The Underground Railroad was an important part of America’s epic struggle to end slavery. By the 1830s a system called The Underground Railroad began to evolve throughout the North. This was not actually a “railroad,” but rather a loosely-organized series of “stations” where “conductors” or “stationmasters” would protect freedom-seekers and provide safe passage to their next “station.”

Oneida County was part of the Underground Railroad route to Syracuse and to Oswego on Lake Ontario. Once fugitives crossed into Canada, they were free. Many Black and White Oneidans operated “stations” on the Underground Railroad.

Organized Abolitionism began in Oneida County in the early 1830s. Local activists were inspired by the words and examples of Beriah Green and his students at the Oneida Institute. They carried the word to all corners of the county. In 1835 nearly 600 delegates met in Utica to organize the New York State Anti-Slavery Society. By the Fall of 1835 there were 17 anti-slave societies throughout Oneida County.

The people of Oneida County were part of a dramatic chapter in the nation’s history. Black and white men and women not only voiced opposition to slavery, but stood behind their words, sometimes at their peril. In both the rural and urban areas of the county, individuals and communities sheltered fugitives, and apparently encouraged some of them to settle amongst them.

Oneida Institute - Students at Oneida Institute, at Whitesboro, America’s first bi-racial college, formed an anti-slavery society on immediatist principles (“emancipation now!”) in July 1833, the first such organization in New York State.

Students protected fugitives, distributed anti-slavery literature, organized political debates, helped print the abolitionist newspaper The Friend of Man, and traveled across Oneida County to start more anti-slavery societies.

Beriah Green - Local activists were inspired by the words and examples of Beriah Green and his students at the Oneida Institute, where he assumed leadership in 1833. Green welcomed fugitive slaves to his home and to the campus, where students hid them in their dormitory rooms. Fugitives from the peculiar institution’ (as slavery was often called) enjoyed the safety of the ‘Old Hive,’ Green’s home in Whitesboro.”

Gerrit Smith, born in Utica in 1797, became central in the Underground Railroad. He helped found the New York State Anti-Slave Society. Gerrit was the son of Peter Smith, a partner of John Jacob Astor in the fur trade and other enterprises. Smith’s estate in Peterboro (Madison County) was at the center of an abolitionist network in Central New York which was eager take practical steps to end slavery.

Note: The above excerpts represent a small portion of the document "Born in Slavery, Found Home and Freedom" The Underground Railroad in Oneida County New York by Jan DeAmicis. If you would like to learn more about this topic, the complete text is included in our first volume of Mohawk Valley History.