Station Stops: The Underground Railroad - Cambridge, MD - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

TEXT on the historical marker:

Station Stops: The Underground Railroad-Slavery 1819-1858--William Still

William Still (1821- 1902) was born in Burlington New Jersey. His parents had been enslaved on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. To escape slavery, William Still’s parents and their young daughter fled to New Jersey before William was born. Tragically, the parents had to leave behind two young boys. The owner was afraid that these boys also would eventually “run away” so the owner sold them at a “southern market,” and they ended up in Alabama. Over 30-years later one of these boys who had bought his own freedom came to Philadelphia. He had come to search for his long lost parents. By chance he met his brother William Still who of course he did not know. After a short conversation they suddenly recognized that they were brothers. As a result of this emotional encounter William Still resolved to preserve detailed records about fugitive slave who came through his office. Still hoped that such records might one day help other long-separated African Americans identify their kinfolk and re-unite.

Samuel Green

Samuel Green ((c. 1803 – 1876) was a free black farmer and Methodist minister. He lived about eight miles northeast of Cambridge near the town of East New Market. The son Samuel Green fled to Canada in 1854, under the guidance of Harriet Tubman. In 1857, Reverend Green was sentenced to ten years in prison for having in his house a copy of the famous anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. In 1862 Reverend Green was pardoned.

Thomas Garret

Thomas Garrett (1789-1871) of Wilmington, Delaware, provided a pivotal station on the Underground Railroad. He aided over 2,000 slaves on their way to freedom.

William Still's Account of the Cambridge "Runaways" of October, 1857

On her trips North, Harriet Tubman often would meet William Still at the home of an American business man in Philadelphia. William Still was the head of the Vigilance Committee of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery society. This group of activists assisted slaves from the south who had come north to escape. During the 1850’s, William Still kept a detailed journal about the people whom he helped in their flight to freedom. In 1872 William Still published a unique book called The Underground Railroad in which was a narrative account of the journal. Still focused his attention on the fugitives themselves and not on the abolitionists who helped the many other writers of books about the Underground Railroad.

From Still’s book, we know that in October 1857 at least 42 slaves fled the Cambridge area. One Baltimore newspaper called this large scale exodus a “Stampede”. These self-liberators were well armed. According to Still their weapons of defense included three revolvers, three double-barreled pistols, three single-barreled pistols and three sword-canes, four butcher knives, one bowie knife and one paw. (A paw is a weapon with iron prongs, four inches long to be grasped with the hand and used in close quarters.) The illustration below appeared in The Underground Railroad. These “memorable twenty-eight” were joined by an additional fourteen slaves from the same area and Still documents their journey to liberation through letters, reward notices and newspaper articles. Some historians believe that Harriet Tubman herself was involved in this October 1857 escape.

Group that erected the marker: Maryland Heritage Area URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link] Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Washington Street at US 50 At the Harriet Tubman Memorial Garden Cambridge, MD United States 21613

Visit Instructions:
Take a picture of the marker, preferably including yourself or your GPSr in the photo. A very detailed description of your visit may be substituted for a photo. In any case please provide a description of your visit. A description of only "Visited" or "Saw it while on vacation" by anyone other than the person creating the waymark may be deleted by the waymark owner or the category officers.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   10/01/2022 Don.Morfe visited it