Abolition and the Underground Railroad in South Jersey

Not Without a Fight

Ellen Alford

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781467155199
• eBook ISBN: 9781439679616
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: African American History
• Index: History

Southern New Jersey was a hotbed of slave fugitives, freedmen and abolitionists in the Civil War era.

The proud 22nd Regiment of the United States Colored Troops included hundreds of Black New Jerseyans ready to fight for emancipation and the Union cause. Abolitionists such as Harriet Tubman, Abigail Goodwin and Benjamin Sheppard operated among key landmarks of the Underground Railroad in South Jersey counties such as Cape May, Cumberland and Salem. Slavery and the rights of Black Americans were at the forefront of the region's attention including stories such as a melee in a Cape May hotel between Black waiters and white patrons, the covert signaling of boats ferrying fugitive slaves across the Delaware River and the daring rescue of a runway slave from the hands of slave catches by local church worshipers.

Author Ellen Alford reveals the history of abolition and the Underground Railroad in South Jersey.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Prelude to a War
• 2. “The Mystic Spell of America”
• 3. Cape May by the Sea: Sun, Sand and Espionage
• 4. “The Cause of America”
• 5. “The Sun Never Shined on a Cause of Greater Worth”
• 6. “God Won’t Let Massa Lincoln Beat the South Till He Do the Right Thing”
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Works Cited
• About the Author