Patriot News (Harrisburg) Spotlights IST Project on Pennsylvania Underground Railroad-2/15/05

Patriot News (Harrisburg) Spotlights IST Project on Pennsylvania Underground Railroad-2/15/05

Because of geography, Pennsylvania played a pivotal link in the Underground Railroad, a secret network that helped fugitive slaves escape to freedom in the early 19th century.

Slavery began in the New World in 1626 with the arrival of 11 African slaves in Dutch New Amsterdam (today's New York City). By 1861, 4 million Africans and African Americans were in bondage in the United States.

Pennsylvania's "200-mile-long border with Maryland and easy access to the Potomac and Susquehanna rivers and the tangle of waterways and railways that connected the state to Richmond, Baltimore and the Chesapeake Region, made it an obvious exit-point from the South," according to "Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth" edited by Randall M. Miller and William Pencak.

In 1800, Pennsylvania was home to more than 16,000 African Americans. By 1830 that number had tripled, "making the state a logical place for a fugitive to expect to find a community with which to blend in," they write.

By 1860, Pennsylvania had no slaves, while the number of free blacks was reported as 57,000, William J. Switala writes in his book, "Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania."

The Keystone State also was home to several abolition societies, which not only advanced the anti-slavery cause but also helped fugitive slaves.

In Harrisburg, slaves found a safe haven in the 1850s in an area known as Tanner's Alley, near today's Capitol Park and Walnut and Fourth streets. Fugitive slaves hid in Joseph Bustill's and William Jones' houses and were cared for at Wesley Union A.M.E. Zion Church.

Daniel Kaufman, the founder of Boiling Springs, was only 17 in 1835 when he became an agent on the Underground Railroad. Kaufman hid slaves in his barn, as well as in a dense thicket known as Island Grove, which was near Boiling Springs. Kaufman claimed to have helped at least 60 fleeing slaves from 1835-48.

In York, William C. Goodridge, an ex-slave, became a prominent businessman. He erected the town's first five-story building and used his 13 railcars in support of his work with the Underground Railroad.

"Pennsylvania was a pivotal state in the Underground Railroad movement, but much of that history is recorded in isolated pockets across the commonwealth," said Roderick Lee, a Penn State Harrisburg instructor.

Lee is involved in developing a Web site that will offer coordinated information about the Underground Railroad in the commonwealth.

"One of the goals of this project is to link these disparate groups together so there can be a collective effort to preserve that history and make that history available through an online portal," said Lee, who is a doctoral candidate in Penn State's school of information sciences and technology.

Design of the Web site began in the fall and has involved students in Lee's information systems classes last semester and this semester, faculty and researchers at Penn State Harrisburg and in State College.

The project is funded by the Pennsylvania Federation of Museums and Historical Organizations in Harrisburg and The Center for Anti-Slavery Studies in Montrose, Susquehanna County.

"We are getting from Penn State a technology designed specifically to meet the needs of the Pennsylvania Underground Railroad Network," said Karen James, administrative officer for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's Underground Railroad History project.

"We want to give people the tools to do historical research, and this Web site will be the best way to do that," added James, who will discuss the Underground Railroad at the Cumberland County Historical Society on Feb. 22.

Lee said the first phase of the site, expected to be completed in March, will make historical data available to the public. The second phase will be a work space for researchers and require a user identification and password. The goal is to have phase two operational in June, Lee said.

Among topics to be covered on the Web site will be the history of the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania, a timeline, slavery and abolition issues, calendar of events and documents and records.

Eventually the site could contain an interactive map to locate Underground Railroad routes and buildings using today's geographic configurations, according to the project's primary investigator, Jack Carroll, who is Lee's doctoral adviser and the Edward M. Frymoyer Chair in Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State in State College.

"We'd like to configure a map to directly show events and where they happened," Carroll said.

The Web site address will be announced when it is operational.

The Pennsylvania project dovetails with the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program, the National Park Service initiative aimed at coordinating preservation and education efforts nationwide.

Cornerstone recalls the area's rich history and offers ways to savor it in the present. Write to Mary O. Bradley, Features Department, The Patriot-News, P.O. Box 2265, Harrisburg, PA 17105, or e-mail mbradley@patriot-news.com.


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