In October 1857, ten years before Stanley Institute was established, two large groups of enslaved families successfully fled this area. Caroline and Daniel Stanley and their six children escaped with Nat and Lizzie Amby and six others. Two weeks later, a group of 28 fled from nearby. Aaron and Daffney Cornish, Joe and Susan Viney, and Kit and Leah Anthony brought away numerous children, and siblings Joe and Sarah Jane Hill joined them. Heavily armed, they appeared determined to avoid capture. Braving cold, rainy weather, they raced toward Wilmington, Delaware, closely pursued by slave catchers seeking high rewards, including $2,000 offered by Samuel Pattison. With help from individuals along the Underground Railroad, they made their way to freedom in Canada. Shocked Dorchester residents increased slave patrols and restricted the mobility of blacks, making Harriet Tubman’s own return trips impossible for nearly three years. Before the Civil War, it was a crime to teach a slave to read, and there were few opportunities for free blacks to learn. In 1867, the local community set about educating their children at Stanley Institute, where Emma Piper was the first teacher to welcome students. For the next 100 years, generations of students attended school there.