The Underground Railroad (Select images)
"… When the ship tied up at the wharf at the foot of Union Street, I was over the edge and in the mist of an excited crowd… But a slave had little to fear in a New Bedford crowd in slavery days…they stood aside and let me pass."
New Bedford has a history of helping others and one of the most important parts of that history was its involvement in helping fugitive slaves seek refuge and freedom during slavery on The Underground Railroad. The labor seeking whaling industry, a large Quaker community and a growing free population of people of color made New Bedford very attractive to runaway slaves in the mid 1800's.
