Underground Railroad Timeline

Underground Railroad Timeline
Submitted by Debbie Quinn

1619 - Dutch slave traders land in Virginia, bringing the first African slaves to the United States
1775 - The first abolitionist group in the U.S. is founded in Philadelphia.
1798 - Abolitionist Levi Coffin is born in N. C.
1826 - Levi & Catharine Coffin move to Newport, Indiana. Their house becomes a station on the UGRR and they help more the 3,000 people escape slavery.
1838 - Frederick Douglass runs away from slavery.
1847 - Douglass publishes the first issue of the North Star newspaper
1848 - Ellen & William Craft escape to freedom
1849 - Harriet Tubman escapes to freedom / Henry Box Brown packages himself to freedom
1850 - Fugitive Slave Act is passed
1861 - The Civil War begins
1863 - President Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation
1865 - Civil War Ends
1868 - Ellen & William Craft open a school for black children
1990 - U.S. Congress asks the National Park Service to study the UGRR
1996 - Anthony Cohen retraces the UGRR from Maryland to Canada
2000 - President Bill Clinton signs the National UGRR Freedom Center Act.