Scarlet Mills was one of the most well-known stations on the Pennsylvania Underground Railroad. “The Forrest,” the home of Quaker widow Elizabeth Scarlet and her son, Joseph, was in Robeson Township near Birdsboro, a remote region safe from slave hunters (Blockson 1981, 84-85). According to historian Wayne E. Homan, “[t]he Scarlet Mansion at Scarlet Mills…probably housed more Negro escapees over a longer period than any other Berks station stop” (1958, 114).

While he was living in Lancaster County, Joseph Scarlet was indicted for participation in the Christiana Riot of 1851; “[h]e had galloped on horseback through…Christiana warning abolitionists that kidnappers had come to arrest several fugitives” (Blockson 1981, 84-85). Historian Wayne E. Homan explains that once, while visiting Pennington (Atglen), Joseph Scarlet saw an African American chained to a bar in a public house, awaiting trial in Lancaster. Later that evening, the captive was freed—the bar rail had been sawed through by someone. “For many years thereafter,” Homan reports, “a damaged pair of handcuffs hung on the wall of Scarlet’s home” (1958, 117).

https://sites.psu.edu/localhistories/woven-with-words/the-underground-railroad-in-the-19th-century/

According to reports, around 1832 large numbers of fleeing slaves were sent to the home of Elizabeth Pownall Scarlet and her son, who lived in Rombeson Township (about five miles west of Birdsboro). Elizabeth was said to be close friends with the Gibbons Family. The dense woods of that area and huts used by charcoal burners (who were employed the nearby forges and furnaces) provided plenty of hiding places. Scarlet’s home, Bon Ridge, is said to have housed more runaway slaves than any other stop in the region. The home still exists on the road leading from White Bear to Gibraltar. This area of the county, called “The Forest”, extended from Flying Hills, south beyond Hopewell Hills.

After Elizabeth’s death, her youngest son, John Pownall Scarlet continued as a “conductor”. Thomas Lewis, married to Ellen B. Scarlet (Elizabeth’s daughter) bought the old Scarlet homestead in 1841 and continued to provide refuge. One of Elizabeth’s other sons was involved in the Underground Railroad near Christiana, PA. In 1857, Joseph Scarlett was involved in The Christiana Tragedy, when the Gap Gang tried to seize escaped slaves in the area. Two people were killed. Thomas Jackson, a Quaker who also lived in “The Forest”, near Joanna Furnace, operated a station prior to 1827.

https://berkshistorymysteries.wordpress.com/2018/02/08/the-underground-railroad-in-berks/