Underground Railroad in New York

Why did New York play such an outsized role in the Underground Railroad, which guided nearly 100,000 enslaved people to freedom in the North and Canada? Abolitionists employed a vast network of churches, safe houses, and community sites in New York, as well as the 445-mile border with Canada, to help emancipate enslaved people.

Today, you can visit New York's Underground Railroad system from Brooklyn to Buffalo and everywhere in between—see this map from the Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor—discovering the stories behind America's bravest abolitionists along the way. From The Harriet Tubman National Historic Park to the North Star Underground Railroad Museum to the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center, there are many ways to learn about New York State’s and New Yorkers’ role in the Underground Railroad.