America250

Committee Members:

Pastor Robert Brookins rebrookinssr@comcast.net

Phyllis Mitchell tutorphyl@gmail.com

Stephanie Jacobs sjacobs@schuylkillvalley.org

Wynton Butler butlerrwy@readingsd.org

Dr. Tamara Smith tslord7@gmail.com

11 documented stops exist of the Berks County Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was not necessarily underground nor was it transportation by railroad. It was a whole network that assisted slaves in their escape to freedom. Free blacks provided the backbone of the Underground Railroad. Thousands of fugitive slaves found their way to freedom through the courageous efforts of free African Americas like Harriet Tubman, William Still, Jermaine Logue, and others (NPH 45, 58, 61, 67). Richard Allen, the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, was a slave who purchased his freedom; therefore, most of the AME Churches continued the plight of assisting fugitives to freedom.

https://www.racc.edu/sites/default/files/imported/StudentLife/Clubs/Legacy/pdf/LegacyXII.pdf

Friend Still:-I suppose that you have seen those 5 large and 3 small packages I sent by way of Reading, consisting of three men and women and children. They arrived here this morning at 81/2 o’clock this morning and left twenty minutes past three. You will please send me any information likely to prove interesting in relation to them. Lately we have found a society here, called the fugitive aid society…When you write, please inform me what signs or symbols you make use of in your despatches, and any other information in relation to operations of the Underground Railroad… Yours with respect, Joseph C. Bustill