Underground Railroad Activity in Wilmington, N.C.

Underground Railroad Activity in Wilmington, N.C.. Orange Street Landing on Cape Fear. , In the years before the abolition of slavery, the Underground Railroad was neither “underground” nor was it a “railroad”. The Underground Railroad was comprised of a secret cooperative network of clandestine routes and safe houses that aided runaway slaves in reaching northern free states or Canada. , North Carolina's Largest Port City , Before emancipation, both banks of the Wilmington riverfront were lined with wharves and warehouses where goods were stored until loaded onto outgoing vessels. Shops, offices and residences were located along the adjacent streets. Enslaved African-Americans who lived in the town were hired out in nearly every trade. They also worked along the docks as stevedores and draymen who delivered goods to and from the port. It was here that Wilmington's Underground Railroad activity took place. Maritime in nature, it centered on the Cape Fear River, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean about 30 miles below the town. By 1840 Wilmington was North Carolina's largest city, port and rail center. Vessels entering Wilmington's harbor gave bondsmen access to captains and crews with abolitionist sympathies. , Escape of 22 slaves , One of Wilmington's largest known escapes occurred on September 21, 1862 when 22 slaves commandeered three boats at this site. Under the cover of darkness they eventually made their way past the mouth of the Cape Fear River. After passing by Confederate-occupied Fort Caswell, all 22 men were picked up by Union blockading ships. As freedmen, they enlisted in the Union Navy. , Remarkable Diary , One of the slaves who escaped that rainy Sunday night in 1862 was 24-year-old William Benjamin Gould. Upon his enlistment he began keeping a remarkable diary, the only known Civil War diary of a black sailor who was formerly enslaved. All eight contrabands aboard the same boat with him joined the Union Navy too. , Contraband is defined as a slave who escaped or was brought within Union lines during the Civil War. Included among the seven contrabands that were picked up by the U.5.5. Cambridge was George Price who returned to Wilmington and became a state legislator. Others who escaped were brothers Joseph and Andrew Hall, John Mackey, Charles Giles, John Mitchell and William Chanse. Gould recorded in his diary that the fourteen slaves who escaped in the other two boats were also picked up by Union Navy vessels. Diary of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor, was published in 2002 by Gould's great-grandson, Stanford University Law Professor William Benjamin Gold IV. , [Captions] , . Top right:William Benjamin Gould diary of service from October 13, 1863 to September 5, 1864. , . Left: A scene on a tributary of the Cape Fear River with market boats on their way to Wilmington. , . Bottom right: View of Wilmington, North Carolina, 1853