As early as 1823 in Bloomfield township, many people in the community conspired to help a slave family who was fleeing north while pursued by their owner, his son, and another man.  Several people delayed the slave hunters as long as possible while others hid the family in a barn well away from the road.  The family was sheltered in a hut in the woods until the slave hunters left the area, and then a log cabin was built for them to live in through the winter.  In the spring they were put on a boat in Ashtabula harbor headed for Canada and safety.

But by 1850, helping slaves who had run away, or being part of the Underground Railroad, was illegal.  Anyone who was caught sheltering or transporting runaway slaves could be arrested by lawmen.  Sometimes, if they were caught by people with strong states rights or pro-slavery feelings, they might be coated with hot tar and then have feathers dumped over them.  Most people who did help tried not to let anyone know what they were doing. 

Sometimes we have to be detectives about how involved people were in the Underground Railroad.  We know Jacob and Nancy Barnes subscribed to William Garrison’s anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator, because we have a receipt.  Jacob Barnes wrote in a letter that although he had never been caught, he had been ‘close enough to smell the tar.’  The Barneses lived on Boardman-Canfield Road in the house now called Loghurst.  Other buildings which were stations on the Underground Railroad are the Strock Stone House in Austintown and the Old Stone Tavern in Poland.

Are there people we can help today?  Would you be afraid to let other people know you were helping?  What would you do if you thought a law was wrong?  For a closer look at these primary sources, go to www.mahoninghistory.org.  Under Education, click on ‘What Do You Know’ for a list of articles.  Then click on the embedded images in the articles for downloadable files with transcriptions.