New-York tribune., 1899-08-05
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
PROFESSOR sIEBERTs HISTORY OF THE
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.

rHE YR6RSRHHoEE9So2I m RTSRHE9oI By Wilbur N II se5s
Associate Professor Of European dldetion lissi By Al
Ssa,e Ss1t nnsbnell Hart. Octave pp XIV ATS Tho
Macmillan Company
Professor Siebert was fortunate IN 'he s'.0O
fton of his theme The records or the ohue'
ground Railway are mine OF romah"o 'n'e
eat that has never thoroughly beeh eApi'i'
Moreover. they have important pearine y"
the ant-slavery agitation which h's'oi'""'
have seemed hitherto unduy TO ignore Ne''"e'
IN ,ts inception nor in It's operation Oh 0o'''e'
WAS the Road" a political movement II was
essentially q practical application OF ahu-s'a'-
erv sentiment and OF ordinary humanity tof
which the fugitive slave himself gave the op-
nor,1,nity But to dismiss II as nohng Hore
tbnp this would be to overlook It's chlet sisnii'-
canoe. It reacted. in a word most Po"e'lu''
upon the sentiments which supported IT, suiiiu-
lating, especially among the common peopie'
the detes1ation OF slavery, and becoming III 'lii'
way one of the most effective or the ase"0'0'
Witch ACCOMPLISHED the triumph of Abolition
ism Both Of these aspects OF the Roao Inc
romantic and the pontical-Professor S'eoert
treats with great detail, and his olscussloH o4
them In Of permanent historical value.
The book is Of Importance also Tor announcer
reason. From the nature OF its operations the
most wholly In the memories OF those VINO con-
ducted II. To preserve them in any other form
WAS eeneraly highly dangerous, both 10 the
onerstor and TO the human freight. The ex-
tending Of such aid TO the fugitive oondinah
yas defiance Of the law that was bitterly
resented bv many besides the slaVeho!ders' anu
the lawbreakers had good reason TO keep lhe
right hand in ignorance Of the dolngs Oh ING
left while on the other hand. the successful
workings of the Road" Itself would nave Oeeh
imperflled by the existence OF documents re-
lating TO its lines and methods. IT IS KNOW"
that records and drawings were Kept oy GER
tain helpers and few Of the letters ana MSS
sages that passed between station Keepers nave
been preserved but these sources OF lhIorlha-
ton are as valuable as they are rare. we are
thus dependent for our knowledge OF oe'alis
upon "reminiscences; but even OF these compare
lively few have been published. while those VINO
could write or narrate them have passed or are
RAPIDLY passing away. 1t is the chief merit OF
the authors labors that he has endeavored not
only to collect and compare the existing oa'a
but also TO add TO them the recollections OF all
the living participants In the Underground work
r1is nainstaking efforts in collecting these per-
fishing materials justify Professor Harts state
rnent in the introduction that he has done Tor
the history Of slavery what the students OF
ballad and folklore have done for literature
The most striking result of his investigations
Is his cartographical demonstration that the
"IJnderground" was in reality system ana
far reaching and complex one. The truth ana
signifcance of this fact have never before been
so admirably proved and illustrated From the
secret and perilous nature Of the work few II
any. Of the actors in the drama were in POSI-
ton to understand the full extent or the or
eanzation to which they belonged. TO each
oconductor'' and station master" as a rule,
only that part Of the fugitve's route TO free
dom was familiar which connected the stations
In his immediate locality. He simply received
tnN passengers as they came to him from the
neighboring station on the south and passed
them on to the next toward the north, without
knowing or caring to know what other lines
were In operation or even the complete course
Of his own The "reminiscences Of any one indi-
vidual therefore were Of necessity limited IN
scope and from them precise information
with regard to the character Of the Under
ground" in this particular. can be drawn. But
II the recollections Of larger number OF It's
operators could be collected the separate bits OF
the route with which they were acquainted laid
down and the results compared and pieced to-
gether, the existence or nOn-existence Of
regularly developed system would be at once
revealed.
he has exhibited the outcome OF his laborious
researches in a chart Of the routes OF the fugi-
tves in their fight 10 Canada, which is beyond
question the most extraordinary railroad map
in existence. II comprises the Northern States
from Maine 70 Nebraska, and the whole Of this
region is covered with a network Of roads which
might easily, at first glance, be mistaken for
those Of official railway guide, II II were not
for the absence of the great trunk lines running
east and west for here the lines all run north
and south. About Philadelphia they very
numerous. and the New-England States are In
tersected by large number OF them though in
Central Pennsylvania and New-York they are
hardly TO be found. But It is in Ohio and East
ern Indiana that they are most In evidence, for
these States are completely covered by them.
and II is evident that-as was natural from their
location-they must have been the field OF an
enormous traffic Western Illinois again, is al
most thoroughly gridironed. Nothing,
tainly, could give a more distinct and profound
impression Of the great proportions Of the
secret exodus Of the slaves, or a clearer proof Of
the amount and method of the aid they re-
ceived. And when considers that Professor
Sieberts map, remarkable though II IS is Of ne
cessity exceedingly incomplete as compared with
what could have been made thirty years ago,
one begins to realize what the Underground
Road meant financially for the slaveholding
South and politically for the whole country. To
quote again from Professor Hart: The facts pre-
sented in the brief compass OF the map would
have been Of immense value for the leaders
OF the Southern Confederacy in 1861 as a con-
frmation of their argument that the North
would not perform its constitutional duty of re-
turning the fugitives"; while the political phi
losophers who think that the Civil War might
have been averted by timely concessions would
do well to study this picture of the wide dis
tribution of persons who saw no peace in
slavery"
On the steps by which the system attained its
exfr