Freedom Crossing Monument

Along the Niagara River at Lewiston in the mid-1800s, enslaved African Americans fleeing the Southern United States first saw Canada as the Promised Land where they could live free forever. Lewiston was the final stop for countless escapees on the Underground Railroad, a network of secret back roads and safe houses used by the enslaved to find freedom in the North. Local citizens opposed slavery and, in a conspiracy of silence, helped freedom seekers reach Canada safely without breaking their code of secrecy. Led by Josiah Tryon, volunteers escorted fugitives across the river by rowboat, and when the boat touched the Canadian shore, they knew they were finally free after a long and treacherous journey. Amos Tryon built the House of 4 Cellars on the bank of the Niagara River in 1830 as a residence, but after it became known as Tryon's Folly, Josiah Tryon recognized it as an ideal place to smuggle fugitive slaves fleeing to Canada. After 1850, when helping the enslaved became a crime, Josiah Tryon and his volunteers continued to assist and protect them from bounty hunters seeking to return them to the South. Josiah Tryon, called the man with the Rainbow Heart for embracing people of all creeds and colors, lived from 1798 to 1886 and saw slavery abolished. In 1969, local author Margaret Goff Clark published Freedom Crossing, a story set in Lewiston that introduced thousands of 4th and 5th graders to the Underground Railroad and included detailed descriptions of landmarks such as the Presbyterian Church and Tryon's Folly. Its fictional heroine, Laura Eastman, was later depicted with an outstretched arm pointing toward Canada to honor the book and the courage of both the freedom seekers and the volunteers who aided their escape.

Lewiston, New York · United States