Secret Lives of the Underground Railroad in New York City: Sydney Howard Gay, Louis Napoleon and the Record of Fugitives Paperback – January 28, 2015

For many years, the history of the Underground Railroad seemed have been lost. It was a clandestine operation, and serious researchers avoided the topic because solid source material did not exist. Or did it? The Underground Railroad also appeared to be the preserve of local "historians" who recorded as fact stories of secret hiding places and tunnels, often stories that had no basis in fact. It seemed the preserve of wishful thinking rather than critical scholarship. School children read stories about Harriet Tubman that were often embellished. Even Harriet Tubman, the best, and often only, known Underground Railroad figure did not have a critical biography that took a careful look at the evidence until Kate Clifford Larson's study finally showed the reality of Tubman's life and career. It turns out that the real Harriet Tubman was braver and more resourceful than the Tubman of mythology. However in the past twenty or more years, historians have been reexamining old evidence and finding substantial bodies of new evidence that expands and corrects the Underground Railroad History. Though I have just criticized those local "historians" who seem to believe everything that anyone tells them, many of the real historians who are doing the best work are in fact local historians, who might better be described as independent scholars, who know or teach themselves how to critically evaluate evidence, how to mine data from many sources, are willing to sift through mountains of data, and care passionately about their subject and the search for the truth.Secret Lives is a great example of independent scholars uncovering important information, who are also able to place the local narrative in broader context. Though Secret Lives is primarily about Underground networks in New York City, that network connected to other networks in the South, in Pennsylvania (particularly William Still's network in Philadelphia), and connected to the north to havens in Canada and New England. Anyone working on the Underground Railroad in the Mid-Atlantic, in New England, in New York and into Canada needs this book. Tom Calaraco and Don Papson are to be commended not only for this book, but for years serious investigation into the history of the Underground Railroad.

This is the UR that you probably have not heard about. If you are a lover of NYC history, then this book is for you.

Great book, very very interesting.

Lots of boring reading. difficult to follow

" Secret Lives of the Underground Railroad in New York City" (McFarland, 2015), offers first person accounts of the clandestine efforts to help escaping slaves. Drawing on never-before-published Record of Fugitives kept by newspaper editor and abolitionist Sydney Howard Gay, the book provides vivid detail of the lives of Underground Railroad agents, and the harrowing journey that African-Americans undertook to free themselves from slavery.The co-authors are steeped in this history. Don Papson was founding president of the North Star Underground Railroad Museum in Ausable Chasm, responsible for much of the research that brought the Champlain Line of the freedom trail to light. Tom Calarco is author of six other books on the topic, including The Underground Railroad in the Adirondack Region.Links between their New York City story and the Adirondacks, and other parts of the state are everywhere, with tales of journeys up the Hudson River to Albany and Troy, out west to Niagara, and more. The Record of Fugitives, discovered at the Columbia University library and transcribed by volunteers, covers the years 1855 and 1856.Here's but one example, with the amount spent to help the couple, noted at the end:"John Williams & Mary, his wife, from Haven Manor, 13 miles from Elkton, Md. masterfs name John Peach. Ran away last Fall, but were caught between Newcastle & Wilmington, taken back & whipped. Peach said if they ran away again, ghe would have eem if he had to go to hell for eem.h He will only, however, have to go (to) Canada. It is not to be-sure so far, but the difficulties would hardly be greater, as in the other place, a slave catcher would be sure of aid & sympathyc..Sent on to Syracuse. $8.50"The book also uncovers the significant role of a black man, Louis Napoleon, in the Underground Railroad organizations in New York. He escorted escapees through the city, helped to hide them and arranged transportation to the North. And, even though he was illiterate and signed documents with an X, he also filed suits in local courts to free fugitives who were being held in jail.First Published, NY History blog.

This is a very important addition to the growing scholarship on the Underground Railroad. Don Papson and Tom Calarco – long time Underground Railroad history experts – spent years collecting documentation for this much needed history of one of the most important stations along the Eastern Underground Railroad. Two long-forgotten Underground Railroad agents in New York City – Louis Napoleon and Sydney Howard Gay – occupy this book’s center stage. Napoleon, a free black living and working in the city, spent decades helping freedom seekers escape, at great risk to his life and freedom. Sydney Gay, abolitionist, newspaper editor, and a member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, was an ardent supporter of the city’s Underground networks. It was Gay’s Journal, a documentary record of Underground Railroad activities in the city during 1855 and 1856 and never published before, which forms the foundation for this remarkable history. Papson and Calarco have given us fascinating biographical details about Napoleon and Gay, placing them within the regional and national antislavery and Underground Railroad networks to freedom. The authors reprint the entire journal, adding additional material further illuminating the many names and events mentioned by Gay, revealing powerful stories of narrow escapes by brave and desperate people fleeing enslavement through a diverse network of Underground Railroad agents from Virginia to Canada. This book is a must-have for researchers, genealogists, students, teachers, and general readers interested in this dramatic period in our nation’s history!