Gateway to Freedom
The Hidden History of America's Fugitive Slaves
1st Edition
Published on 26. February 2015
320 pages
978-0-19-105781-6 (ISBN)
Description
When slavery was a routine part of life in America's South, a secret network of activists and escape routes enabled slaves to make their way to freedom in what is now Canada. The 'underground railroad' has become part of folklore, but one part of the story is only now coming to light. In New York, a city whose banks, business and politics were deeply enmeshed in the slave economy, three men played a remarkable part, at huge personal risk.
In Gateway to Freedom, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Eric Foner tells the story of Sydney Howard Gay, an abolitionist newspaper editor; Louis Napoleon, furniture polisher; and Charles B. Ray, a black minister. Between 1830 and 1860, with the secret help of black dockworkers, the network led by these three men helped no fewer than 3,000 fugitives to liberty. The previously unexamined records compiled by Gay offer a portrait of fugitive slaves who passed through New York City - where
they originated, how they escaped, who helped them in both North and South, and how they were forwarded to freedom in Canada.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
02/2015
Oxford University Press
€29.08
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Eric Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, and one of the United States' most prominent historians. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the British Academy, he has held visiting professorships at both Oxford and Cambridge universities, as well as at Queen Mary University of London and Moscow State University. His publications include Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy (1983), the
multi-award-winning Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (1988), and The Story of American Freedom (1998). The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery (2010) was awarded, amongst others, both the Bancroft Prize and the Lincoln Prize, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for History.
Content
- Cover
- Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of America's Fugitive Slaves
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Maps and Illustr Ations
- 1: Introduction: Rethinking the Underground railroad
- I
- II
- III
- 2: Slavery and Freedom in New York
- I
- II
- 3: Origins of the Underground Railroad: The New York Vigilance committee
- I
- II
- 4: A Patchwork system: The underground railroad in the 1840s
- I
- II
- 5: The fugitive slave law and the crisis of the Black Community
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- 6: The Metropolitan Corridor: The underground railroad in the 1850s
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- 7: The Record of Fugitives: An account of runaway slaves in the 1850s
- I
- II
- 8: The End of the Underground Railroad
- I
- II
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Abbreviations Used in Notes
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Slavery and Freedom in New York
- 3. The New York Vigilance Committee
- 4. A Patchwork System
- 5. The Fugitive Slave Law and the Crisis of the Black Community
- 6. The Metropolitan Corridor
- 7. The Record of Fugitives
- 8. The End of the Underground Railroad
- Index
