Use this guide to find material on the
history of the Underground Railroad in Monroe County, New York. If
you have questions after consulting these resources, contact a
librarian by visiting your local Monroe County Library System
library, calling a reference librarian (use the
Member Library Directory
to find phone
numbers), or by completing the
Ask a Librarian online
form.
The Underground Railroad was a network of people who helped
fugitive slaves gain their freedom. Rochester, NY and other towns in
Monroe County were one of the last stops on the railroad before
fugitive
slaves crossed the border into Canada. Resources documenting the people and places of the
Underground Railroad in Monroe County can be found in Monroe County libraries and on the
Internet. This guide lists these resources by the following
categories:
The following materials are located in various Monroe County
libraries. Click on a title
to display information about the item in the library catalog. Scroll down
the page to see what libraries own the item. Call the library first (use
the Member Library
Directory to find phone numbers) to be sure the material is
available. Material owned by Rochester Public Library Central
with the L/H location are in the Local History and Genealogy
Division (on the second floor of the Rundel Library
Building, 114 South Ave, Rochester, NY.) and must be used in the
Division.
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Sweet gift of freedom:
A Civil War anthology, by Shirley Cox Husted |
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Underground
Railroad tales: With routes through the Finger Lakes
Region, by Emerson Klees |
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A path to freedom: One
Underground Railroad route in Monroe
County, by Lee McCanne |
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The underground, freedom's road, and other upstate tales, by
Arch Merrill |
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North star country: Upstate New York and the crusade for African
American Freedom, by Milton Sernett |
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The
Underground Railroad
from slavery to freedom, by Wilbur H. Siebert |
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Flight to freedom, a
production of WXXI television, videocassette |
The following books do not circulate and must be used in a
library.
The following books contain sections about the Underground
Railroad in Monroe County. Page numbers are listed.
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Harriet Tubman, by Earl Conrad, pages 60-61 |
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Semi-centennial history of Rochester, by William F. Peck. Chapter on "The Underground Railroad in Rochester," by Amy Post. Pages
458-462. Read the article. |
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Rochester Historical Society Publication Fund Series Volume XIV. Chapter on "Antislavery days in Rochester" by Amy Hanmer-Croughton.
Pages 113-155 |
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Genesee Valley Women: 1743-1985, by Irene A. Beale. Chapter
on Amy Post. Pages 26-29 |
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The city of Frederick Douglass: Rochester's African-American people
and places, by Eugene E. DuBois. Topics include:
the Underground Railroad, Austin Steward, Frederick Douglass, Amy
and Isaac Post, Jacob P. Morris, Mt. Hope Cemetery, and a map
showing several Underground Railroad sites in downtown Rochester.
Various pages |
Monroe County libraries, and especially the Central library, have other books on the Underground Railroad in general as well as biographies
of people who aided slaves. Search the library catalog,
LIBRAWeb, by using
the keywords: "underground railroad" or "antislavery movements". In
addition, search for biographies of people who aided the slaves. For
example, use
"Frederick Douglass", "Austin Steward", and "Harriet Tubman" as keywords. (The
LIBRAWeb Tutorial is a good starting place to learn
how to do a keyword search.)
RESOURCES AT THE CENTRAL
LIBRARY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY
There are some resources on the Underground Railroad in Monroe
County not cataloged in LIBRAWeb that are
located either in the the Retrieval Room or the Local History and Genealogy Division of the
Central Library of Rochester and Monroe Country. The Retrieval Room
is located on the first floor of the Bausch and Lomb Library
Building, 114
South Ave., Rochester, NY. The Local History and Genealogy Division is
located across the street in the Rundel Library Building, second
floor.
These materials are available for use in the library but can not
be checked out. Library staff are available to help you find these
items.
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Underground Railroad Stations Still Standing in Monroe County, New
York
This leaflet written by E. Anne Schaetzke in 1989 has been converted
to an Adobe Acrobat file. You may view the leaflet's
cover and
contents. |
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Map
Click here to view a photograph of
Wilbur H. Siebert's 1898 map, "Underground routes to Canada." The original map may be viewed in the
Local History and Genealogy
Division. |
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Index to 19th Century Newspapers
(1851-1897)
This index is located in the Local History and Genealogy Division.
Entries under the index heading "Underground Railway" will list dates
and page numbers for specific newspaper articles. You will find the
actual newspapers articles on microfilm in the Retrieval Room. |
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Newspapers published by Frederick Douglass
"The North Star" (microfilm), located in the Retrieval Room.
"Frederick Douglass' Paper" (microfilm), located in the Retrieval
Room.
"Douglass' Monthly" (reprint), located in the Local History and
Genealogy Division. |
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Underground Railroad
Scrapbooks
Two small scrapbooks with articles, mostly from the 1930's,
are titled RVF Underground Railroad (volumes 1 and 2) and are kept
in the Local History
and Genealogy Division. |
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Newspaper Articles
Approximately 40 articles about the Underground Railroad published from 1936 to date are
located in the the Local History and Genealogy Division's clipping
file. Especially helpful is a four-part series on the
Underground Railroad by Willis B. Knowles published in the Democrat
and Chronicle, October - November, 1936. |
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Other Underground
Railroad Material
The Underground Railroad folder in the Local History and Genealogy
Division's pamphlet file includes miscellaneous items of interest.
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MONROE COUNTY LIBRARY SYSTEM DATABASES
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Rochester
History
Online full-text articles about Rochester's history are included in
this database. While no article specifically is about the
Underground Railroad, there are articles which cite the railroad as
well as abolitionists. Search the Index for
Abolitionist movement Abolitionists Slavery Slaves Underground Railroad
The article, "The autobiography of Rev. Thomas James," in the October
1975 issue, also refers to the Underground Railroad. |
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Rochester Images
Photographs of six places on the Underground Railroad can be found
in this database. Click the Search Images button and search for "Underground Railroad".
Search for "Frederick Douglass" to find portraits, his monument and
his tombstone. For pictures of the
former building of the AME Zion Church at Spring and Favor Streets
(a stop on the Underground Railroad), search for "African Methodist Episcopal
Zion Church." The "Civil War
era map of Rochester" shows
Corinthian Hall (#47), a site of many antislavery speeches, and AME Zion Church (#44),
a stop on the Underground Railroad.
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