Abstract: James Madison Smith and Catherine "Kitty" Smith, a Black Catholic couple, operated a safehouse or "station" on the Underground Railroad's central line in Queensville, Jennings County, Indiana. The Smiths are a rare, documented example of Black Catholic agents in the Underground Railroad's classic period (1830–1860). As formerly enslaved Kentuckians who purchased their freedom, the couple risked violence and re-enslavement. Their story challenges the traditional, romanticized narrative of the Underground Railroad, which typically centers on white Protestant abolitionists, by highlighting the critical and frequently overlooked role of Black agents. The Smiths' involvement is set against the backdrop of American Catholicism's historical support for or tolerance of slavery. Their lives broaden the narrative of antebellum U.S. Catholicism and its relationship to the Underground Railroad.
Ned Berghausen (Sun,) studied this question.