The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad. The Historic National Road, America's First Federally Funded Highway. , The Underground Railroad was a network of American abolitionists who aided and sheltered 100,000 African Americans seeking freedom from enslavement in the South. These Freedom Seekers often journeyed north by land, and many crossed into the free state of Pennsylvania from the Washington DC. area either through Baltimore or Western Maryland, both corridors well served by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at the time., The B&O Railroad Museum has documented the trips of at least 27 Freedom Seekers using the B&O Railroad to aid their treks. These records show that at least eight passed through the 1851 B&O Mount Clare Railroad Station and the tracks beside it, now directly in front of you. In 2021, the National Park Service designated the site a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Site. The museum offers an in-depth exhibition on this history inside the station., The land the B&O was founded on was originally home to slaves owned by James Carroll. In 1827, the first B&O President Philip Thomas (a Quaker) established policies that banned the use of slave labor by the railroad., More information on our site's Underground Railroad history can be found at www.borail.org/undergroundRR or by scanning the QR code., [Captions:] , Henry "Box" Brown, a freedom seeker who shipped himself in a box from Richmond, VA to Philadelphia, PA, is freed from his packing crate by members of the Vigilance Committee. Brown's journey took him to this historic site in front of you., Political cartoon showing a train called Immediate Emancipation being pulled by a locomotive called the Liberator showing the connection between the railroads and the idea of freedom., Railroad tracks that once carried Freedom Seekers away from slavery pass by the B&O's Mount Clare Station, which stands in front of you.