First published in 1898, this comprehensive history was the first
documented survey of a system that helped fugitive slaves escape from
areas in the antebellum South to regions as far north as Canada.
Comprising fifty years of research, the text includes interviews and
excerpts from diaries, letters, biographies, memoirs, speeches, and a
large number of other firsthand accounts. Together, they shed much light
on the origins of a system that provided aid to runaway slaves,
including the degree of formal organization within the movement, methods
of procedure, geographical range, leadership roles, the effectiveness of
Canadian settlements, and the attitudes of courts and communities toward
former slaves.
In his introduction to Professor Siebert's book, historian Albert
Bushnell Hart lauds the author for having rescued and put on record
events which in a few years will have ceased to be in the memory of
living men. [Siebert] has done for the history of slavery what the
students of ballad and folk-lore have done for literature; he has
collected perishing materials.
Invaluable for its unbiased, literate treatment, this carefully
researched study will be an excellent resource for instructors and
students of African-American history, and engrossing literature for
readers interested in the plight of fugitive slaves in the pre-Civil War
era.