Maryland's Underground Railroad Network to Freedom

Top Not-to-Miss Network to Freedom Sites, Programs and Tours

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 05:21:34 +0000

1. Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center

4068 Golden Hill Rd, Church Creek

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The Path to Freedom

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 04:28:07 +0000

A Dangerous Journey

Escaping bondage and running to freedom was a dangerous and potentially life-threatening decision. Making the choice to leave loved ones — even children — behind was heart wrenching. Surviving exposure without proper clothing, finding food and shelter, and navigating into unknown territory while eluding slave catchers all made the journey perilous.

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Map of Sites, Programs and Tours

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 09:13:31 +0000

WESTERN MARYLAND
1. Casselman River Bridge on the National Road
2. Chesapeake & Ohio Canal — Williamsport Visitor Center
3. Chesapeake & Ohio Canal — Ferry Hill Plantation

CAPITAL REGION
1. Catoctin Furnace Ironmaking Village
2. Best Farm L’Hermitage
3. Button Farm Almanac Tour and Living History Site
4. Underground Railroad Experience Trail
5. Chesapeake & Ohio Canal — Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center
6. Forging Freedom: Endurance, Escape and Rockville’s Underground Railroad
7. Josiah Henson Museum and Park
8. Arrest Site of William Chaplin
9. Riversdale Historic Site & Museum
10. Marietta Historic Site & Museum
11. Belair Mansion
12. Northampton Slave Quarters and Archaeological Site
13. Concord Historic Site
14. Darnall’s Chance Historic Site & Museum
15. Mount Calvert Museum and Historic Site

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Journey to Freedom

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 09:06:52 +0000

What is the Underground Railroad and Why Did It Exist Here?

Imagine that you were snatched away from your home and carried on a ship (a filthy ship filled with sickness and death) to a place far away from everything you’d ever known. Or maybe you never had to leave the land where you were born but knew that at any moment everyone you loved could be sent away and never be seen again. This is what enslaved Africans and African Americans in the United States and in Maryland faced every day for more than 200 years before the Civil War. Denied the freedom to be with their loved ones, to work for pay and to live freely, enslaved people craved freedom.

Enslaved laborers produced handsome profits and lavish lifestyles for many enslavers and their families. When Maryland shifted from tobacco growing to the grain industry (which meant it needed fewer laborers), slave traders in this state turned a profit selling human beings into the Deep South to fuel cotton and rice production. The institution of slavery existed for almost 250 years in the U.S. and was an inexorable part of its foundation and expansion.

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Ordinary People, Extraordinary Acts

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 08:59:15 +0000

Josiah Henson

Josiah Henson’s 1849 autobiography The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave Now an Inhabitant of Canada served as a model for the main character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which energized the abolitionist movement. Abraham Lincoln believed that this best-selling novel sparked the fire leading to the Civil War.

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