The Underground Railroad was a network of American abolitionists who aided and sheltered 100,000 African Americans seeking freedom from enslavement in the South. These Freedom Seekers often journeyed north by land, and many crossed into the free state of Pennsylvania from the Washington DC. area either through Baltimore or Western Maryland, both corridors well served by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at the time. The B&O Railroad Museum has documented the trips of at least 27 Freedom Seekers using the B&O Railroad to aid their treks. These records show that at least eight passed through the 1851 B&O Mount Clare Railroad Station and the tracks beside it. In 2021, the National Park Service designated the site a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Site. The land the B&O was founded on was originally home to slaves owned by James Carroll. In 1827, the first B&O President Philip Thomas, a Quaker, established policies that banned the use of slave labor by the railroad.
