What was the Underground Railroad ?

Neither a railroad nor underground. The Underground Railroad was a network of people who hid and guided freedom seekers as they followed the North Star to Canada - to freedom.

People of New York were involved in the activities of the Underground Railroad, and they playes their role in African Americans' struggle for freedom.

Millions of black Africans were shipped as slaves to the United States and the Caribbean in terribly overcrowded boats. Over time, 40,000 of these people fled to Canada; after the civil war half of them returned to the south with the hope of being re-united with family and friends.

Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave from Maryland who became known as the "Moses of her people." Over the course of 10 years, and at great personal risk, she led hundreds of slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad, a secret network of safe houses where runaway slaves could stay on their journey north to freedom (1820-1913).

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Following the American Revolution, many British Loyalists left the United States and moved to Upper Canada; many brought slaves with them.

On May 21, 1793, Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe introduced a bill which prevented the introduction of further slavery into Upper Canada.

From the early 1820's those escaping slavery in the United States followed the North Star to find shelter behind Upper Canada's humanitarian policies. Before long the "Underground Railroad" brought the first freedom seekers to Upper Canada and as a result a substantial population of blacks established itself in the Niagara Region.