E. Statement of Historic Contexts
F. Associated Property Types
G. Geographical Data
I. Major Bibliographical References
Endnotes
Theme Study Home
METHODOLOGY FOR NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK EVALUATION
Twelve National Historic Landmarks have been designated under the Underground Railroad theme study as of August 6, 1998. The following section lists these properties and explains how they were selected.
The properties chosen for study as potential National Historic Landmarks began with the identification at the state level of all known properties relating to the Underground Railroad. A list of properties was compiled, starting with those that were already listed in the National Register of Historic Places. This list was augmented by information provided by State Historic Preservation Offices and other interested parties in response to a letter from National Park Service staff asking them to identify Underground Railroad related properties in thirty four states where Underground Railroad activity was conducted.
Information documenting the property's role in the Underground Railroad was collected. More than 100 site visits were made to properties that had a minimum level of documentation. Properties that were determined to have sufficient supporting documentation were considered further. Properties chosen for consideration for National Historic Landmark study were ones that had both high integrity and that were either associated with nationally significant figures connected with the Underground Railroad or that were importantly representative in some national context. The properties thus far designated under this theme study are:
Fort Mose Site, St. Johns County, Florida
Fort Mose is a precursor site of the Underground Railroad, demonstrating
that resistance to slavery was both early and fierce, and that it arose
decades before abolitionism became organized and influential. Established
during the mid-eighteenth century as a Spanish military post, it was the
earliest known legally sanctioned free black community in the present United
States.
Owen Lovejoy House, Princeton, Illinois
Owen Lovejoy, an influential abolitionist politician, lived here from
1838 until his death in 1864. He used this home to harbor fugitive
slaves on their way north and several times he faced prosecution in the
courts for his role in the Underground Railroad. Elected to Congress
in 1856, he gained a national reputation through his congressional and
party leadership and fiery anti-slavery speeches on the floor of the House.
Eleutherian College Classroom and Chapel Building, Lancaster, Indiana
Constructed between 1854 and 1856, this building is the only surviving
building with integrity associated with one of the first colleges west
of the Allegheny Mountains to promote college-level equal educational experiences
prior to the Civil War. Families affiliated with the Neil's Creek
Abolitionist Baptist Church were responsible for the founding and administration
of Eleutherian College and were involved in the clandestine activities
of the Underground Railroad. As a hotbed of abolitionism, Lancaster
was well-known as a stopping point for slaves seeking refuge on their way
to freedom.
John Rankin House, Ripley, Ohio
This was the home of Presbyterian minister John Rankin, who is reputed
to have been one of Ohio's first and most active "conductors" on the Underground
Railroad. In addition, he wrote Letters on American Slavery, first
published in book form in 1826, and among the first clearly articulated
antislavery views printed west of the Appalachians, which became standard
reading for abolitionists all over the United States. From 1822 to
1865, Rankin, along with his wife and children, assisted hundreds of escaped
slaves in their trek to freedom.
John P. Parker House, Ripley, Ohio
A former slave, John Parker's unflagging and oftentimes heroic efforts
to rescue escaped slaves from the "borderlands" along the Ohio River underscores
the major role played by African-Americans not only as slaves and fugitives,
but as rescuers on the Underground Railroad as well. Parker was not
an outspoken abolitionist and appears never to have joined or participated
in the antislavery societies. However, he repeatedly secreted himself
back into slave territory to assist escaped slaves and to lead them to
safety across the Ohio River.
F. Julius Le Moyne House, Washington, Pennsylvania
This house was the residence of Dr. F. Julius LeMoyne from 1827 until
his death in 1879. LeMoyne joined the anti-slavery movement in 1834
at the point when it was becoming popularized and politicized among the
white middle class across the country. In his activism and philosophy
LeMoyne represents the mainstream of anti-slavery activity in the United
States before 1850. His philosophy of legitimate activism distinct
from his willingness to abet fugitive slaves illuminates the variation
of personal conscience at work on all Americans as they struggled with
the issues of political authority, human rights, and personal property
in the debate over slavery.
Rokeby, Ferrisburgh, Vermont
Key to Rokeby's historic significance is its extensive and rare contemporary
documentation. Family letters not only validate Rokeby as a stop,
they add to our knowledge, correcting and sharpening our understanding
of the Underground Railroad and providing insight into how "the legend
outgrew the reality." No other known Underground Railroad site matches
Rokeby for this combination of documentation and completeness and historical
integrity of site and collections.
Johnson House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia was a center of the nineteenth century American
movement to abolish slavery, and the Johnson House is one of the key sites
of that movement. The Johnson House is a representative station on
the Underground Railroad and the Johnsons among the leading abolitionist
families of their generation. Working closely with black and white
abolitionists and assisting fugitive slaves and freedmen on their journeys
to freedom, the Johnson family were typical of the conscience reformers
who participated in the Underground Railroad.
Wilson Bruce Evans House, Oberlin, Ohio
Constructed in 1854-56, this house was the home of Wilson Bruce Evans,
a leading African-American abolitionist and successful member of Oberlin's
commercial and educational communities. Wilson Bruce Evans and his
brother Henry Evans were participants in the well-known 1858 Oberlin-Wellington
Rescue. This rescue of an escaped slave, who had been captured and
was to be taken back to his master in Kentucky, was one of several open
and well-publicized confrontations over the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
and was significant in fueling the sectional differences in the United
States prior to the Civil War.
Austin F. Williams Carriagehouse and House, Farmington, Connecticut
This property achieves its greatest national significance for its direct
connection with the celebrated Amistad affair of 1839-1841. In this
complex legal case that ensued from a slave revolt on the high seas in
1839, the institution of slavery was challenged for the first time in the
United States Supreme Court. In March 1841, those who had participated
in the revolt, were released from prison and were housed in quarters provided
by Austin F. Williams, a known abolitionist, on this site, now part of
the extant carriagehouse.
John Brown Farm and Gravesite, Lake Placid, New York
The John Brown Farm is significant for its association with and as
a commemorative memorial to the famous and controversial abolitionist John
Brown. It was from this farm that Brown set forth to Harpers Ferry
with his plan to end slavery through armed confrontation, and here where
his body was returned for burial following his execution for treason and
murder in 1859. The very early efforts to preserve the site as a
memorial to Brown and his fallen followers speak to the intensity with
which Brown's crusade gripped the American consciousness in the years before
the Civil War. The continued memorial efforts at the site for more
than a century after his death illustrate the heroic status he came to
acquire.
Milton House, Milton, Wisconsin
The Milton House illustrates the westward spread of abolition and its
transformation from a moral to a political issue. The founder of the town
of Milton and proprietor of the Milton House, Joseph Goodrich, was one
of many to leave the "Burned-over District" in western New York to settle
in Wisconsin, taking the reform movement and its ideals westward.
In Wisconsin the issue of abolitionism became strongly politicized, the
"free soil" doctrine becoming a key tenet of the Republican party when
it was founded in the state in 1854. Joseph Goodrich and his activities
at the Milton House illustrate this particular brand of abolitionism that
developed in the Middle West in the 1840s.
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