Underground Railroad in Philadelphia, 1830-1860

Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, has always been recognized as the meeting ground in the nation's incessant quest for racial equality, freedom, and liberation. A natural junction on the Underground Railroad, the city was also known as an abolitionist center and had a large free Black community. From 1830 to 1860, the city witnessed unsurpassed activity as a great rail center and especially as a busy port for ships traveling northward from the South, particularly from Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. As the Underground Railroad gained more supporters among Whites and the free Black community, increased numbers of runaways headed toward Philadelphia either to stay or continue their flight toward Canada. It is reported that before 1860, nearly 9,000 runaways entered Philadelphia through various ways. However, contradictions and bigotry also were parts of Philadelphia's involvement with abolition and underground railroad. William Wells Brown, the celebrated writer and dramatist who escaped slavery three times, had claimed that, in 1854, colorphobia was more rampant in Philadelphia than it was in the city of New York,