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| Garrett County History | ||
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Underground Railroad |
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For a run-away slave, the view of Uniontown from the Summit, must have evoked the same kind of
feeling that the Children of Israel had when they looked across the Jordan River to the
Promised Land. Below the Summit, where the National Road passed through Uniontown, was a place
where the slave would receive haven and help on his journey to freedom. Just past the John
Wesley A.M.E. Zion Church was Baker’s Alley; at the end of the alley was one of the first
stops on the Underground Railroad in southwestern Pennsylvania.
The Underground Railroad was the result of the abolitionist movement in the United States prior to the Civil War. Literature calling for the abolition of slavery began to appear about 1820 and gradually increased in volume as the years passed. As political party, the movement took formal shape in 1833 when the American Anti-Slavery Society was organized in Philadelphia. From that date onward, the abolitionists defied existing laws by assisting in the escape of run-away slaves headed northward. Although the house of refuge in Baker’s Alley has been gone for years, a granite monument was erected in 1996 where it once stood. The monument was the result of work by the Mayor’s Committee for the Uniontown Bicentennial; older members of the community could recall stories of the Underground Railroad and remember where the house was located. Baker’s Alley can easily be spotted by a person traveling along Rt. #40 and Uniontown’s East Main Street. An historical marker is on the corner, erected on July 6, 1996, to mark the entrance to the alley that was part of the “pathway to freedom.” |
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