Central Maryland-Upper Chesapeake Underground Railroad Driving Tour

The Shriver brothers established this homestead and mill complex in 1797 in the waning days of George Washington's Administration. The Shrivers were not, however, the only family to reside at Union Mills. Enslaved people were held here from its founding through the new Maryland Constitution of 1864. Their stories are still being collected.

Minta, a twenty-six year old house servant and her three children - Jesse, Cassa, and David- were purchased in 1802 from the former Maryland governor Thomas Johnson. Her free husband lived nearby. Their son, David, fled from the Homestead a few years later after an argument with the young William Shriver.

More than 160 years and six generations of the Shriver family later, the Homestead was converted into the museum that still stands today. The site interprets the history of enslaved people held through 1864, including an original 1809 runaway advertisement calling for the capture of Peter who escaped from a nearby home. Tours of the main house, blacksmith shop, and grist mill are available.

3311 Littlestown Pike
Westminster, MD 21158
410-848-2288

This 0.5-mile walking tour through the Ellicott City Historic District, the charming 19th-century flour milling town, reveals stories of freedom seekers from Ellicott Mills and the surrounding area. Places on the tour include routes to freedom as well as sites that were part of failed escape attempts and obstructions to liberation.

Elkridge Furnace was one of the largest iron furnaces in colonial Maryland. Elkridge Furnace’s original owner, Caleb Dorsey and his heirs used enslaved, indentured and convict labor here from 1755 until 1822.

At least five people attempted to escape from this site in the 1700s, most likely via the Patapsco River. The furnace was located on the river’s banks, making escape by boat a viable method of flight, because the Patapsco led to the Baltimore Harbor downriver.

In 1759, a thirty-year-old freedom seeker named Tom escaped from here. Tom spoke both English and French and, according to the “runaway advertisement,”  “was accustomed to go by water and probably may attempt to escape that way.”

Eighteen years later in 1777, a 40-year-old man named Oble fled from the furnace. Oble had previously worked in the shipyards in Fells Point, alongside free individuals and enslaved people. They may have helped Oble escape after he was reassigned to work at the furnace.

Eighteen-year-old Will fled from the Elkridge Furnace in May 1782. The reward notice for his capture noted his probable water escape, “It is supposed he is now in or about Baltimore-Town… All matter of vessels are forewarned carrying said Fellow off.”

Twenty-two year old Toby fled two months later, was caught, and then escaped again in July 1783.  The “runaway notice” explains that Caleb Dorsey, furnace owner, expected Toby to try to reach a spot near the Lower Ferry of Susquehanna, possibly seeking family at a place where he was formerly enslaved.

Another freedom seeker - twenty-eight year old Daniel - fled in July of 1784.

Both Will and Toby, still desperate to be free, attempted to escape together in December 1784, despite the iron collars their enslaver had locked around their necks. Such devices were used as a form of punishment and a deterrent to running away. The weight and size of the collar made it harder to move and run, and easier to be spotted.

The Elkridge Furnace Inn, adjacent to the furnace ruins, was built in 1744 by James McCubbin and operated as a tavern. The tavern was later owned by the Ellicotts. Eventually the tavern and furnace ruins were purchased by the State of Maryland.

Today, the Elkridge Furnace Inn is located within Patapsco Valley State Park and has been restored as a restaurant and event space serving locally sourced and grown ingredients.

5745 Furnace Ave.
Elkridge, MD 21075
410-379-9336

Founded in the early 1800s on the Little Patuxent River, Savage Mill utilized water power to run machines that spun cotton, brought by train from the Deep South. The mill produced “cotton duck,” a canvas fabric used for Conestoga wagon covers, military tents, and ships’ sails. The company-owned town of Savage grew up around the mill, employing people who labored long hours to clean the cotton, spin it into thread, and weave it into cloth on large looms.

On April 24, 1840, Jane Taylor, a young enslaved woman in her early 20s, ran away from Thomas Lansdale, the manager of Savage Mill who had leased her from her enslaver, Richard Brashears. He surmised that Jane was heading to Baltimore to reunite with and possibly marry Henry Botler. Jane had been seen boarding a train in Beltsville that was destined for Baltimore.

Jane had met and fell in love with Botler, a free Black brick worker, when he had lived and worked at Savage Mill prior to moving to Baltimore. The success of Jane’s flight remains a mystery.

Savage Mill is now a National Historic Landmark and a unique shopping destination. A beautifully-restored complex of buildings is home to a variety of small businesses owned by a creative array of entrepreneurs. The surrounding community maintains its small-town charm and natural beauty along the banks of the Little Patuxent River. Miles of hiking trails weave through woodlands along the river and around the town, providing a peaceful oasis. Explore the shops, trails, and town, and learn about its rich history.

8600 Foundry Street
Savage, MD 20763
410-792-2820

The Reddy Gray Burial Site is the final resting place for a man who escaped slavery and later enlisted with the United States Colored Troops (USCT) in Baltimore during the Civil War.

Reddy Gray was born enslaved to Thomas Cradock Risteau in Baltimore County in 1842. Gray escaped in 1863 after spending his early years as a field hand and carriage driver. Gray was captured. One year later, however, in 1864, he enlisted with the 39th-United States Colored Troops (USCT) Infantry in Baltimore.

Surviving the war, Gray enjoyed a successful life as a free man in and around Baltimore. He worked, married and raised a family. Gray was buried in Loudon Park National Cemetery, a cemetery for veterans, in 1922.

Established in 1861, this is one of the first national cemeteries in the country for veterans of American wars. More than 1,100 United States Colored Troops from the Civil War are buried here, including 238 USCT reinterred from Baltimore’s Laurel Cemetery in 1884. A Sons of Maryland Monument memorializes those who fought for the Union, such as Reddy Gray, during the Civil War.

Loudon Park National Cemetery
3445 Frederick Ave
Baltimore, MD 21229
410-644-9696

This Georgian estate, built in 1760 on a hill overlooking the Patapsco River and the City of Baltimore by lawyer Charles Carroll, Barrister, was once the hub of an 800-acre agricultural plantation and one of the largest industrial complexes in America - the Baltimore Iron Works. Over 200 enslaved African Americans labored for Carroll at the Baltimore Iron Works and at the Mount Clare plantation. They worked as miners, colliers, woodchoppers, farm hands, cooks, masons, hammermen, filers, carpenters, basket makers, blacksmiths and as a sailor.

In the late 1700s, at least four documented freedom seekers escaped from these sites. Planning and group efforts were involved. Several reward postings reveal the escapes of multiple people who took horses, food and supplies with them. These freedom seekers include Caesar, a 25-year old man who fled with four white servants in 1754, Eddenborough, a 50-year old cooper in 1777, Jack Lynch a 35-year old man in 1780, and Ben, a 19-year old man who fled with two convict servants.

For the Carroll's enslaved workforce, an escape route via Baltimore was literally at their back door, only 5 miles away, where their options included traveling to a free state via ship, rail starting in the 1830s or on foot. Other freedom seekers stayed hidden within Baltimore, where they could find employment in the city’s businesses or industries and shelter with Baltimore's large free African-American community.

Today, Mount Clare is a National Historic Landmark and museum house offering tours that explore the lives of all people who lived and worked at Mount Clare, including three generations of the Carroll family, their unpaid laborers, including enslaved people, indentured servants and transported convict laborers from Britain. The mansion is surrounded by the 30-acre Carroll Park.

1500 Washington Blvd.
Baltimore, MD 21230
410-837-3262

Freedom seekers like Henry “Box” Brown and William and Ellen Craft traveled by B & O Railroad passenger coach or freight train from Washington, D.C. to Mount Clare Station, the current site of the B & O Railroad Museum, on their journey north to freedom. Four other parties were documented to have used the B & O Railroad to seek freedom, including Solomon Northrup. Some freedom seekers, like Kit Nickless, Isaac Williams and Henry Banks, followed the railroad tracks, rather than riding the trains, as a pathway to freedom.

For many freedom seekers, the use of words like railroad, conductor, and station were code words to describe the network of allies, rest stops, and modes of travel used on the Underground Railroad. However, the railroad, a new technology, changed the way both free and enslaved Americans sought movement and freedom in a very real way.

Mount Clare, a 40-acre historic landmark in Baltimore, is where America's first commercial railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio
(B & O) Railroad, was founded in 1827. The Mount Clare site was the headquarters as well as the freight and passenger terminus for all trains from points south and west.

In addition to the courageous actions of freedom seekers, the actions “or deliberate inactions“ made in the corporate offices of the B & O also shaped the success of freedom seekers’ taking the B & O Railroad.

An interactive and immersive exhibit portrays the journeys of nine freedom seekers who traveled through this railroad station while heading north to freedom.

901 W Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21223
410-752-2490

Baltimore City and its waterfront echo incredible stories from the past - the stories of survival, courage and the yearning of thousands of African Americans to be free. Follow this 3-mile walking tour to discover the vibrant communities, people, and events that wove and built a new nation while striving for freedom for all Americans.

The 1855 Italianate stone structure served as the county jail and warden’s residence. Captured freedom seekers, suspected Underground Railroad agents and free Blacks detained on suspicion of assisting others flee were routinely detained within its walls.

Freedom seeker Henry Williams was caught and imprisoned in 1858. Sheriff Richard W. Hook placed a notice in regional newspapers, calling for “owners” to come forward, identify the prisoner and pay jailors fees, or the alleged runaway would be “discharged according to law,” which often meant resale into bondage.

Eliza Myers Foote, a free Black woman, was detained here until she told the Baltimore County sheriff the possible whereabouts of a freedom seeker. When the man was found, Foote was ordered to leave Baltimore County or be sold into slavery.

Those awaiting trial were housed in the jail. Isaac Burley, a Black man, was detained here. Burley was convicted of enticing 6 freedom seekers to escape from two Baltimore County enslavers in 1856. The party was captured in the woods near the Pennsylvania line. Since Burley had been previously convicted of a crime, he was sold into slavery out of state, which was a common fate at that time for African Americans who had been convicted of more than one crime.

In 1862, Mary Ann Coates, a Black woman, was also tried in circuit court for “enticing a slave to run away.” She was sentenced to 6 years in the state penitentiary before winning a pardon.

Slaveholders placed ads attempting to recover their “property” in this jail. Robert Wilson placed an ad to recover Robert Gross, his enslaved house servant. Wilson suspected Gross was heading to Baltimore City where his family resided. Gross offered a $75 reward if lodged in a city jail, and an additional $25 if “secured in the Baltimore county jail,” a more convenient location to retrieve him.

In a strange twist, the sheriff of Cecil County, John Poole, was imprisoned here in August of 1857 for four months under the charge that he had tried to sell a free Black man to Richmond slave traders. As there was no other law enforcement in Cecil County who could arrest and jail him, he was briefly incarcerated here in “Towsontown” jail until a new sheriff in Elkton could be sworn in. Then he was returned to his county.

In 2011, the building was converted for use as office and retail space, but retains a few original features including the prison cell spaces and an iron jail door.

222 Courthouse Court
Towson, MD 21204
410-367-5277

Nearly 100 people enslaved by the Ridgely family escaped from this expansive 1790 Georgian mansion and plantation. Restored slave quarters on site include exhibits describing the lives of those enslaved and their flights to freedom.

The site was previously the center of a vast commercial, industrial and agricultural estate powered by indentured and enslaved labor. Structures, landscapes, collections, and archives preserved by the Ridgely family for over ten generations reveal the daily activities of the Ridgely family, their laborers and the enslaved men, women and children who lived and worked here.

“Runaway slave” advertisements, court records, correspondence, and family histories demonstrate that people enslaved at Hampton tried, and in some cases succeeded, in following the Underground Railroad to freedom.

A 25-year-old man named Dick fled in 1765 from the Ridgely’s Northampton Iron Works - the first documented flight. Eight people enslaved at Hampton fled and were recaptured in 1863 - the last flight to freedom before slavery was abolished in Maryland. At least eighty-eight other enslaved people struck out for freedom in the intervening years. Most of those who fled worked as furnace or forge hands. Some followed old York Road, took a ferry across the Susquehanna River and settled and worked in Pennsylvania.

Ranger-led programs, such as Families, Farming and Freedom provide guided tours of the grounds and slave quarters, and insights into the operations of the farm and the lives of those who worked there.

535 Hampton Lane
Towson, MD  21286
410-823-1309

This 20-mile rail trail follows the path of the former Northern Central Railway, which operated from Baltimore to the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area beginning in 1840. Freedom seekers fled on this line.

In one instance, two enslaved men fled enslavement and were arrested with their white accomplice when they attempted to board a train on the Northern Central Railway in 1858. Their abettor vouched for them being free but to no avail.

According to an interview with her son, Eliza Myers Foote, a free Black woman from Cockeysville, a midwife, herbalist, and natural healer, treated many enslaved and free Black people throughout Baltimore County. One enslaved man she tended ran away from his enslaver after visiting her.  Foote was taken to the Towson Jail, confined and questioned by the Baltimore County sheriff and others who demanded she tell them where the man was.

Eliza knew of several possible ways he could have escaped: by following York Road north or south, by following the Northern Central Railway or by traveling up Deer Creek. She told the sheriff to search Deer Creek. The man  was found eight miles up Deer Creek in a swamp with several other men who had also escaped enslavement.

Eliza Myers Foote was suspected of helping freedom seekers and was ordered to leave Baltimore County or be sold into slavery. She temporarily moved to York, Pennsylvania.

Today, people can immerse themselves in nature while riding bicycles, jogging or walking on this wooded trail, which is now part of Gunpowder Falls State Park.

1820 Monkton Road
Monkton, MD 21111
410-592-2897

Sam Archer, who was enslaved by Thomas Hays, escaped slavery from here in 1860. Sam later described his experience with the Hays family to William Still, the famous Underground Railroad agent in Philadelphia. William Still documented Sam’s escape in his book The Underground Railroad.

Archer Hays was the original owner of Prospect Hill Farm, currently the site of Harford Community College. He built the main family dwelling, now called the Hays-Heighe House in 1808. The farm was passed to Archer and Hanna Hays’ eldest son, Thomas, a wealthy lawyer, business owner and one of the largest slaveholders in Harford County. Two years prior to Thomas’s death, he drafted a will that divided his “assets” including enslaved people such as Sam among his children and brother. Prospect Hill and Sam were willed to Thomas’s daughter Elizabeth Jacobs.

Sam fled before Elizabeth inherited him in 1861. When he reached freedom in Philadelphia, he told William Still that his deceased enslaver, Thomas Hays “had used him ‘rough,’ and he was tired of ‘rough treatment.’” Sam hoped to reach Canada where he would be safe from capture and re-enslavement, though it is unknown if he made it there.

The Hays-Heighe House is situated less than twenty miles from the Pennsylvania border, where free Black communities thrived in Columbia, Christiana, Hinsonville, Oxford and York. The house was also just under thirteen miles from the mouth of the Susquehanna River in Havre de Grace, which was often used as an escape route into Pennsylvania.

Tours, exhibits and programs are offered by Harford Community College.

401 Thomas Run Road
Bel Air, MD 21015
443-412-2539

The Other Voices of Freedom exhibit demonstrates the roles the Upper Chesapeake Bay and Lower Susquehanna River played in the success and failure of journeys on the Underground Railroad. Discover the stories of 23 individuals’ flights to freedom, which are detailed and illustrated through first hand narratives and three-dimensional artwork by contemporary African-American artists.

The Chesapeake Bay Watershed was a superhighway for Maryland’s maritime commerce during the 19th century. Enslaved and free African-Americans were integral to the maritime economy and many were exploited. The waterways provided barriers to escape as well as avenues for freedom.

Through the museum exhibits, meet local abolitionist heroes who contributed to freedom’s cause. Learn about Frederick Douglass’ daring escape through Havre de Grace; William Still’s correspondence with William Whipper, a free Black stationmaster in Pennsylvania; boatmen who carried freedom seekers to safety, and 12 freedom seekers who overcame difficult circumstances.

Several daring escapes by boat and rail are featured in exhibits and bring into focus the importance of the landscape to freedom seekers’ success. The barriers they faced, however, reveal the dangers–the bounty hunters, bloodhounds, kidnappers, and physical bondage that self liberators faced.  

100 Lafayette St.
Havre de Grace, MD 21078
410-939-4800

The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Steam Ferry Landing site at the mouth of the Susquehanna River was used for numerous Underground Railroad escapes, one kidnapping and a rescue of a free Pennsylvania citizen.

The Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad opened a direct 93- mile route between Baltimore and Philadelphia in January of 1838. There was no bridge connecting the two sides of the Susquehanna River. At the river’s edge in Havre de Grace, trains stopped and train cars were detached from the engine. Passengers and railroad cars crossed the river on the railroad ferry. In Perryville, the train cars were attached to another engine, and passengers resumed their journeys on the rails heading north and east into Delaware and Pennsylvania.  

Frederick Douglass escaped enslavement by fleeing on this railroad in 1838, as did William and Ellen Craft in 1848. Henry “Box” Brown was freighted across on the ferry in 1849. Charlotte Giles and Harriet Eglin escaped from Baltimore and passed through Havre de Grace on this railroad in 1856.

Some freedom seekers who traveled along the rail lines on foot encountered boatmen who willingly rowed or sailed them across the river. One agent in Havre de Grace kindled a fire at night to signal that he had passengers waiting. An agent on the east bank, or Perryville side crossed over to pick them up.

Rachel Parker, a free Black from Pennsylvania, was kidnapped on the last day of 1851 by Thomas McCreary, who Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists referred to as “the notorious kidnapper from Elkton.” Part of the drama of her abduction, her rescue, and her pleas for freedom unfolded at the railroad site in Perryville. In 1853, Aaron Digges, fleeing from a Baltimore butcher who enslaved him, entered the train at the Susquehanna crossing, but he fell into the hands of Constable Thomas McCreary in Elkton.

The site of the Perryville Railroad Ferry and Station is now the property of the Perry Point VA Medical Center. Nearby is the Perryville Community Park with sweeping views of the Susquehanna River and Susquehanna Flats. The park offers walking trails, a kayak launch, picnic facilities, ball fields and a playground. Walk out onto Lower Ferry Pier. Here you can imagine freedom seekers perilously crossing the wide Susquehanna.

Perry Point VA Medical Center
Perry Point, MD 21902

Perryville Community Park
100 Marion Tapp Parkway
Perryville, MD 21903
410-642-6066

Eleven freedom seekers (three men, three women and five children) fled from the Chew/Paca Plantation known as the Turkey Point Farm in 1861. Local papers reported freedom seekers stole a boat and sailed north to the Susquehanna Canal into Pennsylvania. Later, in February of 1864, five enslaved men from the Turkey Point Farm joined the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) to serve in the Civil War. At least one of them, James Harris, survived the war.

The light station at the end of the Turkey Point peninsula was built in 1833 to facilitate safe navigation for ships sailing on the Chesapeake Bay and guide them into the Elk River and to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. The lighthouse became an unintended guide post for freedom seekers navigating northward to freedom. All freedom seekers had to pass by the Turkey Point Light Station to enter the Elk River when navigating north to the wharf at Frenchtown, MD, the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, or to stops on the Underground Railroad along the Elk River and its tributaries.

James Lindsay Smith and  Jim Taylor are two examples of freedom seekers who used the Turkey Point Lighthouse as a guidepost to freedom. Underground Railroad conductor and boat captain Daniel Drayton helped a woman and her five children sail from Washington, D.C. past the light station to Frenchtown to meet their free husband/father.

The Turkey Point lighthouse and portions of the Chew/Paca Plantation are now included in Elk Neck State Park. Walk a short trail on the 100-foot high Turkey Point peninsula to see the farm, lighthouse and the inspiring, expansive views of the Chesapeake Bay. Imagine those who sought freedom centuries ago sailing past this light station by night  .

Elk Neck State Park offers occasional guided night hikes to the Lighthouse where participants experience night-time and celestial navigation, like freedom seekers did.

Elk Neck State Park
4395 Turkey Point Road
North East, MD 21901
410-287-5333

This canal, built in 1829, provided a route for freedom seekers aboard steamboats, schooners and other watercraft. Boats entered at Elk River in Cecil County, Maryland and exited at Delaware City, Delaware. This route eliminated approximately 300 nautical miles between Baltimore and Philadelphia, allowing for faster travel. Traveling the Chesapeake Bay to Delaware River route to Philadelphia was also safer for smaller watercraft than taking a voyage into the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay.

Underground Railroad agents William Still and Sydney Howard Gay recorded escapes on steamboats and schooners passing through the canal. Local newspapers reported unsuccessful canal-related escapes, and complained about suspicious Philadelphia oyster boats assisting freedom seekers. When some freedom seekers fled from the lower Eastern Shore, a newspaper commented that the close watch kept on the canal would make it difficult for them to pass this way.

Today, the canal is busy with barges delivering goods between the cities and recreational boats serving the desires of their passengers. Walk or bike a waterside paved trail along the 30-plus miles to Delaware City in Delaware. The trail is ideal for a stroll, with a few stops along the way for food, libations and fun.

The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Museum, run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, displays the history of the canal, and the building and operations of the canal, a documented Underground Railroad pathway to freedom.

815 Bethel Road
Chesapeake City, MD 21915
410 778-9700

This tidewater tobacco plantation originated in 1651. James Louttit and his wife Mary purchased Mount Harmon in 1760. They and their descendants lived in Mount Harmon until 1810. James owned a schooner named the Bee, which made 12 transatlantic slave voyages between 1767-1775. Mount Harmon’s last slaveholder was Sydney George Fisher, Sr. His published diary dated from 1837 - 1850 provides narratives of the lives of African Americans on the plantation.

Ships full of tobacco, products of enslaved labor, sailed from the Mount Harmon wharf, down the Sassafras River into the Chesapeake Bay and across the Atlantic Ocean to England.

At least 135 enslaved people lived at Mount Harmon in addition to indentured servants and tenant farmers between 1651 and 1864, when slavery was outlawed in Maryland. A replica slave quarters and tobacco barn bring their history to life. The lives of Mount Harmon plantation’s enslaved and indentured servants are being interpreted through the “Altered Journeys” project. Their stories include the daring escape of twenty-one year old John Brown in 1739.

Today, visitors can tour the restored 18th-century manor house, colonial kitchen, smoke house, boxwood garden, carriage house, prize house, replica slave quarters and tobacco barn. They can also relax and explore the 200-acre nature preserve on trails in a spectacular waterfront setting.

600 Mount Harmon Road
Earleville, MD 21919
410-275-8819