The display features four sections:

• Anti-slavery sentiments in the 1820s and 1830s
• Organized efforts and leadership in support of the Abolition Movement in the 1840s
• Travel along the Underground Railroad in the 1850s
• Artifacts depicting the evils of slavery
  
  Exhibit Pictures:
       Case 1

     Case 2

     Case 3

     Case 4 

On display are photographs, maps, and reproductions of newspapers, articles and original historic documents including:

A slave auction broadside
Correspondence from the Sutliff Family Collection

An exhibit chronology called 70 Years on the Roads to Freedom underscores local anti-slavery history in the context of national happenings on a timeline for the period 1793-1863, from the first Fugitive Slave Act to the Emancipation Proclamation.

A wealth of original source material has been uncovered to support the fact that Trumbull County was a key player in the "forwarding business." The use of the "underground railroad" vocabulary first appears locally about 1850. Ohio State University Professor Wilbur H. Siebert's landmark 1895 study of The Underground Railroad in Ohio notes that Trumbull County was one of the most active counties in the system with 153 miles of lines to freedom. Cross-lines also made lateral connections with western Pennsylvania.

A variety of materials about the Underground Railroad is available through the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library.

Materials For Children                 Materials For Adults

The Underground Railroad

Myth and reality have merged about the operation of the Underground Railroad. Its secret activity was neither underground nor was it a railroad. Escape tunnels, often associated with the movement of fugitive slaves northward toward Canada, are rarely found at the safe havens of eastern and northern Ohio. Hiding places in homes, workshops, barns and country stores were more common. Existing highways were popular travel routes. The network of persons who assisted the escapees became known as conductors, or agents on the Underground Railroad.

Disapproval over slavery was especially strong in northern Ohio, including the counties to the south, west and north of Trumbull County. Anti-slavery activists helped with the "forwarding business" and spoke out in the political arenas of the Liberty, Whig and Free-Soil parties during the 1840s and '50s. Abolitionists often put themselves and their families at risk to aid fugitive slaves.

"...we believe it is the duty of all men, but especially of abolitionists, to give meat to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, protection or lodging to the stranger, clothes to the naked, and point out the North Star to him who enquires..."
                                                   ---The Liberty Herald
                                                       Warren, Ohio
                                                       January 11, 1844

"...Trumbull County is not the place for slave catchers, as they will be convinced if they but once come among us."
                                                  ---Western Reserve Chronicle
                                                      Warren, Ohio
                                                      December 4, 1850

Most slaves did not run away but some dared to follow "the drinking gourd" (the North Star) on a hard and dangerous trek north.

It was not until the 13th amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1865 that the practice of slavery was officially abolished in the United States.

Visiting the Exhibit

The exhibit is open during regular  library hours. If you would like more information, call the Sutliff Museum at (330) 399-8807, ext. 121 or (330) 394-9989.

More About the Exhibit

Freedom Center Status

Underground Railroad for Kids