Three major Underground Railroad routes were in South Jersey

The woman’s warm, mahogany hand lovingly embraced the small fist of a tiny boy who shared her wide, tawny eyes.

The African mother and son were kneeling, trembling in the basement of a New Jersey inn, hoping and praying that they would make it to freedom.

New Jersey played an integral part in the escape of thousands of slaves from upper southern states such as Virginia, Maryland and Delaware through the Underground Railroad.

According to Gloucester County Historical Society Library records, there were three major Underground Railroad routes through South Jersey — Station A, a connection from Camden to Burlington and from Bordentown to Princeton; Station B, which included a system from Woodbury to Mouth Laurel; and Station C, which consisted of a route from Greenwich to Swedesboro, then on to Mount Holly.

From those three stations, runaway slaves were filtered to North Jersey, then on to New York and Canada where they found freedom.

Historian William Danzi said, via these three routes, there were 2,000 slaves moving through New Jersey at one time during the most active period of the Underground Railroad.

According to Gloucester County Historical Society records written by Mrs. William Farr of Haddonfield in the 1960s, the Quakers operated the Underground Railroad in Cumberland, Salem, Gloucester, Camden, Burlington and Mercer counties, including a “ferry service” across the lower Delaware River and Bay area.

“Blue or yellow lights flashed a warning or safety,” she wrote. “The cargo would land in Greenwich or Swedesboro, then move on to Woodbury or Camden.”

The structure that presently comprises the Mount Zion AME Church in Woolwich Township is the result of three separate construction campaigns. Above left, a small one-story frame church built in 1834, was one of the important Underground Railroad stations in Small Gloucester from the time of its construction until the beginning of the Civil War. Above, the church is an Underground Railroad site.

Camden County College professor Lester Owens, an Underground Railroad history enthusiast, said runaway slaves traveled through South Jersey “all the way up the state” in search of freedom.

“The Cape May Lighthouse served as a beacon for those coming by boat,” he said.

There were important stops in towns such as Gouldtown and Springtown, and Swedesboro was an important hiding place for escaping Africans, Owens said.

“Jericho (in Woodbury Heights) was a free, African community and is a logical stop on the Underground Railroad,” he said.

One of the most important stops for fleeing slaves who traveled through Gloucester County was the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in what was then known as Small Gloucester. The church still stands and the congregation still worships every Sunday in what is now known as Woolwich Township.

The church, founded in 1799 and built in 1834, actively provided protection, supplies and shelter for runaway slaves, according to congregation member and historian Karyn Collier Fisher.

The church was always a safe haven, and several founding church members, Pompey Lewis and Jubilee Sharper directed conductors, engineers and slaves north after taking care of the escapee’s needs.

Fisher said a secret, three-foot-by four-foot trap door in the floor of the church’s vestibule provided access to a hiding place in the crawlspace under the floor.

The AME Church was organized nationally in 1816 by Richard Allen, an African-American circuit preacher, who, along with many other preachers, played an important role in the protection and movement of runaway slaves as they moved through the state to freedom.

Photos/Mount Zion AME Church in Woolwich TownshipThe trap door and small crawlspace under the door is where fleeing slaves were hidden when slave catchers came searching for them in the Mount Zion AME Church's vestibule.

Gloucester County College Grants and Special Projects Administrator Naomi Nelson, past vice president of programs at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, said many stops on the Underground Railroad were not simply one building or hiding place, but sometimes entire communities such as Sadlers Woods in Haddon Heights.

“It’s an historic section which is now a nature preserve with walking trails,” she said. “It’s isolated from the major roads.”

Nelson said Joshua Sadler, a former runaway slave, settled there and many more slaves who had escaped from the South joined him to make the community.

When runaway slaves settled in the area, they built homes similar to those they had formerly lived in where they were enslaved.

“There are what appear to be cabins, similar to those they lived in down South,” she said.

Nelson also spoke of Jericho, an area of Woodbury Heights, which was one of the first free black communities in this area.

Photo/Mount Zion AME United Methodist Church in Woolwich TownshipThe crawlspace at Mount Zion AME United Methodist Church where fleeing slaves hid is shown above.

“Jericho was settled by runaway slaves with the help of the Quakers,” she said. “At first there were only a few houses. Then it grew into a larger community. It really is an historic area. Even some people who live there don’t realize the connection to the Underground Railroad.”

Another local area, Lawnside, was home to the family of the Secretary of the Underground Railroad organization in Philadelphia — William Still.

“When anyone came to Philadelphia, before they moved on, they had to talk to William Still and he wrote down their story,” Nelson said. “He captured all the dramatic stories and published them in a book called ‘The Underground Railroad’ which was the first publication of authentic first-person narratives.”

She said that book can be found online in republication form.

“What I really want to stress is that in the early days when the nation was built on slavery, there were white people, black people and Native Americans who all helped people run away from slavery,” Nelson said. “They all helped people they didn’t even know. Each one made a decision to make a difference in the world they lived in. Anyone today can challenge themselves to also make a difference in the world.”

Nelson will give an Underground Railroad presentation discussing code words, hiding places including sites in South Jersey, historic figures and slavery escape route to freedom on Tuesday at noon at Gloucester County College in room 500 of the Health Sciences building, 1400 Tayard Road in Deptford.