Portland Freedom Trail: Hack Stand of Charles H. L. Pierre - Portland, ME
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 43° 39.625 W 070° 14.991
19T E 399224 N 4834916
A Portland Freedom Trail marker is located on Middle Street and the corner of India Street at the former site of the hack stand of Charles H. L. Pierre, a conductor on the Underground Railroad.
Waymark Code: WM10PV9
Location: Maine, United States
Date Posted: 06/08/2019
Views: 2
In 1857, the captain of the HMS Albion Cooper rescued a stowaway runaway slave from Savannah, GA. Upon arriving at Portland he secretly met with members of the local anti-slavery network to bring the slave to Quebec, Canada via the underground railroad. Charles H. L. Pierre was a leader of this rescue team.
Bronze and granite monuments mark the sites on the Portland Freedom Trail. The trail is: "Dedicated to the countless thousands of men and women who fled the bonds of slavery but were recaptured or died at the hands of their pursuers before they reached the safe embrace of the Underground Railroad."
The monument contains a bronze relief image of a conductor leading runaway slaves via the underground railroad at night. It is inscribed:
PORTLAND FREEDOM TRAIL
MAINE FREEDOM TRAILS ESTABLISHED 2007
Below is a bronze plaque which has an image of a hackney and the inscription:
HACK STAND OF CHARLES H. L.
PIERRE, 29 MIDDLE STREET. CHARLES
H. L. PIERRE LED THE AFRICAN
AMERICANS WHO RESCUED THE
STOWAWAYS ABOARD HMS ALBION
COOPER IN THE FALL OF 1857.
IN THE MID-1800'S PROFESSIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR
FREED BLACKS WERE LIMITED. MOST WERE HACK
(CARRIAGE) DRIVERS, BARBERS OR SECOND-HAND
CLOTHING DEALERS. MEMBERS OF THESE PROFESSIONS
WERE ESSENTIAL TO MOVING PASSENGERS ON THE
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD TO FREEDOM IN CANADA
AND ENGLAND.