Often called the "Father of the Underground Railroad" and second in importance only to Harriet Tubman, William Still joined the Underground Railroad in the late 1840s after family experiences rooted in Caroline County. In 1806, the owner of Edmondson's Reserve enslaved William Still's mother and sisters, who escaped, and in retaliation sold William's two young brothers to the Deep South. More than 40 years later, William met his recently freed brother Peter, who recounted decades of slavery in Kentucky and Alabama. Born free in 1822, educated in New Jersey, and shaped by what had happened to his family, Still moved to Philadelphia in the 1840s and became a leader at one of the busiest Underground Railroad stations in America. From 1852 to 1860 he documented nearly 1,000 self-liberators on their journeys north, recording each person's name, age, departure point, injuries, motivations, family ties, enslavers, personality, objectives, and arrival date. After the Civil War, he published these records in an 800-page book titled The Underground Railroad, and no similar record of the Underground Railroad exists.