Using geographic information systems, College of Liberal Arts professors Jeremy Mennis and Nilgün Anadolu-Okur mapped the historic towns and counties from which individuals escaped slavery to Philadelphia on the Underground Railroad between 1853 and 1861.
William Still published his records in a book titled The Underground Railroad, which is now regarded as one of the most important primary sources on the subject. Temple University’s Blockson …
Photo by Betsy Manning
As a city in a free state, Philadelphia was a refuge for thousands of people escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad in the mid-19th century. A Black abolitionist named William Still, often referred to as the "Father of the Underground Railroad,” documented these stories of journeys to freedom, risking imprisonment. Today, those records are informing researchers at Temple’s College of Liberal Arts as they map the routes these courageous people took from their places of origin to the freedom of Philadelphia.
A new study published in the International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing uses geographic information systems (GIS) to reconstruct the journeys nearly 1,000 people who escaped slavery and arrived in Philadelphia via the Underground Railroad between 1853 and 1861. “Mapping Origins of Escape from Slavery on the Underground Railroad: The Records of Black Abolitionist William Still, 1853–1861” is the product of an interdisciplinary collaboration between Nilgün Anadolu-Okur, professor of Africology and African American studies, and Jeremy Mennis, professor of geography.
Using digitized records originally made by Still, Anadolu-Okur and Mennis traced the routes of people escaping slavery north to Philadelphia from their places of origin, with many of them coming from Norfolk and Henrico Counties in Virginia, Dorchester and Baltimore counties in Maryland, and Sussex County in Delaware. The study also revealed distinct travel patterns, with people escaping from the southern Chesapeake Bay region often traveling by steamship or schooner, while those closer to Philadelphia were more likely to travel by road or on foot.
“The story of the Underground Railroad, and of its key figures, such as William Still and Harriet Tubman, are mostly unknown to the general public,” said Mennis. “If you want to understand the present social, political and economic situation in the U.S., you must understand the historical legacies of the past. It is particularly important for Philadelphians to know this history, given the central role the city played in the Underground Railroad, which serves as an interesting complement to its more well-known place as the locus of American Independence.”
The research helps dispel misunderstandings about what the Underground Railroad actually was—in fact not a railroad at all, it was a secret, loosely knit network of safe houses known as “stations” or “depots” where people escaping slavery could find safe refuge escorted by both Black and white “conductors,” including Harriet Tubman and Still, who would shepherd them north to free states or Canada.
The findings also offer new insight into what life was like for people escaping slavery making their way north to freedom on the Underground Railroad. This window into the past, the researchers explain, allows us to see the present more clearly and highlights the agency, courage and perseverance of enslaved people whose stories fill Still’s records.
The research sheds light not only on the experience of escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad but on the climate of Philadelphia in the mid-1800s. As the nation’s southernmost major Northern city, it served as a natural destination for many freedom seekers. The city’s large free Black population, active abolitionist community, Quaker influence, busy port and transportation connections made it a critical hub in Underground Railroad operations.
As the United States celebrates its semiquincentennial this year, Anadolu-Okur notes how the research promotes a deeper understanding of who we are as a nation and a city.
“Any study of the Underground Railroad and Africans’ contribution the Civil Rights Movement as early as the mid-1800s cannot be separated from a historical understanding of the role of these societies and organizations founded by African Americans,” said Anadolu-Okur.
The article originated from Mennis’ research on the geography of the Underground Railroad in the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the birthplace of Tubman and Frederick Douglass, where many escapes had taken place in the 1830s and continued until the 1860s. Anadolu-Okur invited him to share his findings at the annual Africology and African American Studies Department’s annual Underground Railroad and Black History Conference in 2024.
“The Underground Railroad is an exciting research topic and we had been organizing annual conferences on it for the last 23 years in the Africology and African American Studies Department. Because of new findings, Jeremy’s research is cutting edge and offered new opportunities with the help of technology,” said Anadolu-Okur.
Following the conference, the two quickly recognized the potential of combining historical scholarship with geospatial analysis.
“As a geographer, I’m particularly interested in the role of the natural, built and socioeconomic environments in the Underground Railroad—where were the escape routes, how did people travel during escapes, where did they escape from, how did information spread along communication networks and so on,” said Mennis.
The research would not have been possible without the records of Still, who worked for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and became a key figure in Philadelphia’s Vigilance Committee, which assisted people fleeing enslavement. At great risk to himself, Still secretly recorded the stories, family histories and places of origin of freedom seekers while helping them. Because of the records he bravely kept, many Black families were eventually reunited.
“Still had great courage and risked his own life in accommodating former slaves because the penalties were harsh: Those who aided the runaways often faced criminal penalties of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine in addition to a civil liability to the holder of $1,000 for each escapee,” said Anadolu-Okur.
In 1872, Still published his records in a book titled The Underground Railroad, which is now regarded as one of the most important primary sources on the subject. Temple University’s Blockson Collection has a first edition copy of the book, along with many other materials related to Still’s life.
"Without the records Still created and preserved, the stories of so many people escaping slavery would have been lost," said Mennis.