Maryland’s Upper Potomac Underground Railroad Site Collection

An enslaved young man named Patrick Smith escaped bondage from his enslaver, John M’Henry (McHenry) on February 5, 1819. McHenry lived on a large family farm estate called “Buffalo Marsh,” now in the town of McHenry in Garrett County at Deep Creek Lake. Smith was about 18 or 19 years old and a “term slave” when he fled and would be freed at the age of 31.

McHenry complained that Smith had been “discontented” since he had been allowed to see his father the year before. Smith’s father, a free man and a minister, lived in Frederick, Maryland. Smith likely missed his family members and friends and definitely yearned for his freedom.

John McHenry surmised that Smith had gone to Bedford as he had some Black acquaintances there. Bedford, Pennsylvania was about 30 miles north from Buffalo Marsh, across the border into the free state. Bedford had a significant free Black community and is a known Underground Railroad stop.

Today, the McHenry farm at Buffalo Marsh is divided into smaller properties that accommodate rental homes, businesses, an inn and a resort. Portions of the Big Boiling Spring and Buffalo Marsh where Patrick Smith labored were flooded by the construction of Deep Creek Lake, but the heart of the farm where the McHenry family lived remains as the property on which the Lake Pointe Inn now stands. The current inn building did not house the McHenry family, however. A portion of the property on which John McHenry lived was sold in 1868 to Jonas Glotfelty who built the inn circa 1890.

Today guests enjoy the inn with its cozy and rustic great room, outdoor fire pit, relaxing guest rooms and a wrap-around porch with lake views and waterfront access where they can ponder Patrick Smith’s escape.

Lake Pointe Inn
174 Lake Point Drive
McHenry, MD  21541 
301-900-4876

Freedom seekers used the busy National Road through western Maryland to escape bondage. The National Road, the first federally funded highway, connected Cumberland, Maryland with Wheeling, Virginia and the Ohio River Valley by 1818, and later reached Vandalia, Illinois. The road served as an important trade route, delivering freight and passengers. Wagons, carts, and stagecoaches trundled along the road and over the beautiful stone-arched Casselman River Bridge on their journeys to and from the Midwest.

Free and enslaved African-American men worked as teamsters, drivers and coachmen, providing an opportunity for some freedom seekers to hide among goods piled in wagons, or sneak away under the cover of darkness with a stolen or borrowed coach. During the middle of the night, others could dare to walk the route to reach freedom in Pennsylvania or Ohio.

One example is a 35-year-old man named Jim who escaped from S. Hamilton, his enslaver, on November 12, 1837, while living along the National Road, 19 miles east of Cumberland. He was seen a few days after his escape near Cumberland. Hamilton surmised that Jim had forged freedom papers to allow him to move about and suspected he may be in Pittsburgh or off in some of the Western States. Jim would have used the National Road to travel from Cumberland to Uniontown, Pennsylvania on his way to Pittsburgh.

The National Road was used by the famous freedom seeker Josiah Henson several times. Henson was the real-life inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe’s classic novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. He guided fellow enslaved people from Rockville, Maryland to Kentucky in 1825 utilizing the National Road via wagon from Cumberland to Wheeling, Virginia. He returned via the National Road to purchase his own freedom in 1829 but was tricked by his enslaver and denied his freedom. He subsequently escaped to Canada in 1830 with his wife and children.

Casselman River Bridge, built in 1813, is a rare historic remnant from the early days of the National Road. Today it graces the landscape at the Casselman River Bridge State Park, where visitors can picnic, fish, enjoy the scenery, see the bridge, and once repaired, cross the bridge just as travelers and freedom seekers did centuries ago. The Spruce Forest Artisan Village, Penn Alps Restaurant and Mountain Grape Tavern are located on the east end of the bridge.

See also site #30, Josiah Henson Museum and Park and National Road Museum.

Casselman River Bridge State Park
10240 National Pike
Grantsville, MD 21536
301-895-5453

NOTE: While the park is open for picnicking and recreation, the bridge is temporarily closed for repairs.

Suspected runaways were arrested and jailed by Allegany County sheriffs from 1799-1864 at this site. Numerous captures reveal Cumberland was a major crossroads on a pathway to freedom. Pennsylvania was a mere six miles north of the city. Some self-liberators fled within Allegany County, while others jailed here had escaped from Washington, DC, Virginia, and nearby Maryland counties. Sheriffs posted notices or advertisements for enslavers to claim runaways they captured at the jail. Anyone who was not claimed could be sold to slave traders.

Freedom seekers jailed at this site include:

• A man named John, enslaved by Thomas Monroe, near Front Royal, Virginia, 90 miles away - June, 1817. 
• Ben and Sam/Eppy - Ben was enslaved by John Willcox of Montgomery County. Eppy was enslaved by Captain Samuel Minnis, but was lent to Dr. Timberlain near Newtown, Virginia, more than 200 miles away. Eppy had endured a severe beating and had scars and a broken arm - May, 1805. 
• Christopher Aters or Kit, enslaved by Mr. Balwin Luvee of Fauquier County, Virginia - December, 1831.

Two daring freedom seekers escaped from the jail itself on the night of September 20, 1833: Perry, enslaved by James Cunningham, a lawyer in the area, and William, enslaved by Samuel M’Kowen of Virginia.

The first courthouse and jail on this site dated to 1799. The second was built in 1841 and stood until 1893 when it burned. The current courthouse, built in 1894 is located where the second courthouse stood.

Prospect Square is part of the Washington Street National Historic District, which includes numerous beautiful historic homes and public buildings of Greek Revival, Victorian, Colonial Revival and other architectural styles - a lovely neighborhood for a walk. See the Downtown Cumberland Walking Map.

While you’re in the area, stop in the Wills Creek Museum to discover the rich history of Cumberland and Western Maryland.

31 Washington Street
Cumberland, MD 21502
alleganycountylibrary.info
Allegany County Historic Courthouse
301-777-1200
 

Canal Place served as a busy crossroads in the 19th century. Here is the terminus of the C & O Canal, where the transport of coal and other goods began and ended. The National Road, the first federally funded highway, started near here. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B & O) and local coal hauling railroads served the area, making this location in Cumberland a bustling site for commerce and travel, providing an opportunity for the enslaved to escape, despite the terrifying threat of being seen and caught.

Freedom seekers used the C & O Canal Towpath, the National Road and the B & O Railroad as routes to freedom. While nearing Cumberland, the Pennsylvania border was exceedingly close, serving as a beacon for freedom seekers.

In November, 1837, Jim, a 35-year-old man escaped from S. Hamilton, while living at a location 19 miles east of Cumberland along the National Road. He was seen within a few days of his escape near Cumberland. Noted as a skilled blacksmith, a good house servant or farm hand, Jim could find work in Pennsylvania. Hamilton suspected Jim had forged freedom papers or a pass that allowed him to move freely and was likely “conducted by some evil disposed white man to some free state.”

The canal not only transported freedom seekers, it also served as a destination point where Blacks could find work while it was being built. John Curry, an enslaved man from North Carolina narrated his escape by following the canal towpath before passing into Pennsylvania. Franklin Blackford recounts in his diary the capture of five slaves along the towpath and collecting the reward.

Tour the C & O Canal National Historical Park’s Cumberland Visitor Center, located inside the Western Maryland Railway Station. Interactive displays about C & O Canal and Cumberland history await. Walk the canal towpath and cross the bridge to the National Road Monument to see where the first federally funded highway - and a pathway to freedom - began. Nearby, the Allegany Museum includes a Crossroads of America gallery that displays the interconnected history of the National Road, C & O Canal and B & O Railroad. Use the Historic Walking Map of Downtown Cumberland to help you explore the area.

See also site #7 - C & O Canal Cushwa Basin, and site #31 Great Falls Tavern - C & O Canal National Historical Park.

Canal Place Heritage Park
13 Canal Street
Cumberland, MD 21502
301-724-3655/ 800-989-9394

The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church is the site where Underground Railroad conductor James Harris once lived. The original church, dated 1848, later expanded, purchased and built upon Harris’s former homesite in 1871 and in 1875. The church building for this active congregation was constructed brick by brick by formerly enslaved people. James Harris was a member of this church, and his descendants are members to this day.

James Harris, a free Black man, was caught and arrested for “enticing six slaves (the property of Elias Wilson) to abscond on August 13, 1863.” Harris, a formerly enslaved farmer, hailed a stagecoach with six enslaved people aboard, some of whom were his children and grandchildren, including his daughter Fanny Harris and possibly his wife Mary Harris. James Harris boarded the stagecoach and paid their fare at the next station. Five miles outside Cumberland, the travelers held the stage and requested a room. Harris was heard to have advised them to remain until the next evening when he would pay for their transport to Uniontown, Pennsylvania.  

When Harris was caught, a local newspaper wrote that Harris was sentenced “for aiding his own children to escape from bondage. We trust our worthy judge will soon be relieved of the necessity for pronouncing such a sentence.” Harris was sentenced to serve six years and six months in the Maryland Penitentiary.

The eleven Jurors who tried the case all petitioned Governor A.W. Bradford to pardon James Harris in fall of 1864. Mrs. M.E. White wrote, “He was a faithful slave until he obtained his freedom, … and he even worked a year after he should have been free to pay one of the heirs who thought he was not able to give him the time.  Paid for his freedom papers also.”

The petition, signed by all the jurors in his trial, judges, and citizens of Cumberland, argued for clemency, because Harris was “the father & grandfather of some of the” freedom seekers, “and was doubtless influenced in his conduct by these relations, as well as by the revolutionary character of the ages.” The Civil War was raging at the time, and enslaved people were fleeing their enslavers all over the State of Maryland. The petition continued, “The Jury who convicted, are strong in their sympathy for this victim of paternity & revolution.” One juror remarked, “he for one did not feel like punishing [James] for what everybody else seemed to be doing.”

Harris was pardoned on December 20, 1864 by Governor A.W. Bradford. What happened to James Harris is unknown. Frances Harris is listed in the 1870 census, living near/next to the Metropolitan AME Church on Frederick Street.

Metropolitan AME Church
309 Frederick Street
Cumberland, MD 21502
301-759-6398

A refuge for freedom seekers, this remote Shawnee Indian town along the Potomac River was once known as King Opessa’s Town and served as a fording place for the Great North-South Warriors Path of the Five Indian Nations. Shawnee Indians lived here and at neighboring towns near the confluence of the North and South branches of the Potomac River from about 1711 to 1727.

Around 1722, King Opessa’s Town began harboring runaways from plantations in Maryland and Virginia. The Governor of the Virginia colony offered a bounty of a gun and two blankets for each “runaway” returned by a Shawnee. The Governor of the Maryland colony met with Indian traders in Annapolis and sent Charles Anderson to negotiate the return of freedom seekers living in Indian towns on the Potomac. The Governor attempted to arrange another meeting in 1725 with the Shawnee on the Monocacy River. The resolution came when the Shawnee abandoned their towns on the Upper Potomac River, likely to return to the Ohio River Valley.

Walk the C & O Canal towpath or drive Opessa Street in Oldtown to experience the landscape where Shawnee Indians lived and rescued freedom seekers during the colonial period before the country was founded. Stop to see C & O Canal Lock 70 while in the area.

Chesapeake & Ohio Canal
Lock 70
Oldtown, MD 21555
301-739-4200

Freedom seekers used the C & O Canal Towpath as a pathway to freedom. Following the Potomac River westward from Washington, D.C. to Cumberland put them in close range of the free state of Pennsylvania. They were especially close to the Pennsylvania border in Hancock - just 2 miles away. Freedom seekers passed through Williamsport and by the Cushwa Basin, a turning basin for canal boats and a spot where canal boats were loaded and unloaded with freight.

Williamsport was also located along an escape route known as the Virginia Path, which started here and paralleled the Conococheague Creek to the north to reach Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

James Curry who fled from North Carolina, wrote about his June, 1837 escape:

“At Alexandria, I crossed the Potomac River and came to Washington where I made friends with a colored family, with whom I rested eight days. I then took the Montgomery Road, but, wishing to escape … and it being cloudy, I lost my course, and fell back again along the Potomac River, and traveled on the tow-path of the canal from Friday night until Sunday morning….[After an encounter with a man on horse-back who he feared would stop him] I soon entered a colored person's house on the side of the canal, where they gave me breakfast and treated me very kindly. I traveled on through Williamsport and Hagerstown, in Maryland, and, on the nineteenth day of July, about two hours before day, I crossed the line into Pennsylvania with a heart full of gratitude to God, believing that I was indeed a free man, and that now, under the protection of law, there was 'none who could molest me or make me afraid.”

A man named Michael fled from George H. Burwell of Milwood, Virginia. Burwell suspected that Michael was  on the canal near Harper’s Ferry, according to a runaway ad he placed. Michael had been employed as a cook. Burwell thought he might take up employment as a cook in a “public house” or as a harvest hand.

A visitor center at the C & O Canal National Historical Park in Williamsport provides exhibits on African-American history along the canal, including Black Americans’ role in building the canal, navigating its waters and establishing communities along its towpath. The visitor center includes a short film and information on building the canal and how the canal operated. Visitors can take launch boat tours on the canal, or follow a canal walking tour to see the Conococheague Aqueduct and the only railroad lift bridge on the canal. A short walk on the towpath leads to Lockhouse 44 and the adjacent lock. Here visitors can follow in the footsteps of scores of freedom seekers who risked their lives in the hope of finding self-liberation.

See also site #4 Canal Place, and site #31 Great Falls Tavern - C & O Canal National Historical Park.

C & O Canal Williamsport Visitor Center
142 W. Potomac Street
Williamsport, MD 21795
301-739-4200

Ann Henson was enslaved by Victor Thompson, a Hagerstown pharmacist who once operated a pharmacy in this building. Henson claimed that she was legally entitled to be free and even offered to pay Thompson for her freedom, but Thompson refused to acknowledge her claim to freedom and would not agree. Thompson also rejected an offer from a free Black friend of Henson’s to purchase her freedom.

Frustrated with her inability to obtain freedom legally, Henson finally left on her own in 1856, making her way north to New York City by October 4. There, she connected with Underground Railroad operative Sydney Howard Gay. She took a new name, Adelaide Overton. Even after traveling that distance, she still had money left. She may have remained in New York, settled in another northern state, or gone on to Canada. The rest of her story is unknown.

The basis for Henson’s original claim to freedom is unknown, but she could be the enslaved woman named Ann Maria Henson, born c. 1834, who was freed by her enslaver, Henrietta Gaither of Hagerstown, in her will in 1855. If this Ann Maria Henson had been hired out to Victor Thompson before her emancipation, or if she was sold to him for a term of years until her freedom took effect, her situation could well have led to the confusion around her legal status. Alternatively, Thompson may have intentionally created the confusion to keep Henson enslaved.

The Thompson drugstore location is now a cafe on the town square - Royal Tea, Boba and Sweets - serving as a refreshing stop on your tour. This site is also on the Hagerstown Underground Railroad Walking Tour. Make sure to visit the other sites on the tour.

Royal Tea Boba & Sweets
2 West Washington Street
Hagerstown, MD 21740
301-202-5619

Two groups of enslaved people escaped from Jacob Hollingsworth who lived here in this house. The Hollingsworth House is adjacent to the Washington County Historical Society, where guests can see a restored nineteenth-century interior and browse historical exhibits.

Three enslaved people fled in 1847: Lloyd Brown, his ten-year-old daughter Ann Brown, and an unrelated woman named Hester Norman. While enslaved, Brown married and had a daughter named Ann. Hollingsworth gifted Brown’s wife and little Ann Brown to Hollingsworth’s son-in-law, James Kennedy. Ann’s mother died, leaving her an orphan in the Kennedy household. Hester’s free husband, George Norman, lived in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Lloyd Brown acquired written directions from a white ally in Hagerstown about the roads he should take and the houses where he should stop along his way to Carlisle. The trio fled in the summer of 1847.

The “runaways” were found by Kennedy and Hollingsworth’s son, George, on a road near Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. A white man intervened, holding off Kennedy and Hollingsworth while the freedom seekers got away. The trio took shelter with the African-American community in Carlisle, but Kennedy and local law enforcement tracked them down.
The Black community of Carlisle mobilized. A crowd impeded the court proceedings and tried to physically remove the Browns and Hester Norman.  Hollingsworth got Lloyd Brown away from Carlisle and back to the Hagerstown jail. In the uproar, the crowd rescued Hester Norman and little Ann Brown, spiriting them away to freedom. The event was dubbed the “Carlisle riot.” Twelve local African Americans, including George Norman, were convicted and sent to the penitentiary.

Four enslaved people fled in 1854: Daphne Cummens, her ten-year-old daughter Louisa, her teenage son Jack, and another teenage boy, Charles. Taking Hollingsworth’s carriage one morning, the group drove north to Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, arriving in the middle of the night. At six a.m. they boarded an eastbound train where a sympathetic baggage handler helped them, arranging shelter when they reached Harrisburg. From Harrisburg, the group boarded a train to Philadelphia and were received by Dr. James Gould Bias, a leading agent on the Underground Railroad who had once been enslaved in Maryland.

From Philadelphia, the Cummens family went to Crosswicks, New Jersey, and then to New York City, arriving in April 1855. The two teenage boys (now calling themselves James Cummens and Benjamin Moody) stayed for almost a year in New York and New Jersey, then proceeded to Canada via Syracuse. Daphne (now Mary) Cummens and Louisa stayed longer in New Jersey, but also eventually left for Toronto.

By 1861, Mary and Louisa were living in Hamilton, Ontario, and Benjamin Moody was working in nearby St. Catharine’s, close to Niagara Falls - and safe at last!

This site is also on the Hagerstown Underground Railroad Walking Tour. Make sure to visit the other sites on the tour.

125 West Washington Street
Hagerstown, MD 21740

Early 19th-century members of Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church assisted freedom seekers.

Rev. Thomas W. Henry - Born into slavery in southern Maryland in 1794 and brought to Hagerstown as a youth, Henry gained his freedom in 1821 and became a preacher. He was an early leader of the Bethel/Ebenezer AME Church who had the reputation of helping people escape from slavery. When John Brown was arrested following the Harpers Ferry raid of 1859, notes were found in Brown’s papers that Thomas Henry would be helpful and sympathetic to his project. This prompted assertions that Henry was a well-known agent of the Underground Railroad.

One Hagerstown native wrote, “I have known this Henry for upwards of thirty years, and for the last twenty years (during which period our slaves have been running away with impunity) the finger of suspicion has been almost universally pointed to this negro as being privy to and aiding their escape.” Henry and his friends denied it, but Henry knew he was in danger and soon left Maryland, not to return until after the Civil War.

Otho and Margaret Snyder - Otho was a trustee of the church and worked as a wagoner; Margaret worked as a laundress. In 1843, the couple helped enslaved people escape. They, too, fled to Pennsylvania after being suspected of assisting runaways. The free Black couple were arrested and brought to Hagerstown for trial.

Otho was again arrested on November 3, 1851 for helping another freedom seeker - a man enslaved by the Claggett brothers in Funkstown. Snyder attempted to send a trunk of clothes belonging to the man to Pennsylvania via train in Hagerstown. At trial, Snyder claimed he thought the trunk belonged to the fugitive’s wife. He was convicted and sentenced to six years and six months in the Maryland penitentiary. Upon his release in 1858, he was required to leave the state.

A wayside exhibit on site describes the history of the nineteenth-century church during the smallpox outbreak and Civil War. The original 19th-century church building dating to 1840 has been razed.

This site is also on the Hagerstown Underground Railroad Walking Tour. Make sure to visit the other sites on the tour.

Ebenezer A.M.E. Church
26 Bethel Street
Hagerstown, MD 21740
240-347-4951

The Old Hagerstown Jail is a place where many flights to freedom ended, and where some were interrupted or began.

The sheriff of Washington County regularly jailed people who were suspected of being fugitive slaves from Virginia or Maryland. He advertised for their enslavers to come collect them. Slave catchers, operating on both sides of the Mason Dixon Line, brought people they caught to the jail. They kept them imprisoned until they could return them to their enslavers for rewards, or sell them to slave traders. Slave auctions were held at the jail. Enslaved people were also locked up at the jail as punishment. Although most people jailed here were unable to get out, some did escape.

Otho Snyder, a free Black man, was held here in 1851 while awaiting trial for assisting a freedom seeker.

Richard Barret and John Thomas of Virginia, and John Smith of Allegany County were suspected of fleeing slavery and jailed here in the summer of 1816. Another man named Abraham had been locked up here as punishment by his Hagerstown enslaver. One night in August 1816, all four of them broke out of the jail together.

Freedom seekers Joseph Quinn and William Harris escaped from the jail in April 1825.

Another man jailed for fleeing slavery, whose name is unknown, made a dramatic escape from the jail in December 1848. He hid himself “in the privy during the whole of Sunday,” and searchers were unable to find him. Then, “on Sunday night, by perforating the wall of his odiferous hiding place,” he made a successful getaway, according to the Hagerstown paper.

George Ross, who had been enslaved in Hagerstown, later recalled, “My boss … got in debt, so that eight of us were levied and put in jail. We were kept in jail for three or four months to give him a chance to raise the money to redeem us. Then he redeemed us and got us out, but in a short time, he got so much in debt again that we were put in jail again and the last time we were all sold.” Ross was sold to another enslaver in Hagerstown. He was fearful of being sold south and separated from his wife and children. The Ross family escaped around 1850 and fled to Canada.

The old jail building in the heart of the historic Jonathan Street neighborhood no longer exists. Two wayside exhibits at this site describe these and other Underground Railroad related events. This site is also on the Hagerstown Underground Railroad Walking Tour. Make sure to visit the other sites on the tour.

See also site #10 Ebenezer A.M.E. Church for more about Otho Snyder.

120 West Church Street
(Northwest corner of Church and Jonathan streets)
Hagerstown, MD  21740

Renowned abolitionist and freedom seeker James W.C. Pennington lived his enslaved childhood at this site and escaped from here. James Pembroke was born into slavery in 1807 on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. As a small child he was brought to Rockland with his parents. The Pembrokes suffered persistent beatings and abuse from their enslaver, plantation owner Frisby Tilghman, as well as from overseers and Tilghman family members. About thirty people, some of them native Africans, were enslaved at Rockland in the early 19th century.

In 1827, when James was nineteen, he escaped. Leaving his parents and many siblings behind, he set out for Pennsylvania. Without information or assistance, he unknowingly traveled toward Baltimore instead. James was caught twice, but managed to escape his captors. Eventually he reached Pennsylvania and found shelter with Quakers who worked on the Underground Railroad. Subsequently he moved to New York, where in freedom he took the name James W.C. Pennington. At Rockland, Frisby Tilghman retaliated for Pennington’s escape and systematically sold off members of the Pembroke family.

Pennington learned to read and write, was the first Black student to attend Yale, became an ordained minister, traveled internationally, and became a renowned abolitionist. Pennington told his own story in his biography, The Fugitive Blacksmith, published in 1849.  

This site is now a working farm and event venue, open to the public for scheduled private events. The blacksmith shop where James Pembroke/Pennington labored is still standing on the site.

Ninety Thirty Events
9030 Sharpsburg Pike
Fairplay, MD 21733
866-WED-9030

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Lappans was built in 1849. Several dozen enslaved people attended church here along with their enslavers. The Warfield family, members of this church, escaped from this neighborhood in the early 1860s.

Isaac Warfield and Letty Ann Hopewell were married at St. Mark’s Church around 1850. Letty Ann was the eldest of thirteen siblings and was known for her independent spirit. Letty Ann once told a white man “We are all of Adam’s race.” The Warfields had three daughters, Letitia, Ellen Belle and Sarah. Isaac overheard someone say that one of his daughters would be sold away from the family. Using savings from his broom-making, Isaac and Letty took their children and fled for freedom around 1860. They made their way to Williamsport in northern Pennsylvania, along with at least one of Isaac’s brothers, where they lived safely for a decade.

In 1871, the Warfields returned to the area where Letty Ann had many family members. The couple grew vegetables and sold them at the Saturday market in Hagerstown. Isaac continued to make brooms. The family purchased property nearby on Breathedsville Road where they built a log home that is depicted in the 2018 stained glass window at the church. The couple remained active at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church where Isaac was baptized and confirmed as a 75-year-old man. The couple is buried in the churchyard, where their headstones can be seen today.

The historic church and cemetery provide a peaceful, reverent setting to reflect on the lives of its members and what they endured. A wayside exhibit by the African-American graves describes the lives of some of the 19th-century African-American church members, including enslaved individuals, buried here. Inside the church, visitors can go into the original slave balcony, view the stained-glass window dedicated to the enslaved people who attended the church and see the plaque listing the names of the enslaved. Tours can be arranged in advance.

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Lappans
18313 Lappans Road
Boonsboro, MD 21713-1918
301-582-0417

Ferry Hill is located on a hill above the Potomac River and C & O Canal, whose towpath freedom seekers followed. About twenty people were enslaved at Ferry Hill Plantation. Runaways fleeing near Ferry Hill were caught and jailed by the Blackford family, the plantation’s owners. The site provides panoramic views of the Potomac River, at an important crossing for those escaping bondage, and anyone crossing the river at this location could be spotted - and potentially caught.

The Blackford family also operated Blackford’s Ferry between Virginia and Maryland. Enslaved laborers worked on the ferry and drove wagons, having contact with free African-American workers. John Blackford hired out an enslaved man named Murphy to George Entler, a canal boat operator. Murphy worked at least six trips on a barge traveling the C & O Canal. These circumstances set up an opportunity for African-American workers to hide and transport those escaping slavery. The Blackford family’s journals reveal that they apprehended freedom seekers fleeing along the Potomac River and canal, turning them in for rewards. All were taken to the Hagerstown Jail.

In July, 1829, John Blackford seized a woman who belonged to a slave trader named Malone.

For one set of five runaways, Franklin Blackford received a bounty of $200 when their “master” collected them at the jail.

“We went down to the canal a short distance and we discovered five - one woman and a child, two girls and one man. We arrested them and brought them to the house. Joe Knode [tenant] came up and we hitched the wagon to take them to town to have them committed to jail. We did so, the woman being pregnant and complained very much.”

Daphney, a woman enslaved by the Blackfords, attempted to escape slavery twice in the 1830s. Her attempts were unsuccessful, and she was sold away to slaveholders in Florida in 1839.

The plantation is now part of the C & O Canal National Historical Park. Guests can visit the site where wayside exhibits describe its history and the role of the C & O Canal as a pathway to freedom. The site on a hill has beautiful views over the Potomac River. Visitors can access the canal towpath via the Ferry Hill Trail from the parking lot.

Ferry Hill
16500 Shepherdstown Pike
Sharpsburg, MD 21782
301-739-4200

The banks of the Antietam Creek once bustled with a variety of mills and industries that created products needed for the young and growing country. Multiple waterwheels of different sizes drove the furnace’s bellows, a 21-ton forge hammer, nail factory, sawmill, rolling mill, and flour mill. The furnace stacks were later used as a lime kiln. 

Here at the Antietam Iron Works, which was owned by John McPherson in 1806, enslaved and free workers mined ore, smelted it in furnaces, and crafted a wide variety of tools and implements. Working at the furnace with fire and hot metals was sweltering, difficult and dangerous work.

An enslaved man named Jack fled from John Brien, manager of Antietam Mills iron works on May 19, 1807. Elizabeth Luckett of Frederick, who enslaved Jack, had leased him to Brien at the mill as a joiner. His job was to connect and secure metal components to create larger structures.

Luckett placed an advertisement for her “negro man named Jack” on May 30, 1807, describing him as 25 years old, “dark-complected with large whiskers and a strong voice. ”In addition to playing “very well on the violin, ” Luckett noted that Jack spoke German. Two weeks later on June 13, Luckett posted the runaway notice again, this time increasing the reward from $20 to $50. Jack’s fate is unknown.

In about 1836, Antietam Iron Works was the site of a slave uprising, when white workers tried to whip the enslaved Black workers during the furnace owner’s absence. The enslaved men fought back and then retreated into the hills until the owner returned.

Many of the enslaved workers were forcibly moved here in the 1840s following John Brien’s bankruptcy at Catoctin Furnace. At one point, the ironworks employed more than 250 workers, including 60 enslaved people.  Later, he sold many of them to pay his debts.

The iron furnace and lime kiln ruins are located next to the C & O Canal National Historical Park and can be reached by car on Harpers Ferry Road or on foot from the C & O Canal towpath. The canal towpath is 0.4 miles from the iron furnace, across the picturesque four-arch stone bridge over the Antietam Creek. The remnants of Antietam Mills also include a dam and mill race, and a possible wheel pit or building foundation.

The iron furnace ruins are located on the property of a private business, Antietam Ironworks, which manufactures wrought iron railings, fences and gates.

Antietam Ironworks
3768 Harpers Ferry Road
Sharpsburg, MD 21782
240-202-2625

Established in 1852, Mount Olivet Cemetery is Frederick’s “museum without walls.” There are 40,000 individuals buried here. Echoes of freedom seekers’ stories can be gleaned from burials of slavecatchers like John H. Pope or antislavery activists like General James Cooper, a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, abolitionist and Underground Railroad operative. Cooper passed Act 159, which banned the holding of enslaved people in jail who had been carried north, thwarting the practice of detaining Free Blacks in jail without due process.

A visit to the site provides an opportunity to rethink the legacies of some of the cemetery’s better-known occupants. Francis Scott Key is the author of the Star-Spangled Banner, lauded for penning our national anthem while aboard the deck of an American truce ship on September 14, 1814.  Key saw the raising of the American flag after Britain’s bombardment as a triumphant symbol of our young nation’s bravery.  Key’s poem celebrates the “land of the free and the home of the brave,“  but his legacy is tainted by his unsettling association with “unfreedom.”

Francis Scott Key purchased human beings, held people in bondage and married into a large slaveholding family. He defended slaveholders seeking the return of their “property” and was vehemently opposed to abolition.  

Key also defended enslaved individuals seeking their freedom as an attorney. In 1813, he argued the case of Mina Queen before the U.S. Supreme Court, asserting she was a descendant of a free Black woman and entitled to her freedom. Key represented captured Africans from the slaving vessel Antelope and secured freedom for most of them, who were then transported to Liberia. Key manumitted two children that he held in bondage, although the boys were not freed until age 25, after Key benefited from their prime labor years.

Another well-known occupant is Thomas Johnson, a judge who was the first Governor of Maryland. Schools, roadways, and recreation centers in Frederick bear Johnson’s name. Johnson’s family was one of the largest slaveholders in Frederick County. Johnson and his brothers established the Catoctin Furnace in 1776, which was in blast in time to provide munitions for the Continental Army’s battle at Yorktown. The patriot’s furnace was powered by enslaved ironworkers, many of whom sought their freedom from the Johnsons and other furnace owners during its years of operation. See also site #19 Rose Hill Manor Park and Museums, and site #20 Catoctin Furnace Village.

Although Roger Brooke Taney, Supreme Court justice and author of the infamous Dred Scott decision, is buried at nearby St. John’s Cemetery, there is a life-sized bust of Taney, along with an historical context marker in Mount Olivet. The marker describes the plight of the Scotts who petitioned for their freedom through legal action.

A self-guided tour is available, and wayside exhibits present background on the cemetery and notable individuals residing within. Special walking tours of the cemetery and lecture presentations on Frederick’s Black History and other topics are offered through History Shark Productions. The cemetery maintains a history blog called “Stories in Stone” featuring the real-life biographies, photos and research on both famous and lesser-known internees.

Mount Olivet Cemetery
515 S Market St, 
Frederick, MD 21701
301-662-1164

This site, which now serves those in need through meals, clothing and substance-abuse services, was once the location of the Frederick County Jail. The jail, built in 1815, detained people who were caught fleeing slavery. This building, built in 1876, formerly served as the county sheriff’s office and is all that remains from the once-sprawling jail complex. It is now the base for the Frederick Rescue Mission.

When the site functioned as a jail, free Blacks were also held here under the suspicion of being runaways. Runaway advertisements recorded heroic escapes, including when they ended in capture. When a suspected “runaway” was arrested, the sheriff or jailer placed an ad in a local paper describing the inmate and calling on an owner to come forth and claim their “property.” Law enforcement charged fees for the housing and feeding of their captives. Those who went unclaimed could be sold at auction.

Adeline Bryan, an 18- or 19-year old girl from the District of Columbia, was committed to the Frederick County Jail as a fugitive on August 19, 1831 by Sheriff Peter Brengle. Adeline claimed to be free. The runaway notice stated the owner “is requested to come forward and have her released, or she will otherwise be discharged as the law directs.”

Frederick Jail was also the location to which some enslavers hoped to have their escaped “property” delivered upon capture. In 1832, Christian Remsburg offered a $100 reward for the capture of Allen Butler if delivered to the Frederick-town Jail. Similarly, Charles Hipsley offered $10 for the capture and lodging in Frederick Jail of “a negro girl named Fanny” who escaped from Anne Arundel County. Hipsley expected Fanny to make her way to Frederick-town as her relatives lived there.

In June 1845, a freedom seeker named Ben escaped from Montgomery County Jail and fled to Frederick County where he was arrested by Sheriff George Rice and jailed there. Anxious freedom seekers such as Ben appear to have tested the security of Maryland’s jails, hoping to break free. In 1838, the Baltimore Sun reported about the Frederick jail keeper named Bender: “half a dozen blacks escaped lately, in consequence of the above person not attending to his duty.” A white inmate named James Deaver was recaptured in 1853 after escaping Frederick Jail by scaling an 18-foot wall with boxes and a plank. The account continued, “a negro confined therein, on the charge of being a runaway slave, also followed tracks, and effectually disappeared.”

Not all freedom-seeking missions were successful, but some of those who were incarcerated eventually found freedom. Jails sometimes provided a temporary delay in a freedom seeker’s ultimate quest for liberty. Fortunately, today this site is a beacon of hope for those who need help.

Frederick Rescue Mission
419 W. South Street
Frederick, MD 21701
301-695-6633

Elizabeth Luckett lived at this c. 1799 home from 1801 until her death. She enslaved a man named Jack who fled on May 19, 1807. Luckett placed an ad for him on May 30, 1807, offering $20 for his capture and return. According to Luckett, Jack fled the service of John Brien, manager of “Antietam Mills” an iron works, 20 miles west in Washington County. Luckett had leased Jack to Brien as a joiner. Two weeks later on June 13, Luckett posted the runaway notice again, this time increasing the reward to $50.

Luckett described Jack as 25 years old, dark-complected, “with large whiskers” and a “strong voice.” In addition to playing the violin very well, he spoke German.

While Jack appears to have fled from a distance away, he undoubtedly knew of and perhaps lived at the Luckett house at some point. A brick barrack-style slave quarter is attached to the back of the house. It is one of the few surviving examples of such housing in Frederick. In Luckett’s day, this house sat just outside of the city, in a remote part of town. In 1815, a new Frederick County Jail was built just two blocks away.

Luckett mortgaged the home in 1814 to lawyers Roger B. Taney and John McPherson, owner of Antietam Iron Furnace, but remained there as a tenant. While Taney owned the home, he never resided at this place. Taney became known as the Supreme Court justice who wrote the infamous Dred Scott decision in 1857 that temporarily established that African Americans had no rights to citizenship.

This house is privately owned. Please respect privacy. View the home from the public sidewalk.
Do not peer into windows or knock on the door.

121 South Bentz Street
Frederick, MD 21701

From its construction in 1792 until the end of slavery, most of the people who lived at Rose Hill Manor did so against their will. Governor Thomas Johnson, the first Governor of Maryland, gave the land to his daughter Ann as a wedding gift. Ann and her husband Major John Grahame used enslaved labor to build Rose Hill and many of the surrounding buildings that you can see today.

Like the majority of people held in bondage in the 18th and early 19th century, the people enslaved by the Grahames at Rose Hill labored daily under the threat of violence and family separation. They worked long hours doing heavy farm labor, domestic service tasks and whatever else was needed to keep the property running and profitable.

Because the Johnson family owned Catoctin Furnace, Aetna Glass Works, and other industrial sites in the area, it is probable that enslaved people were moved between the sites, further entangling the web that intertwined Frederick’s slaveholding elite and those they held in bondage.

On June 30, 1827, Jim Chase made a bold escape from Rose Hill, along with three other men from the farm, most likely on “two valuable horses” enroute to Pennsylvania. In a reward notice, Chase was described as a man of “irreproachable deportment” having served John Grahame as his “confidential servant.” The other men accompanying Chase included “Negro JOHN” aged 27, Charles “about 22” and Edward 21 to 22 years old, with a $250 reward for the recovery of the four men. Two evenings later, on Monday July 2 a fifth man, Grahame’s house servant Daniel, made his escape, undoubtedly joining the others, and raising the reward by $50.00. There is no record of the men’s capture nor is there evidence that they made it to freedom in Pennsylvania.

Rose Hill is operated by Frederick County Parks & Recreation. The site is home to the Children’s Museum of Rose Hill Manor, which provides a hands-on learning approach to early American history. In addition to the manor house, the property has an icehouse, a log cabin, a blacksmith shop, a carriage collection, and two barns. A self-guided tour about the enslaved at Rose Hill is accessible via a QR code at the site. Guided tours are available and include the history and lives of the people who resided here and those who were enslaved by the Grahames.

Rose Hill Manor Park & Museums
1611 N. Market St. 
Frederick, MD 21701
301-600-1650

Today, Catoctin Furnace is a peaceful village nestled at the base of the Catoctin Mountains. But from 1776 until 1903 the site was an active iron-making community. Enslaved and free workers mined ore, smelted it in furnaces, and crafted a wide variety of tools and implements, including the popular Catoctin Stoves. Notably, the furnace cast shells for the Continental Army fired during the siege of Yorktown. Over time, the site grew into a thriving village, much of which you can still see today.

From the earliest days of the furnace's operation, the enslaved men and women resisted their enslavement by the Johnson Brothers and subsequent owners. Several attempted flight across the mountainous landscape toward freedom in Pennsylvania and Canada.  

In the Fall of 1782, Peter, whose face was “much pitted” from small pox and who had a “cropped right ear” escaped from the Johnson brothers along with a man named Gabriel. The reward offered was “6 pounds.” In 1790, Phil, described as being a “well set stout fellow,” who was ”very black and had a “large mouth and thick lips” escaped, prompting James Johnson to offer a $100 reward for his return. James, Harry and Len left on the 18th day of October, 1802 with passes they received from free African Americans. Harry played the fiddle, was trained as a waiter, and described as “sensible and talkative.” Len was characterized as “remarkably well made with pretty, large eyes and mouth." The reward of $40.00 offered for their return was the equivalent of more than a thousand dollars today.

Visitors today can see rare and powerful facial reconstructions of two of the enslaved workers in the Museum of the Ironworker who were buried in the Catoctin Furnace African American Cemetery. Though the cemetery is on private land, visitors can walk the cemetery trail to learn about the process of ironmaking and gain insight into the lives of the furnace's workers.

The public can visit the Blacksmith Shop, the Collier’s Log House, The Fraley Store, the Furnace and Manor House ruins and hike the Iron Trail, which connects to Cunningham Falls State Park. You can also view an immersive 3D virtual reality tour of the quarters for the enslaved ironworkers, which are no longer standing, at Catoctin Furnace here.

The village is also home to a historic stays property, the Forgeman’s House, a restored 1820 ironworker’s cottage. Guests can enjoy visiting the Catoctin Furnace Village, hiking park trails and spending a night in the historic ironworker’s home.

12610 Catoctin Furnace Road
Thurmont, MD 21788
240-288-7396

The Best Farm, previously known as L’Hermitage, was home to the Vincendieres, a refugee family from Saint-Domingue where the slave revolt of 1791 drove the French from the colony.  The Vincendieres were the second largest enslavers in Frederick County as of 1800 with 90 enslaved individuals. The Best family succeeded them as owners of the farm and continued the slaveholding practice there.

At least two enslaved men, Phil and Jerry, escaped the Vincendieres within a month of each other in 1795. Phil’s enslaver described him as a 40 year old, six-foot tall man who was “a stout active fellow, one of his upper fore teeth wanting, a great talker, fond of strong liquor, and very quarrelsome when drunk.” The Vincendieres suspected that Jerry, a 25 year old, 5 foot 7 inch tall “very stout, well-made man,” stole a bay horse and bridle to escape.

David Best lost a man named Lewis Owens in August of 1850. There is no indication whether the men made it to freedom or were recaptured. Extensive archaeology has been conducted at the Best Farm in the past twenty years. A large volume of recovered artifacts helps to tell the story of enslavement at the site.

During the Civil War, the Best Farm witnessed the 1864 Battle of Monocacy. Wayside exhibits on the site describe the tumultuous events of battle. The Monocacy Battlefield Visitor Center interprets how the battle affected surrounding communities, including the impact of slavery on the conflict. The visitor center includes exhibits on the recruitment of United States Colored Troops or USCT during the Civil War; many of its members fled bondage to enlist. 

Best Farm
Monocacy National Battlefield
5201 Urbana Pike
Frederick, MD 21704
301-662-3515

The Button Farm Almanac Tour is an interactive exploration of a plantation-era landscape, located on 40-acres inside Seneca Creek State Park in Germantown, Maryland. The tour is a sampling of elements from the longer-form educational and hands-on history programs offered onsite at Button Farm Living History Center, providing participants with a snapshot of the farm’s mission and history. The tour stops feature interpretive signs, each one with a unique theme connected to historical documents, artifacts and resources which illuminate the story of plantation life and the Underground Railroad.

While Button Farm was not a stop on the Underground Railroad, its landscape and surviving cultural resources help visitors imagine an active corridor of escape that ran through the surrounding community. Few physical traces remain of the people enslaved at Button Farm, except for a suspected slave cemetery and the natural environment itself. The tour uses 19th century artifacts, architecture, agriculture and historical accounts, to illuminate the story of local freedom seekers and the impact that they had on surrounding enslaved communities and the abolitionist movement at large. 

Button Farm Living History Center is a project of the Menare Foundation, a nonprofit preserving the legacy of the Underground Railroad. The farm was established to provide a public venue to understand and interpret the important historical connection between enslavement and the pathways to freedom so active in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Menare Foundation is developing a self-guided tour app for the Almanac Tour, which will be released in 2026. Check their website for information.

Button Farm
16820 Black Rock Road
Germantown, MD 20874
202-340-0077

Bohrer Park includes the site of historic Logtown, an early Black settlement near present-day Gaithersburg. In 1845 it was the scene of a battle between local law enforcement and more than thirty freedom seekers trying to reach Pennsylvania in broad daylight and over open roads. Most had escaped from farms around Charles and St. Mary’s counties in Southern Maryland and made their way through the District of Columbia, prompting sightings, alerts and the scrambling of law enforcement, but all the while managing to outpace their pursuers. 

After several days, this freedom-bound army entered Montgomery County. The group largely escaped notice, passing through the outskirts of Rockville, before hiding in a swamp on the Gaither farm in Logtown, slightly north of present-day Bohrer Park. 

By then a party of heavily armed men on horseback from Rockville had been dispatched to quell the march up Frederick Road. When overtaken by the patrollers, the determined freedom seekers stood their ground, refusing to surrender. Some brandished weapons including rocks and scythes. One man produced a pistol, another a sword. Unable to force a surrender, the posse opened fire on the group, injuring some and taking many into custody, while a few managed to flee and continue to freedom.

This incident drew the ire of Northern abolitionists who reported harshly on the brutality used to suppress the resistance. While the papers assailed the citizens of Rockville for the attack and jailing the prisoners, eyewitnesses and locals in Gaithersburg confirmed that Logtown was where the battle took place.

Bohrer Park is built on a former plantation site, where Summit Hall, an early 19th century plantation home for the DeSellum family, remains. Summit Hall stands on a hill above where the Battle of Logtown took place and from where the slave revolt would have been visible. Summit Hall also fronts Route 355, where the large group of freedom seekers marched by as they headed northward. It is also the route on which they would have been taken in chains back to the Rockville Jail once they were captured.

Today Bohrer Park features a recreation center, skate and water parks, playgrounds, walking paths, pavilions and a world-famous 19th century observatory among other attractions.

Bohrer Park at Summit Hall Farm
506 South Frederick Avenue
Gaithersburg, MD 20877
301-258-6350

Forging Freedom is an exhibit of Rockville’s Underground Railroad story, revealing the activities of local freedom seekers and their allies. It serves as the trailhead and orientation for the Forging Freedom self-guided walking tour of Rockville. The Forging Freedom exhibit is housed in the 1891 Red Brick Courthouse in Rockville. 

Nationally known abolitionists such as William Still, Harriet Beecher Stowe and William Chaplin, along with local self-liberators such as Josiah Henson and Mary and Emily Edmondson, feature prominently in this exhibit for their impact on Rockville’s Underground Railroad history. The exhibit captures what has been lost to time in Rockville through urban renewal and development.

After being oriented to Rockville’s Underground Railroad history through the exhibits, the walking tour visits sites where daring escapes took place and locals fought for freedoms for all. The Forging Freedom brochure features site descriptions and a map covering the ten-block walking tour, describing the anti-slavery movement and freedom seeking in Rockville and surrounding areas. Many sites have wayside exhibits which describe each site’s history.

Peerless Rockville
In the Historic Red Brick Courthouse
29 Courthouse Square, Room 110
Rockville, MD 20849
301-762-0096

John Wallace Anderson, a physician, lived at a home on this site in 1850 with 10 members of his family. He enslaved 14 people ranging in age from 4 months to 75 years old. Six years later in June of 1856, Alfred Homer, a 22-year-old enslaved man, fled from Anderson. Anderson placed a notice offering $100 for Alfred’s capture and return. Anderson described Homer as “rather good looking.” 

Alfred Homer traveled to Philadelphia where he went to William Still’s office. Still, the Chair of the Vigilance Committee of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, aided fugitive slaves and kept records of the people he served in order to help families reunite. He wrote an account of the Underground Railroad and the experiences of freedom seekers. Still subscribed to southern newspapers to keep track of who was escaping from where and when and looked out for them.

Still recorded Alfred Homer’s arrival in his Journal C along with a copy of his runaway notice. Still wrote “Alfred, however, gave a full description of his master’s character, and the motives which impelled him to seek his freedom. He was listened to attentively, but his story was not entered on the book.” Still allotted him $2.25 cash, $1.25 for 2 ½ days board and $0.40 for a telegraphic dispatch. Nothing is recorded about what happened next or where Alfred went upon leaving Still. 

Census records from 1860 (after Homer’s escape) do not show an enslaved worker at Anderson’s home that matches Alfred Homer’s age, hinting that Homer gained his freedom and Anderson failed to recover him. 

A wayside exhibit on site shows the runaway advertisement, a photo of John Anderson’s original home and describes the history of Alfred Homer’s escape from slavery. 

The building now houses a law firm, which is privately-owned. Please respect privacy. View the home from the public sidewalk. Do not peer into windows or knock on the door. 

100 South Washington Street
Rockville, MD 20850

Montgomery County maintained a jail at this location from 1801 through 1931. Freedom seekers were detained here while attempting to escape. Free Blacks, traveling without paperwork, were held here under the suspicion of being runaways, and Underground Railroad conductors were lodged here after being caught guiding enslaved people to freedom. Those who went unclaimed could be sold at auction for the jailer to recoup their expenses. Advertisements record these heroic escapes and rescue missions, many of which ended unsuccessfully. 

Frank Butler was committed to the Montgomery County Jail in August 1855 as a runaway. A notice by Sheriff Fields requested the owner to come forward, prove property, pay charges, and take him away, or otherwise he would be discharged according to law. 

In June 1845, a solo runaway named Ben broke out of the jail. Ben fled to Frederick County, but was arrested by Sheriff George Rice and held in the Frederick County Jail. Rice placed an ad requesting Ben’s owner come forward and pay the jailor's fee. 

In July 1845, a “stampede of slaves” who had trekked days from Charles and St. Mary’s counties passed through Rockville in broad daylight and were immediately pursued by a posse of citizens. Surrounded at Logtown, present-day Gaithersburg, where a bloody melee ensued, many were captured and carried to the Rockville Jail, awaiting return to their Southern Maryland enslavers. (See also site # 23: Bohrer Park - Battle of Logtown.)

On September 8, 1849, a notice was posted in Rockville’s Maryland Journal newspaper, describing the arrest of a suspected conductor:

A Pennsylvanian, calling himself Wm. Edenboy, who says that he hails from Shippensburg, Cumberland County, was committed to our County Jail, on Wednesday evening last, the 5th instant, upon the charge of enticing slaves to run away.

William Edenborough entered the Baltimore penitentiary in November, having been convicted of “conspiracy to entice slaves to runaway.” He was pardoned on May 12, 1851.

In 1850, abolitionist William Chaplin of New York, was caught and arrested near Silver Spring, for transporting freedom seekers in a carriage. A crowd of angry citizens packed the Rockville courtroom for his arraignment. Chaplin spent 13 weeks in the county jail before being released on $19,000.00 bond, mostly paid by former Congressman and abolitionist Gerritt Smith. Chaplin never returned. (See also site #32: Jesup Blair Local Park - Arrest Site of William Chaplin.)

Today, the jail site features a marker with an image of the 1861 jail and the history of previous jail sites. Additional markers commemorate John Diggs-Dorsey and Sidney Randolph - two African-American men who were abducted from the jail and lynched by mobs in 1880 and 1896, respectively. A memorial bench and garden provide a serene place to sit in contemplation of the dark history that occurred on this site.

100 Maryland Avenue
Rockville, MD 20850

While serving as a slave-holding site from 1815-1864, The Beall Dawson House and grounds unwittingly played a key role in the Underground Railroad history of Rockville. The home was built by Upton and Jane (Robb) Beall, the daughter of Adam Robb, a local blacksmith and tavern-keeper, who briefly enslaved Josiah Henson as a child. Henson would eventually escape to Canada where he became an internationally-known abolitionist, author and Underground Railroad operative.

When Robb died in 1847 his enslaved property fell to his two daughters, Jane Beall (widow) and her married sister Catherine Harding. Adam Robb’s enslaved chattel included Annie Young and her two infant children. Annie’s husband Abraham was enslaved nearby by the Pierce family. The Young family escaped to Canada prior to 1850 and changed their names to Bradley. Abraham, now William Henry Bradley, lived at the Dawn Settlement established by Josiah Henson.

After Jane Beall’s death in 1849, her enslaved property was divided amongst her three daughters. One of the enslaved men was John Henson, the brother of famous freedom seeker Josiah Henson. Josiah tried to help his brother to escape with the aid of William Chaplin. Chaplin went to Rockville, at Josiah’s behest, to liberate John, but John was too weary of escape. Chaplin made two attempts before Josiah turned to a legal solution. 

Josiah purchased his brother John’s freedom in 1858 with funds he raised, in part, from the proceeds of his autobiography, which detailed his life in slavery and escape on the Underground Railroad. (See site #30 - Josiah Henson Museum and Park.)

While those enslaved by Jane Beall’s daughters experienced relative stability and maintained family ties, those enslaved by Beall’s sister Catherine Harding and her husband Henry were perpetually threatened with sale, perhaps to satisfy mounting debt or greed. Some, however, chose escape as the method to avoid being sold. Through flight, several freedom seekers enslaved by Catherine Harding made their way to Canada, including John and Arabella Weems and their eight enslaved children, one of whom was Ann Maria Weems, famous for her ingenious escape plot. The family settled in Canada and lived with the Bradleys.

Learn more about Ann Maria Weems’s escape at the Forging Freedom exhibit at Peerless Rockville, site #24.

During the Civil War the Beall sisters freed most of their enslaved people through the District of Columbia’s Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862. The Beall sisters were compensated $9,400 for setting free 17 people. Some of them quickly settled on land sold to them by the Bealls, establishing the nearby community of Haiti where their descendants live today.

This location appears on several walking tours from Peerless Rockville and is a Civil War Trail site. It includes wayside exhibits that tell these stories. The house is not currently open for tours.

Beall-Dawson House
103 W. Montgomery Avenue
Rockville, MD 20850
301-762-1492

Housed within an 1832 stone barn on a former Quaker farm, the Woodlawn Museum provides engaging exhibits that interpret slavery, abolition and the Underground Railroad, especially the evolving role and beliefs held by Quakers about slaveholding. 

The farm property, surrounded by Quaker and slaveholding communities, was the home of Dr. William Palmer and his wife Cleora Duvall Palmer. Dr. Palmer was a member of the Sandy Spring Friends Meeting, while Cleora came from a large slaveholding family. The Palmers used enslaved labor on the farm, putting them at odds with Sandy Spring Friends Meeting’s mores and traditions. William Palmer was eventually “read out” or banished from the meeting for refusing to free his human property. 

Exhibits interpret agriculture and Quaker history, describing Quaker beliefs and religious practices and how the Society of Friends came to abolish slaveholding among its membership. Quaker protests over slavery from 1688 through the Civil War are tracked alongside fugitive slave laws that mirror the period of active resistance to slavery.

The potential destinations to which freedom seekers might escape from Montgomery County and their methods of flight are shown. The Quaker village of Sandy Spring is placed at the center of this compass. Exhibits detail the escapes of local heroes Josiah Henson, Ann Maria Weems, and Mary and Emily Edmonson, demonstrating their bravery through their harrowing journeys. Local families and homes that were part of the Underground Railroad network are revealed. 

Descendant communities of freedom seekers are displayed - some branches now live in the Sandy Spring area while others reside in Toronto, the end point of a journey on the Underground Railroad. Other exhibits show the free Black enclaves that emerged in Sandy Spring and nearby as the result of Quaker manumissions. These Black enclaves established strong faith communities and strived for economic and social advancement by obtaining civil rights. The strong connections and solidarity these communities maintained provided hope for a better life for those who were once oppressed. 

Visitors can also walk the Underground Railroad Experience Trail to discover what it was like to be a freedom seeker. (See site #29 - The Underground Railroad Experience Trail.) The park and former farm include a Federal-era brick house, carriage house and springhouse. Two dwellings, one possibly for the farm’s enslaved workers, help paint a picture of this once active slaveholding farm.

Woodlawn Museum at Woodlawn Manor Cultural Park
16501 Norwood Road
Sandy Spring, MD 20860
301-929-5989

The Underground Railroad Experience Trail Hike simulates an escape to freedom for self-liberators traveling through the wilderness. The trail features natural, unpaved terrain passing through dense forest, and over bridges, streams and fields. Along the course of this 2-mile trail, one encounters wildlife, native plants and other elements of the journey to freedom. 

Interpretive signs and a brochure, available at the Woodlawn Manor Visitor Center, guide visitors on the trail. Themes include wayfinding, traveling by night, foraging and how to avoid obstacles along the journey. Hiding places and make-do shelters are highlighted such as the hollowed-out trunk of a Tulip tree, where a freedom seeker might hunker down for the night.

The trail was not an actual escape path; it is however in the heart of the Sandy Spring which had an active Underground Railroad network. Freedom seekers would flee to local homes where they found safety and aid on their journeys. The Woodlawn Museum within this park provides context for the story told on the trail and is not to be missed.  (See site #28 - Woodlawn Museum.)

Guided experiences on the trail are offered by Montgomery County Parks docents. Night-time guided hikes are a favorite among guests.

The Underground Railroad Experience Trail
Woodlawn Manor Cultural Park
16501 Norwood Road
Sandy Spring, MD 20860
301-929-5989

The Josiah Henson Museum and Park is on the site where abolitionist and Underground Railroad operative Josiah Henson was enslaved by Isaac Riley for more than 30 years. The museum portrays his life in slavery, his decision to flee and the impact of his autobiography on Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of the antislavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, who modeled her character “Tom” in part after Henson. 

Born in 1789 in Charles County, Maryland, Henson was sold on the auction block as a child and brought to this farm near Rockville. Henson was eventually sent to Kentucky, expecting to be able to purchase his freedom after this journey. When he was denied the opportunity promised to him, he escaped from Kentucky to Canada in 1830. There, Rev. Henson became an influential author, abolitionist and public speaker.

Henson established the Dawn Settlement as a haven for former slaves and began guiding freedom seekers north to safety on Canadian soil. Rev. Henson returned to the United States to guide 118 others to freedom.

At the museum, visitors can discover Henson’s legacy through a film, exhibits, and original copies of Uncle Tom’s Cabin along with artifacts uncovered at the park. A self-guided tour of interactive exhibits and artifacts across the property tell the life story of Rev. Josiah Henson, slavery in Maryland, and the ongoing struggle for racial equality. Guided archaeology tours are offered on select dates. 

Josiah Henson Museum and Park
11420 Old Georgetown Road
North Bethesda, MD 20852
301-765-8790

Freedom seekers used the C & O Canal Towpath as a route to freedom and also as a potential destination. The canal stretches for nearly 185 miles from Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, Maryland, nearing the Pennsylvania border. Those escaping slavery could find work alongside free Blacks while the canal was being built. Later, some free Blacks worked as canallers, moving canal boats from one destination to another, potentially communicating with those who sought freedom.  

John Curry, an enslaved man from North Carolina narrated his escape by following the canal towpath before passing into Pennsylvania. He wrote about his escape:

“At Alexandria, I crossed the Potomac River and came to Washington where I made friends with a colored family, with whom I rested eight days. I then took the Montgomery Road, but, wishing to escape … and it being cloudy, I lost my course, and fell back again along the Potomac River, and traveled on the tow-path of the canal from Friday night until Sunday morning….[After an encounter with a man on horse-back who he feared would stop him] I soon entered a colored person's house on the side of the canal, where they gave me breakfast and treated me very kindly. I traveled on through Williamsport and Hagerstown, in Maryland, and, on the nineteenth day of July, about two hours before day, I crossed the line into Pennsylvania with a heart full of gratitude to God, believing that I was indeed a free man, and that now, under the protection of law, there was 'none who could molest me or make me afraid.”

Close to the nation’s capital, this busy area of the canal saw numerous boats lumbering through, carrying cargo or passengers. Guests stopped to stay overnight or eat a meal at the tavern and met here for community gatherings.

Today at Great Falls, visitors can walk or bike the canal towpath, explore a visitor center inside the 19th-century tavern and hotel, and take an historic mule-drawn canal boat ride on the replica Charles F. Mercer, all while envisioning the clandestine movement of freedom seekers by moonlight or the secret communications between Black canal workers and freedom seekers. Ranger programs tell the story of the canal through unique experiences.

About 5 miles northwest in Poolesville, Edward’s Ferry Lockhouse #25 offers a wayside exhibit that describes the canal’s role in the Underground Railroad. Guests can reserve the lockhouse for overnight stays to experience life on the canal circa 1860 through the Canal Quarters Program. See also site #7 - C & O Canal Cushwa Basin, and site #4 Canal Place.

Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center
C & O Canal National Historical Park
11710 Macarthur Boulevard
Potomac, MD 20854
301-767-3714

Often Underground Railroad activities, routes and operatives are known, because an activist got caught and arrested while fleeing or helping others escape. Legal documents, newspapers and court records reveal stories and identify those involved. Here on Georgia Avenue at the Washington, D.C. line, such an event unfolded.

On August 8, 1850 a hired carriage was forcibly stopped in the middle of the Georgetown Pike (Georgia Ave.) at the Washington D.C. and Maryland border by a Sheriff’s posse from Washington, D.C. A shoot-out ensued. The carriage, driven by William Chaplin, was carrying two men attempting to escape from bondage who were enslaved by Southern congressmen. Chaplin was arrested and the enslaved men recovered.

William Chaplin was a leader of the Liberty Party and an Underground Railroad operative from Albany, New York who had come to the District of Columbia in 1845. He worked with the Albany Vigilance Committee and aided African Americans, both free and enslaved, in legal endeavors and in escaping to freedom.

Since there was a dispute over whether the arrest took place in D.C. or in Maryland, Chaplin was imprisoned in Washington for six weeks and released on $6,000 bond, then was subsequently imprisoned in Rockville, Maryland for thirteen weeks and released on $19,000 bond, an enormous amount of money. Chaplin left the area, forfeiting the bond, and never came to trial. 

Today, this site is a 15-acre park that features a playground, soccer field, two lighted basketball courts, two lighted tennis courts, picnic areas, an open amphitheater and walking paths.

For more information on Underground Railroad conductor William Chaplin, see also site #26 Montgomery County Jail Site, and site #27 Beall Dawson House.

Jesup Blair Local Park
900 Jesup Blair Drive
Georgia Ave. and Washington, D.C. Line
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301-495-2595