Abolition and the Underground Railroad in South Jersey: Not Without a Fight - Paperback

by Ellen D. Alford (Author)

Southern New Jersey was a hotbed of slave fugitives, freedmen and abolitionists in the Civil War era.

The proud 22nd Regiment of the United States Colored Troops included hundreds of Black New Jerseyans ready to fight for emancipation and the Union cause. Abolitionists such as Harriet Tubman, Abigail Goodwin and Benjamin Sheppard operated among key landmarks of the Underground Railroad in South Jersey counties such as Cape May, Cumberland and Salem. Slavery and the rights of Black Americans were at the forefront of the region's attention including stories such as a melee in a Cape May hotel between Black waiters and white patrons, the covert signaling of boats ferrying fugitive slaves across the Delaware River and the daring rescue of a runway slave from the hands of slave catchers by local church worshipers. Author Ellen Alford reveals the history of abolition and the Underground Railroad in South Jersey.

Author Biography

Ellen D. Alford is a native South Jersey resident and local historian who researches and writes about the Underground Railroad, slavery, abolition and Harriet Tubman in South Jersey. She is a former newspaper correspondent, public school educator and university administrator. She has won numerous journalism awards, including the Lloyd P. Burns Award for Public Service from the New Jersey Press Association. Ms. Alford is a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C., with a degree in English/communications and has pursued graduate studies in American history at Rutgers University-Camden, New Jersey, where she was awarded the A&S Academic Excellence. Ms. Alford is a member of the National History Honor Society.