wright. who distributed them to other agents.", This shallow, rocky section of the Susquehanna River, just upstream from Columbia and Wrightsville, PA, has long been an important crossing point. A ferry began operation here in the 1730s. This illustration nearly a century later shows the Pennsylvania Canal, which opened in 1830, hugging the eastern shore. In the distance is the second great bridge linking these river towns - the world's longest wooden covered span in 1834. That same year heralded the start of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. These connections greatly influenced the paths of explorers, armies, westbound settlers, and African Americans seeking freedom from slavery. Anti-slavery activities here can be traced to the late 1700s. Around 1815-1820, hundreds of enslaved workers were freed at Columbia by plantation owners. Courageous blacks and whites helped runaway slaves elude ever-present bounty hunters. Such efforts along the Lower Susquehanna were among the earliest stirrings of a movement that by the late 1830s had become known as the "underground railroad"-a secret network to freedom.