A Railroad to Freedom, Underground No More

A Railroad to Freedom, Underground No More - NYTimes.com: "At twilight, the three exiles walked up Main Street — silent, weary, silhouetted against the gathering darkness like the ghosts of some long-vanished past. They were fugitives from Virginia, and from slavery. And the most uncanny thing about their escape was this, according to a local newspaper: “They trudged along with their heavy bundles unmolested, and, in fact, almost unnoticed.”

The scene would have been unimaginable just months earlier — not to mention its being reported, so openly and matter-of-fact, in the press. Southern Pennsylvania, lying atop the Mason-Dixon Line, had of course long been an avenue of escape for slaves, a way station on the path to ultimate freedom in Canada. But it had been an avenue of pursuit, and sometimes a field of battle, for the slave catchers, too. Fugitives had bounties on their heads that many Pennsylvanians were eager to claim. And local magistrates were sworn, after all, to uphold federal law."