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Underground Railroad

Front of house

The Levi & Catharine Coffin House in Wayne County was built in 1839. Coffin worked tirelessly to aid fugitives towards freedom.

Corner view of brick building

Eleutherian College was built by anti-slavery Baptists in the 1840s to educate men and women, regardless of race, in the same building--a rarity for the time.

Underground Railroad

During the 19th century, thousands of enslaved people sought their freedom through various means of escape. Some left without any assistance from others, some found help from individuals along the route who had no connections to others, and still others used a system we have come to know as the Underground Railroad. The term is vague, and no one is sure exactly where it derived.

The Underground Railroad is the symbolic term given to the routes enslaved people took to gain their freedom as they traveled. Sometimes the routes went north to Canada or south to Mexico and Florida. Some went east, and others traveled west to settle in the Western states and territories. Free Blacks, Whites, Native Americans, and former enslaved people acted as “conductors” by aiding freedom seekers. The Underground Railroad is not a railroad, road, or specific route. In general, it was NOT tunnels, hidden rooms, or secret passages; it was people opening their homes and offering help.

In Indiana, initial research centered on three routes:

  1. North starting in Posey County to Vanderburgh County, Gibson County, Pike County, to Vincennes, Terre Haute, Lafayette, and South Bend before entering Michigan
  2. North starting in Corydon to Jackson and Jennings, Salem, Bloomington, Mooresville, through Marion County, to Crawfordsville to Porter County before entering Michigan
  3. North starting in Madison to Fountain City, Fort Wayne, and DeKalb before entering Michigan

However, after further research, it was more of a web of potential paths, hiding places, help, and betrayal.

Education & Public Outreach

The DHPA administered a public outreach program to foster research, identification, and protection efforts for Indiana’s Underground Railroad resources with the goal to identify sites, people, and events associated with Underground Railroad activity in Indiana. DHPA partnered with the National Park Service to support their National Network to Freedom Program.

Through the Underground Railroad initiative, DHPA conducted educational, training, and outreach programs to the public. Staff have also advised and assisted local assistance groups and individuals with research activities and provided technical support for the preparation of nominations to the National Register of Historic Places and the National Network to Freedom. The Dr. Wilbur Siebert UGRR Indiana materials are housed at the Indiana State Library, Manuscript Division.

Underground Railroad Resources

Underground Railroad Sites in Indiana

Indiana has a rich history of Underground Railroad operations. Many escaped slaves traveled across the Hoosier State in the years prior to and during the Civil War. They frequently altered their routes and the locations of their stops in order to minimize their chances of detection and possible recapture. These constant changes made details about the operation of the Underground Railroad difficult to document, both then and now. Historians, using a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, have successfully located several locations that assisted fugitive slaves to freedom.

The locations in this interactive map are only a small representation of sites, events, and individuals associated with the Underground Railroad in Indiana. Hundreds of sites have been located in Indiana.

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