The narratives of escaping slaves formed an oral tradition, passed on in covert whisperings by free Blacks, neophyte abolitionists, and former slaves at secret meetings or fireside gatherings. The heart of this oral tradition consisted of tales detailing secret routes and ways to identify those who would assist a runaway slave along them. These stories were told and retold, and eventually published by early Hicksite Quakers to facilitate their dissemination far from the confines of New York and Long Island. Many of these freedom narratives bore witness to the kindness of Quakers, as one generation of fugitive slaves after another embarked upon their heroic quests for freedom and found temporary or sometimes permanent refuge with Quakers from Flushing to Jericho and from Jerusalem to Westbury. The history of these early networks both encompassed and prefigured a much larger chain of events and provided the first links in what became a national, organized network of freedom trails in the years immediately preceding the Civil War.

Over the years, as the first trickle of runaway slaves became a flood, free states enacted laws that served to hamper their escapes by allowing Southern slave catchers free access to reclaim "property." The Queens Freedom Trail became more heavily traveled as the need increased to circumvent the routes through New York's Manhattan Island, which became congested with slave catchers and their spies.¹ This volume provides the first clear evidence that second and third generations of Quakers from the Flushing, Jerusalem, Quaker Hill-Oblong, Westbury, Jericho and Purchase meetings participated in assisting escaping slaves, particularly when it became a common practice for Southern slave catchers to roam New York in search of runaway "property." While many runaways used Queens as a first stop on their northward-bound run for freedom, some remained in Queens and Long Island where, with help from local sympathizers, they established productive lives.

Elias Hicks, the spiritual progenitor of the Hicksite Quakers, preached from Biblical Scriptures that a man should not deliver an escaped servant back to his master. As early as 1776, Quaker principles had prompted some members of the Society of Friends to initiate the practice of educating and freeing their own slaves. It seems likely that the Quakers' early efforts to educate slaves to read and interpret the Bible helped to empower Africans to free themselves, but such a connection has not been proven. Within a very short period of time Quakers had increased the level of their actions from simply freeing their own slaves to protecting runaway slaves.

The Queens Freedom Trail that ran east to Long Island and then north-northwest to Westchester County had its origins in the Quakers' compelling conviction that "the Almighty Spirit directly influences the hearts of all mankind and that a strict adherence to the manifestation of duty (is) revealed to each individual soul.^"2 The separation of Quaker families as a result of the Revolutionary War provided networks of paths for escaping slaves to follow to freedom. There is evidence that runaway slaves followed these networks of paths, seeking sanctuary at the homes of Westbury and Jericho Quaker farmers who used their wagons to transport desperate runaways to freedom. Under cover of darkness, they slipped north along the trail to Hempstead Harbor's Premium Point or to Oyster Bay where Quakers would help runaways secure safe passage across Long Island Sound to Westchester County. From Westchester, escaping slaves journeyed further north, passing through other Quaker communities on their way to safety and freedom. These first tentative steps at forming freedom networks to free slaves by Queens and Long Island Quakers were among the earliest of such efforts on the American continent.

In one narrative, runaway Harriet Jacobs told of her master coming to the boarding house where she was staying and searching for her. Her then employer, Cornelia Grinnell Willis, helped her escape by putting her on a steam boat bound for New Haven, Connecticut; from there she took a train to Boston.³ Other slaves found different means to escape along the network of freedom trails that ran through Flushing; one trail followed the shores of the inlets, bays and estuaries of Long Island's inner south shore, which supported thick brush and tall grassy cover in which runaways could conceal themselves as they made their way to the Quaker community of Jerusalem; another route from Flushing followed the North shore further east along trails to Eastern Queens County--now eastern Nassau County-where slaves could secure boat passage to Connecticut or Rhode Island; another route headed east toward Westbury and Jericho.⁴

One well-used Flushing freedom route had a stop in White Pot, in Newtown Township, at the home of George Jackson. Jackson, the son of Newtown Town Supervisor and Overseer of the Poor Jarvis Jackson, actively assisted escaping slaves. Like his father, the younger Jackson was a member of the Flushing Quaker Meeting. He met his future bride, Elizabeth Underhill -who hailed from a well known Hudson, New York, Quaker family - when she attended the Flushing Quaker Meeting School. After their marriage, George and Elizabeth Jackson settled on a parcel of land situated on Flushing Creek. They had a daughter, Hannah Jackson, born on the farm in 1847. Hannah Jackson recalled that as a young child she was not permitted to play in the family's woods above the creek. It wasn't until she was older that she learned that the woods had been a station on the Underground Railroad - runaway slaves had hidden there during the day and her parents feared she might inadvertently give away their hiding places.⁶ At night, under cover of darkness, small boats traveled down Flushing Creek to the farm where the runaways boarded. Laden with their human cargo, the boats traveled out to Flushing Bay and then slipped quietly across Long Island Sound to Westchester County.

Another documented freedom route was supported by one of two different branches of the Hicks Family. Distant cousins, both sets of Hicks inhabited the Westbury-Jericho area. Jericho resident and Quaker preacher Elias Hicks headed one branch, Valentine Hicks headed the other. Westbury's Valentine Hicks was the son of Quakers Samuel and Phoebe Seaman Hicks; his mother, Phoebe was a descendant of Hicksville Quakers. These two branches of the Hickses were united (or reunited) by marriage: Elias Hicks⁷ daughter, Abigail, married Samuel and Phoebe Seaman Hicks' son Valentine, her second cousin.⁷ As his childhood years drew to a close Valentine Hicks' parents encouraged him to leave Westbury and work with his older brother, Isaac Hicks, in New York City.⁸ Isaac Hicks had accumulated wealth by working as a merchant. Later, his son Robert Hicks became a trader in City; Robert Hicks and his business partner, Richard Mott, became active' members of the New York City Manumission Society.⁹ There are stories of how Richard and Samuel Mott and Robert Hicks assisted escaping slaves through New York using a sloop from Front Street.¹⁰

Valentine Hicks, meanwhile, kept in close touch with his family, and soon married Abigail. He worked in New York for only ten years. When he had accumulated fifty thousand dollars he retired from business and returned to his family, in Jericho.¹¹ Before leaving New York, he contributed to the development of the Society for Establishing a Free School--a group which led to the foundation of the New York City Public School System. Many leading citizens lent their support to the project; Valentine Hicks--consistent with the Quaker practice of helping others--remained a member of the board. When he moved back to Long Island, Hicks purchased a home in Jericho, across the street from his father-in-law, Elias Hicks.¹² But while Elias Hicks was a member of the Jericho Friends Meeting, Isaac and Valentine Hicks remained members of the Westbury Friends Meeting.

There are references, through oral histories and memoirs, that clearly identify Valentine Hicks and other members of the Hicks and Mott families taking fugitive slaves to safe passage across Long Island Sound to the homes of relatives or other Quakers.¹³ As early as 1837, Abigail Mott began collecting these sketches for children to read in the African Free School in New York City.¹⁴ One story has been handed down in the Hicks Family of how Valentine Hicks had assisted an escaped slave to freedom.¹⁵ It was very much the custom for escaping slaves to come to Long Island, especially to Westbury because it contained a sizable community of freed Africans. Jericho Turnpike ran right through the center of the village, which gave many people access to the Hicks families' homes. On this particular occasion, Valentine Hicks had hired an escaping slave to work on his farm. One day, as he looked out the window of his house he saw the slave running down the road. Acting quickly, Hicks opened his door to let the man run inside the house. Because Quakers had often been robbed by early town sheriffs and tax collectors, it had become common for them to hide their valuables in cleverly constructed secret rooms.¹⁶ Valentine Hicks' house had a secret room in the attic--the attic stairs were hidden inside a closet, with the door two feet off the floor and disguised as a cupboard. The man was hurried up the steep hidden stairs into the attic and safely hidden until evening when Hicks took him by wagon to Long Island Sound for safe passage to Westchester.¹⁷

During the Revolutionary War many Long Island Quakers moved to Westchester. Quakers Samuel and Ann Carpenter Underhill moved from Cedar Swamp, a farming community near Jericho, to upstate Mamaroneck. They joined their daughter Mary, who had married James Mott, an active member of the New York City Manumission Society. James and Mary Mott moved into a home on Premium Point.²⁹ Westchester County contains a documented freedom trail which was run by Quakers from the New Rochelle Meeting and the Oblong or Quaker Hill Meeting. On her mother's side, Mary Mott was related to Joseph Carpenter, who lived in Mamaroneck and was a very vocal member of the New Rochelle Meeting. Carpenter, a man who actively loved and support the African population of New Rochelle, opened his home to orphans and worked to free slaves through his work with the Underground Railroad. Remembered as a gentle, lovable man who had a large circle of friend, Carpenter became a folk hero and had many requests for photographs. One photograph of him was taken with a "colored boy, standing by him."³⁰ He would give copies of this photo to friends because he believed it helped to demonstrate, silently, the lesson he so desired to teach concerning "the cruel and unjust weight of prejudice."³¹ His most notable act of kindness was to provide a safe path for escaping slaves coming through Westchester County. His home was the first stop on the "Underground Railway."³² The vital shelter provided by Carpenter was the hub of connections to other homes where runaway slaves could hide during the day. At night they would be taken to Joseph Pierce, in Pleasantville, New York.³³ The third stop on this trail was the Bedford home of Judge John Jay, the brother-in-law of Joseph Pierce, and also a prominent Quaker. Runaways were then taken to the home of David Irish, a member of the Quaker Hill Oblong Meeting.³⁴

An abiding commitment to the cause of abolitionism and a tradition of providing freedom routes for escaping slaves were established in Queens and on Long Island earlier than in any other area of the United States. A documented series of events--ranging from individual acts of conscience to organized efforts to promote the abolitionist cause through relationships forged among local religious leaders, businessmen, and African- American freedom fighters, to the clandestine movements of runaway slaves and the local conductors who aided them on their journeys--provide a clearer view of the rich history of the Queens and Long Island branch of the Underground Railroad. Many of these acts of conscience were performed by Quakers who remain anonymous, due in part to the illegality and the resulting secretiveness of helping runaway slaves. These escaping slaves later told their stories, partly to educate young African Americans about their histories and their ancestors' courageous acts in seeking freedom. The rich traditions established by the area's free Blacks; assimilated runaways, and their Quaker and Protestant allies created a climate in Queens and Long Island that provided hospitable ground to pursue freedom's road.

Henry's father was successful but his sister was arrested and put on trial as a 'fugitive from labor" She was able to prove that she was a resident of New York and she was set free. Henry's mother stayed with friends who had a grocery store across the street from the Garnet home. All of there possessions were destroyed nothing remained when Henry returned from his voyage. ^iv

Henry Highland Garnet continued his education and became a Presbyterian Minister. He was an active abolitionist who was a conductor for the Underground Railroad Company, in Troy, New York. His station was the Liberty Street Presbyterian Church. As a minister at the Shilhoe Presbyterian Church in New York, he would often invite fugitive slaves to speak. He became one of America’s most notable Black abolitionists.