Abolition and the Underground Railroad in South Jersey

Southern New Jersey was a hotbed of slave fugitives, freedmen and abolitionists in the Civil War era. Activists such as Harriet Tubman, Abigail Goodwin and Benjamin Sheppard assisted runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad in daring flights at night in the forests of the Pine Barrens. Abolitionists flashed lights from their boats in the marshlands of the Delaware Bay to signal to agents on land that fugitive slaves were on board. The proud Twenty-Second Regiment of the United States Colored Troops included hundreds of Black New Jerseyans ready to fight for emancipation and the Union cause. Author Ellen D. Alford recounts compelling narratives of abolition and the Underground Railroad in South Jersey.