GDG- Underground Railroad Locations

[128thpa at comcast.net]

Andy:  I can't answer your specifics about Gettysburg, but The UGRR was a very loose, informal network of routes that allowed escape slaves to follow to freedom.  There isn't a lot of documentation for a very specific reason - their actions were illegal.  There were "station masters", folks who had safe houses where "conductors", those who led the slaves to freedom, could take runaways.  The most famous conductor was Harriet Tubman.  The safe houses or "stops" on the UGRR were often designed with fake rooms or tunnels that allowed slaves to hide or escape through.  This system was aided by whites such as Thomas Garrett and Lucretia Mott and free blacks such as William Still.  Still, who at great risk to himself, kept detailed records of escape slaves.  He lived in Philadelphia and Garrett, from De, sent many "packages" as he called the escape slaves, to Still.  Still recorded where these folks moved on to, in hopes of reuniting family members.  In fact, he discovered his own brothe
r this way.  His book has recently been republished, it is simply entitled "The Underground Railroad".  

While there were certain routes in terms of you should travel in this direction, obviously a specific path or route could not be obvious because slave catchers were always on the move and on the look out for runaways.  

Paula

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: The Mills <chbmills at embarqmail.com> 

> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes: 
> 
> 
> Hello All: 
> 
> I was curious, how many underground railroad locations were there in Gettysburg 
> and how many still remain? I heard that the one at the Dobbin House is 
> questionable at best. Can anyone provide a list of locations that were 
> locations on the historical railroad, ones that still exists today, and ones 
> that are are questionable as possible locations? I hope this isn't asking for 
> too much. 
> 
> Thanks 
> Andy 
>