The Underground Railroad in Indiana was part of a larger, unofficial, and loosely-connected network of groups and individuals who aided and facilitated the escape of runaway slaves from the southern United States. The network in Indiana gradually evolved in the 1830s and 1840s, reached its peak during the 1850s, and continued until slavery was abolished throughout the United States at the end of the American Civil War in 1865. It is not known how many fugitive slaves escaped through Indiana on their journey to Michigan and Canada. An unknown number of Indiana's abolitionists, anti-slavery advocates, and people of color, as well as Quakers and other religious groups illegally operated stations (safe houses) along the network. Some of the network's operatives have been identified, including Levi Coffin, the best-known of Indiana's Underground Railroad leaders. In addition to shelter, network agents provided food, guidance, and, in some cases, transportation to aid the runaways.
Most of the fugitives who entered Indiana followed one of three general routes after crossing the Ohio River from Kentucky. A western route, which typically began in Indiana's southwestern counties near Evansville, continued north along the Wabash River or through several of the state's western counties toward the Indiana-Michigan border. A central route from Indiana counties began after crossing the Ohio River from the Louisville, Kentucky, area and passed through central and northern Indiana before entering Michigan. An eastern route from southeastern Indiana counties followed stations along the Indiana-Ohio border. A smaller number of fugitive slaves entered Indiana from Cincinnati, Ohio. Today, only a few Underground Railroad sites in Indiana are open to the public, including the Catherine and Levi Coffin home (called the "Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad") in Wayne County and Eleutherian College in Jefferson County. Other sites have been identified with state historic markers, an ongoing effort.
History
Despite the risks of being captured and sold into bondage, some free people of color illegally provided aid to fugitive slaves in the early years of the Underground Railroad's operations. As more fugitive slaves came into Indiana in the 1820s, a growing number of white abolitionists and antislavery advocates took part the network, especially after 1850, when federal fugitive laws made it more difficult for runaways to make their escape to Canada. The Underground Railroad gradually evolved in the 1830s and 1840s, reaching its peak during the 1850s, and remained in operation until 1865, when slavery was abolished throughout the United States at the end of the American Civil War.
Prior to 1816 Although slavery was prohibited within the Northwest Territory and the Indiana Territory prior to Indiana's statehood in 1816, early residents disagreed on whether slavery should be allowed in the territory. In addition, federal and territorial laws did not prevent residents from enslaving others through indentured servitude.Regan-Dinius, p. 19.Underground Railroad, United States National Park Service, p. 51.
The proslavery faction of the territorial government adopted legislation in 1803 that allowed involuntary servitude to circumvent Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 that prohibited slavery. Passage of an indenture act in 1805 also allowed slaveholders to bring slaves purchased outside the territory into Indiana and bind them into service as indentured servants.Barnhart and Riker, pp. 347–48. In addition, passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 enforced slaveholders' rights to pursue, retrieve, and return African Americans to bondage in the South. Those who provided aid to fugitives or interfered with their capture were subject to fines and prison terms.
In the early 1800s, early leaders of the antislavery movement in the Indiana Territory included Quaker settlers living in the eastern part of movement, the antislavery faction became the dominant political group. In 1810, antislavery politicians had gained sufficient influence to repeal the 1803 and 1805 laws that supported slavery in the territory.Barnhart and Riker, pp. 350 and 360.
First decades after statehood When Indiana became a state in 1816, antislavery supporters were successful in getting the delegates at the state constitutional convention to officially abolish slavery and involuntary servitude under the new state's constitution. Although free people of color who lived in the Indiana did not have the same legal rights as other residents,Barnhart and Riker, pp. 457–58 and 460.African Americans in Indiana could not vote, serve on juries in a trial involving a white person, or send their children to public schools, among other restrictions, until laws were later amended. In spite of the inequalities, some free people of color and fugitive slaves settled in the territory. See: Thornbrough, Indiana in the Civil War Era, 1850–1880, p. 14. by the time that it became a state, Indiana along with Ohio and the adjacent territories (Illinois Territory and Michigan Territory) were beginning to be known as refuges for runaway slaves.
The Indiana General Assembly passed "man-stealing laws" in 1816 with additional legislation passed in 1818 to prevent bounty hunters and slavecatchers from abducting and forcibly removing any person from the state without first before a judge or justice of the peace for a hearing.Dunn, v. 1, p. 341. Indiana's "man-stealing" legislation soon brought the state into conflict with Kentucky, its neighboring slave state. In November 1818, Indiana state senator Dennis Pennington brought suit in the Harrison County, Indiana, Circuit Court against three Kentucky men under the state's man-stealing laws. Pennington charged that the three men had illegally captured a woman of color named Susan in Corydon, Indiana, and had forcibly taken her to Kentucky. Jonathan Jennings, the governor of Indiana, tried to have the men extradited to Indiana for trial, but Gabriel Slaughter, the governor of Kentucky, declined on constitutional grounds.Dunn, v. 1, pp. 343–44.Gresham, v. 1, p. 42.
In border states such as Indiana, some individuals supported slavery while others opposed it or had neutral opinions about the issue and did not take any action. Despite the disagreements within his own state, Indiana's U.S. Senator Noah Noble, who was elected governor of Indiana in 1831, supported the antislavery sentiment by voting against granting statehood to Missouri in 1820 because of its proslavery stance. (The law slavery debate continued in Congress, but Missouri gained its statehood as part of the Missouri Compromise.)Dunn, v. 1, p. 348.
In the decades leading up to the Civil War, some individuals became abolitionists who sought an end to slavery through legal means; others became involved in the Underground Railroad and actively aided runaway slaves. Antislavery groups were not in agreement on how they should respond. Some individuals joined antislavery societies forming in the non-slaveholding states, including Indiana, to assist runaway slaves.
Federal fugitive slave laws
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 reinforced prior fugitive slave laws dating from 1793 and protected the rights of slaveholders, as well as the slavecatchers who came into Indiana to capture runaways. These laws also punished those who participated in Underground Railroad activities, causing much of their assistance to be conducted in greater secrecy. In addition, enforcement of the federal fugitive slave laws made it riskier for fugitives and free people of color who aided them to remain in Indiana. Free people of color were also more vulnerable to harassment and kidnapping, especially those living in counties along the Ohio River.Regan-Dinius, p. 21.
Bounty hunters (slavecatchers), mostly operating in the southern part of the state, offered their services and knowledge of the area to southerners searching for runaways.Passage of the fugitive slave law in 1850 meant that bounty hunters and slavecatchers could more aggressively pursue runaway slaves, which included the authority to enter Indiana and deputize any American citizen, even those who opposed slavery, to assist them in capturing the runaways. See Gresham, v. 1, p. 32–33. Also: Hanlon, p. 43. In addition, free blacks could become victims when slavecatchers could not find runaway slaves. Bounty hunters and slavecatchers might seize free blacks, claiming them to be runaways, and bring them to the Southern United States to be sold into bondage. In one incident in the early 1850s, for example, slavecatchers seized two free blacks working on the Wabash and Erie Canal. Although local abolitionists quickly organized and petitioned the sheriff to release the two men, the slavecatchers had documents that described the men and claimed they were runaways. Evidence suggested the documents were false, but there was no way to refute the claim. The slavecatchers were allowed to take the two men as their prisoners, but before they left Indiana a group of abolitionists overtook the party and freed the two black laborers.Esarey, pp. 624–27.
State laws impacting African American migration Indiana's state constitution prohibited slavery, but many Indiana residents supported legislation that prevented runaway slaves from entering the state. In 1851, when the Constitution of Indiana was revised, delegates to the constitutional convention considered granting voting rights to Indiana's free people of color. At that time, slave states were expelling free people of color and emancipated slaves in the hope that they would migrate to free states. Many residents of free states, including Indiana's citizens feared the impact of a rising population of free African Americans and wanted to keep these migrants out of the state. The majority of the convention delegates, hoping to ease tensions between the states and prevent further violence between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions, thought that the only appropriate solution was to include a clause in the state constitution that prohibited African Americans from immigrating to Indiana. The state's voters adopted Article XIII, Section 1, of the new constitution banning blacks and mulattos from entering the state; it remained in effect until the state constitution was amended in 1881.Constitution of Indiana, 1851, Article XIII, section 1: "No Negro or Mulatto shall come into, or settle in the state, after adoption of this Constitution." See: Dunn, v. 1, pp. 466, 469, and 471–73.
Underground supporters The slave catchers' aggressive tactics and the sight of runaways being returned to bondage in the South gradually impacted the state's population. By 1851, popular opinion was shifting from indifference to slavery toward increasingly antislavery sentiments. The result was more widespread involvement in the Underground Railroad and an increase in general support for hampering the slave catchers' efforts.Underground Railroad, United States National Park Service, p. 63.