Pathways to Freedom

Pathways to Freedom. . , A bubbling stream to hide their tracks. A boat upriver toward hope. Chesapeake waterways were vital to the Underground Railroad, a secret network of routes used to escape slavery. The same waters that carried captured Africans into ports for sale became their descendants' pathways to freedom., [Captions:] , This map highlights some major paths freedom seekers took on their journeys north through Maryland. Use the dashed yellow line to follow Tilly's escape from this very spot to Philadelphia. , Map illustration by Melissa Fernandez, 2023., Baltimore was a hub of rail lines, shipping routes and roads that freedom seekers used on their journeys. The waterfront city witnessed many flights to freedom., Railroads were risky but quick ways to flee. Several people made it to freedom by train, including Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Henry "Box" Brown., More than one million enslaved people living in the Chesapeake were sold south between 1790 and 1860. The threat of separation from their families prompted thousands to try to escape., Many freedom seekers passed through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. It was one of the most direct paths for those trying to reach safety in Philadelphia., Hundreds of boats came through Chesapeake ports every day. Some freedom seekers gained safe passage north with forged papers. Others secretly stowed away or found help from abolitionist seafarers.