When I was a kid I was enthralled by Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. I remember it took a little while for me to understand that the Underground Railroad wasn’t actually a railroad under the ground, but a series of “safe” places for slaves to stop for the night or get help as they fled from the southern part of the United States to their freedom in the north.
Harriet Tubman, often called the “Moses of her people” led hundreds of slaves along the Underground Railroad in several trips from the south to the north. Since I live in Ohio, a state that’s rich with Underground Railroad history, every once in awhile, someone will mention to me about some house or church they know of that was a railroad “station.” It’s possible to take in several of them on an Underground Railroad tour. Here is a list of tours I found in Ohio, New York, New Jersey and Canada. Also, in Auburn, New York you can visit Harriet Tubman’s house.
- Flight To Freedom: Ohio’s Underground Railroad Tour (across southwestern Ohio)
- Lake Erie, Black Heritage Route in Ontario Canada. (lists several sites in various locations)
- Motherland Connextions: Western New York, Underground Railroad Tour
- Road to Freedom: Underground Railroad Tour in the Buffalo and Niagara area of New York. (driving tour)
- Peekskill Underground Railroad and Tunnel in Peekskill, NY (in the warmer months)
-
Underground Railroad Tour in Burlington, New Jersey. (self-guided walking tour)
-
Underground Railroad in Erie County, Ohio (self-guided walking tour that also leads past several private residences that were “safe” houses.)
-
Underground Railroad Flight to Freedom Tour in Detroit, Michigan. (located in the First Congregational Church and looks like an interpretive tour.) The photo is of the Detroit/Ontario Underground Railroad Memorial in Detroit.