Sailing to Freedom: New Bedford and the Underground Railroad

FAIN: BH-272369-20

University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth (North Dartmouth, MA 02747-2356)
Anthony F. Arrigo (Project Director: February 2020 to present)
Timothy D. Walker (Co Project Director: July 2020 to present)

Two one-week workshops for 72 school teachers to explore abolitionism and the Underground Railroad in the port city of New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Examines New Bedford, Massachusetts as a destination for escaped slaves in the Underground Railroad and the maritime links to the anti-slavery movement.

Associated Products

Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad (Book)
Title: Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad
Author: Timothy Walker
Editor: Timothy Walker
Abstract: In 1858, Mary Millburn successfully made her escape from Norfolk, Virginia, to Philadelphia aboard an express steamship. Millburn's maritime route to freedom was far from uncommon. By the mid-nineteenth century an increasing number of enslaved people had fled northward along the Atlantic seaboard. While scholarship on the Underground Railroad has focused almost exclusively on overland escape routes from the antebellum South, this groundbreaking volume expands our understanding of how freedom was achieved by sea and what the journey looked like for many African Americans. With innovative scholarship and thorough research, Sailing to Freedom highlights little-known stories and describes the less-understood maritime side of the Underground Railroad, including the impact of African Americans' paid and unpaid waterfront labor. These ten essays reconsider and contextualize how escapes were managed along the East Coast, moving from the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland to safe harbor in northern cities such as Philadelphia, New York, New Bedford, and Boston. In addition to the volume editor, contributors include David S. Cecelski, Elysa Engelman, Kathryn Grover, Megan Jeffreys, Cheryl Janifer LaRoche, Mirelle Luecke, Cassandra Newby-Alexander, Michael D. Thompson, and Len Travers.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.umasspress.com/9781625345929/sailing-to-freedom/
Access Model: ?
Publisher: UMASS Press, Amherst and Boston, MA
Type: Edited Volume
ISBN: 9781625345929
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad
Author: Timothy Walker/New Bedford Historical Society
Abstract: A public conference to consider the scholarship of the recent "Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad" edited volume (UMass Press, 2021). The conference will be held at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts on 23 September 2022. Presented in collaboration with the New Bedford Historical Society, the conference brings together the contributing authors of the "Sailing to Freedom" project in person for the first time and provides an opportunity for other invited scholars to comment on the importance of the book and its ideas/arguments. The keynote speaker is distinguished Underground Railroad historian Fergus M. Bordewich. Conference panels will examine the historical record and recent research about the maritime Underground Railroad. The assembled scholars, teachers, and public historians will share their diverse views and expertise about the experiences of maritime freedom seekers and those who assisted their escapes. New Bedford, known as “the Fugitive’s Gibraltar,” was an important terminus of the Underground Railroad, where many escaped slaves settled and worked in whaling and maritime industries.
Date Range: 23 September 2022
Location: New Bedford Whaling Museum
Primary URL: https://nbhistoricalsociety.org/sailing-to-freedom-conference/

Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad (Exhibition)
Title: Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad
Curator: Michael Dyer
Curator: Timothy Walker
Abstract: Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground explores stories of the Underground Railroad through the lens of American maritime labor and industries, and seeks to expand historical understanding of how freedom was achieved by sea for many African Americans. It is an extension of the 2021 publication of the same title, a volume of collected essays edited by Professor Timothy Walker (UMASS Dartmouth) and released by UMass Press. The exhibition was co-curated by Timothy Walker and Michael Dyer, Maritime Curator of the New Bedford Whaling Museum. This groundbreaking exhibition expands our understanding of how freedom was achieved by sea and what the journey looked like for many African Americans.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://www.whalingmuseum.org/exhibition/sailing-to-freedom/

The Point (Program): "Maritime Routes of the Underground Railroad" (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: The Point (Program): "Maritime Routes of the Underground Railroad"
Writer: Mindy Todd?
Director: Mindy Todd
Producer: Mindy Todd
Producer: NPR Radio WCAI Cape and Islands radio
Abstract: Much of what we know about the underground railroad focuses on the network of secret routes and safe houses that moved enslaved people to freedom. But many living in the deep south or along the coast escaped by sea. On The Point, we talk with an historian about the significance of these maritime routes and why they’ve largely been left out of the historical record. Dr. Timothy Walker, Professor of History at UMASS Dartmouth and editor of the book Sailing to Freedom, Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad is our guest on the program. Mindy Todd hosts.
Date: 7/1/2021
Primary URL: https://www.capeandislands.org/show/the-point/2021-07-01/maritime-routes-of-the-underground-railroad
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web

Conversations at the Washington Library (Number 213) (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Conversations at the Washington Library (Number 213)
Writer: James Ambuske
Director: James Ambuske
Producer: James Ambuske
Producer: Washington Research Library of Mount Vernon
Abstract: In May 1796, an enslaved woman named Ona Judge fled the presidential household in Philadelphia and escaped to freedom on a ship headed for New Hampshire. Judge’s successful flight was one of many such escapes by the sea in the 18th and 19th centuries. Enslaved people boarded ships docked in ports great and small and used coastal water ways and the ocean as highways to freedom. We often learn about the Underground Railroad in school, but what about its aquatic component? On today’s episode, Dr. Timothy D. Walker joins Jim Ambuske to discuss his new edited volume, Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad, which was published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2021. Walker is a Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and along with the contributors to Sailing to Freedom, Walker guides us towards new horizons in our quest to better understand this history.
Date: 10/23/2021
Primary URL: https://www.georgewashingtonpodcast.com/show/conversations/213-sailing-to-freedom-with-dr-timothy-d-walker/
Format: Digital File
Format: Web

The Maritime Underground Railroad (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: The Maritime Underground Railroad
Director: John Haskell
Producer: Library of Congress
Abstract: For Black History Month, a Library of Congress panel discusses how enslaved people achieved their freedom and what the journey by sea looked like for many African Americans. Featuring Timothy D. Walker, Cheryl Janifer LaRoche, and Cassandra Newby-Alexander, and moderated by Kluge Center Director John Haskell.
Date: 2/23/2022
Primary URL: https://www.loc.gov/item/event-403376/the-maritime-underground-railroad/2022-02-23/
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Format: Other

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