Harrowing Journey

Freedom Seekers faced daunting odds and demonstrated remarkable courage as they began journeys with little knowledge of what lay before them and often sought help from free blacks and sympathetic whites after reaching the North. Relatively safe routes ran through Ohio and western Pennsylvania into western New York, leading to Buffalo, the Niagara River, and Canada, but slave catchers were sent north to seek fugitives and watch key points such as the ferry at Black Rock. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made the capture of Freedom Seekers a federal responsibility and required local authorities to actively assist in their pursuit. An 1836 account told of one Freedom Seeker who reached the Erie River at Black Rock near Buffalo and within sight of Canada just as the ferryman was loosening the boat from shore when the man's enslaver rode up, drew a loaded pistol, and threatened to kill the ferryman if he carried his enslaved man across. The Freedom Seeker seized a handspike and threatened the ferryman in turn, and the ferryman, seeing both men equally determined, said he would rather die doing right, loosed the boat, and shoved off.

Kenmore, New York · United States