aken in hand by officers of the Underground Railroad and were
thus helped across the Canadian border.

From the seacoast the valley of the Connecticut River furnished a
convenient route for completing the journey northward, though the way of
the fugitives was often deflected to the Lake Champlain region. In later
years, when New England became generally sympathetic, numerous lines of
escape traversed that entire section. Other courses extended northward
from the vicinity of Philadelphia, Delaware, and Maryland. Here, through
the center of American Quakerdom, all conditions favored the escape
of fugitives, for slavery and freedom were at close quarters. The
activities of the Quakers, who were at first engaged merely in
preventing the reenslavement of those who had a legal right to freedom,
naturally expanded until aid was given without reservation to any
fugitive. From Philadelphia as a distributing point the route went by
way of New York and the Hudson River or up the river valleys of eastern
Pennsylvania through western New York.

In addition to the routes to freedom which the seacoast and river
valleys afforded, the Appalachian chain of mountains formed an
attractive highway of escape from slavery, though these mountain paths
lead us to another branch of our subject not immediately connected with
the Underground Railroad--the escape from bondage by the initiative of
the slaves themselves or by the aid of their own people. Mountains have
always been a refuge and a defense for the outlaw, and the few
dwellers in this almost unknown wilderness were not infrequently either
indifferent or friendly to the fugitives. The escaped slaves might, if
they chose, adopt for an indefinite time the free life of the hills;
but in most cases they naturally drifted northward for greater security
until they found themselves in a free State. Through the mountainous
regions of Virginia many thus escaped, and they were induced to remain
there by the example and advice of residents of their own color. The
negroes themselves excelled all others in furnishing places of refuge to
fugitives from slavery and in concealing their status. For this reason
John Brown and his associates were influenced to select this region for
their great venture in 1859.

But there were other than geographical conditions which helped to
determine the direction of the lines of the Underground Railroad. West
of the Alleghanies are the broad plains of the Mississippi