Abolition and the Underground Railroad in South Jersey

Southern New Jersey was a hotbed of slave fugitives, freedmen and abolitionists in the Civil War era. Activists such as Harriet Tubman, Abigail Goodwin and Benjamin Sheppard assisted runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad in daring flights at night in the forests of the Pine Barrens. Abolitionists flashed lights from their boats in the marshlands of the Delaware Bay to signal to agents on land that fugitive slaves were on board. Please join us in celebration of Juneteenth as author Ellen D. Alford recounts compelling narratives of abolition and the Underground Railroad in South Jersey.

Ellen D. Alford is a native South Jersey resident and local historian who researches and writes about the Underground Railroad, slavery, abolition and Harriet Tubman in South Jersey. A graduate of Howard University, Allen is a former newspaper correspondent, public school educator and a college/university administrator. She has published articles in the Vineland Historical Magazine and the Bulletin of the Gloucester County Historical Society.

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