John H. and Sarah Tibbets assisted fugitive slaves in their home, and John piloted them to the next safe haven. Both belonged to Neil’s Creek Anti-Slavery Society and the Anti-Slavery Regular Baptist Church at College Hill, where John served as a trustee, and he also served as a trustee of Eleutherian College. Free blacks from Madison and the surrounding area and white abolitionists also helped fugitive slaves. The Underground Railroad was a widespread network of diverse people in the nineteenth century who aided slaves escaping to freedom from the southern U.S.