Harriet Tubman

The Underground Railroad's most famous conductor, Harriet Tubman escorted more than 300 individuals out of slavery. Born into slavery herself on a Maryland plantation, Tubman escaped when she was in her twenties. She vowed to help her family and others find freedom. Tubman ingeniously drew on her knowledge of slave life. For instance, she planned her escapes for Saturday night, knowing that individuals would not be missed until Monday morning. Assisted by abolitionists such as Thomas Garrett and William Still, Tubman made 19 trips into the South - despite a large bounty on her head - and earned the nickname of "Moses."

Guided by his own experience in bondage, Fredrick Douglass became America's leading black abolitionist. after several failed escape attempts, young Douglass, hired out to work in a Baltimore shipyard, disguised himself as a sailor. With the assistance of Underground Railroad operatives and carrying forged papers, he escaped to New York on the train. Douglass soon became the star of the abolitionist lecture circuit and in 1845 he published his remarkable autobiography. Douglass became active in the Underground Railroad, and his Rochester, New York, home served as a station. During Civil War Douglass repeatedly urged President Lincoln to allow free blacks to serve in the union armies; he was ultimately successful.

Josiah Henson

With his children and wife, Josiah Henson liberated himself from slavery in Cincinnati in the 1820s. As a Methodist preacher, Henson lectured widely on slavery's evils, and published his autobiography in 1849. Henson's book reportedly served as the major source for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin . Active in the Underground Railroad, Henson helped more than 100 individuals escape to freedom. In 1841, Henson, together with other abolitionists, purchased land in Dresden, Ontario, and created a vocational school called the British American Institute for Fugitive Slaves.

David Ruggles

African American abolitionist David Ruggles became involved in the Underground Railroad because of his association with William Still, an important conductor based in Philadelphia. Reportedly he helped more than 600 people, including Fredrick Douglass, reach their freedom. as secretary of the New York Vigilance Committee, Ruggles worked to protect African Americans' rights then under assault by the Fugitive Slave Act.

Levi Coffin

Quaker Levi Coffin was known as the "President" and his home as the "Grand Central Station" of the Underground Railroad. Coffin and his wife Catherine aided thousands of runaways during their lifelong work in the antislavery movement in Newport (Fountain City), Indiana, and Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1844, while visiting Canada, Coffin was reunited with many people he helped escape.

John and Jean Rankin

For 40 years, 1825-65, John and Jean Rankin and their neighbors in Ripley, Ohio fed, clothed, and sheltered thousands of people escaping to freedom. John Rankin, a Presbyterian minister, organized antislavery groups on a local and state level. The Rankin home, sitting above the Ohio River, was known as Liberty Hill.

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