Rochester was once a hub for the largest illegal - even traitorous - resistance movement of the 19th century. Its citizens spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and put their lives and personal property at risk helping with the escape of fugitives from across the country.

The Underground Railroad - focus of an international conference in Rochester this weekend - was an informal, clandestine network of safe houses and sympathizers that 19th-century fugitive slaves relied on to escape to freedom. It's a movement in which Rochester played a pivotal role.

Physical reminders of the Underground Railroad in Rochester have all but vanished; few of the houses, storefronts, and warehouses that once hid thousands of escaped slaves remain. Apart from the graves of a few famous abolitionists in Mt. Hope Cemetery, the statue in Susan B. Anthony Square of Anthony and Frederick Douglass sipping tea, and the Douglass statue in Highland Park, there is no monument to Rochester's extensive and sometimes dangerous involvement in the abolitionist movement. The men and women who risked their lives for freedom have faded into history, their farms razed, their storefronts torn down, their safe houses and hiding places buried.

"Yes, we want Rochester to be a center of tourism; yes, we want young people to stay here after graduating college," says David Anderson, who chairs the Rochester-Monroe County Freedom Trail Commission. "But we have yet to invest in telling our story, in putting it at the core of how we raise our children and rally our citizens, or in the image we present to the world."

Although Rochester's abolitionist past has mostly faded from public consciousness, in the 1850's, the movement was widespread. Agents of the Underground Railroad worked from Main Street to Charlotte to the farms in Brighton and Henrietta.

One-hundred-and-fifty years ago, Rochester, America's first boomtown, was the jewel of Upstate New York, a prosperous mecca for free thinkers like Anthony and Douglass. By the 1830's, Rochester had become the world's largest flour producer, and the abundance of jobs attracted people from across the nation and all walks of life. The city pulsed with diversity, religious freedom, and Victorian-era confidence.

"It was a business-minded community, a place where you could get work, where there's a welcoming reputation," says Anderson. "There was no room for slavery here."

New York had abolished slavery as early as 1827. Although the law allowed slaveholders moving into the area to maintain their existing slaves, several slaveholders freed their slaves when they arrived, including former Maryland resident and Rochesterville founder Colonel Nathaniel Rochester.

Still, the issue seemed relatively remote, since the black community in Upstate New York remained small for several decades.

The city's first abolitionist stirrings date back to the early 1820's, but the movement picked up steam when the Rochester Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1835. Two years later, the influential women's chapter, Rochester Ladies Sewing Antislavery Society (the "sewing" part was later dropped), also formed. Together, these two organizations galvanized and organized the city's infant abolitionist movement: circulating petitions, raising money to fund Underground Railroad operations, and hosting lectures and conferences in the area. Isaac and Amy Post; Gerrit Smith; Susan, Samuel, and Maria Porter and Susan B. Anthony were all involved in these societies. So by the time Frederick Douglass moved to Rochester in 1847, the antislavery community was strong.

As for the Underground Railroad itself, that network had been building slowly over several decades. "It wasn't this spontaneous thing," says Anderson. "As more and more people attempted to get away, the network got built, coincident with the noise kept up by the abolitionists."

The resistance movement adopted the language of the 19th century's favorite hi-tech industry, the railroad. Escaped slaves were referred to as "freight" or "cargo," and by running away, they earned themselves a "ticket" on the "Freedom Train." People who aided fugitive slaves, guiding them to hiding spots and arranging transportation, were known as "conductors." Safe havens, called "stations," were operated by "stationmasters," who opened their homes, businesses, churches, and barns to those on the Railroad.

Usually, runaways fled on their own initiative, seeking out conductors via word of mouth. Once fugitives hooked up with a conductor, they traveled together, mostly at night, using the stars as a roadmap. Resting at friendly stations, conductors sent coded messages ahead to the next station to determine the next route. Boats, trains, and hay carts were often used as transports for hidden slaves, and fugitives often traveled in disguise.

"It wasn't easy for slaves to escape," says Anderson, "and many who ran away never succeeded, because slaveholders were usually on the trail pretty quickly."

Rochester's Underground Railroad efforts intensified in September 1850, when Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act. The law was designed to help settle the North-South tension, but it only fueled the flames. The act required federal marshals and local law enforcement to arrest any suspected or accused runaway slave or suffer a $1,000 fine (exorbitant in those days). Anyone caught giving a fugitive slave food or shelter was subject to the fine, as well as up to six months in jail.

The effect was immediate. "Positions hardened, and there began a period of nervousness," says Anderson. At least one Rochester man, Henry Dixon, was returned to slavery under the Fugitive Slave Act, and the city's small African-American population dwindled as many fled to Canada to escape pursuit.

At the same time, the Act emboldened many south of the Mason-+Dixon Line. Slave rebellions increased in the years following its passage, and the number of runaways with tickets on the Underground Railroad more than quadrupled, according to a Freedom Train Commission guidebook. Rochester was ready for this new influx of cargo.

Anderson estimates that at the height of the operation of the Underground Railroad, as many as 60 families and individuals in Monroe County were actively involved in its operation. "We've got pretty good documentation on these," he says, "but the probability is that there were others, too, that were lost to history."

Participants included Henrietta farmer Thomas Warrant, who hid slaves in his barns and in the back of his house. When it was safe, Warrant transported fugitives in his hay cart to stations in the city, including Douglass's home on South Avenue.

William Bloss, a former temperance activist in Maryland and the Carolinas, ran a station with his wife out of their East Avenue home. Samuel and Susan Porter operated several stations, including one with Samuel's sister, Maria, in her boarding house on the Erie Canal. Douglass's close friends Isaac and Amy Post also ran multiple stations, and their Sophia Street home was the most frequently used station in the city - aiding as many as 10 or 20 slaves a night.

But whites weren't the only stationmasters; blacks were active in the Underground Railroad, too, although the contributions of most of them aren't as well known as those of Frederick Douglass. Harriet Jacobs, who wrote her autobiography "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" at Amy Post's urging, operated an antislavery reading room in the Talman Building on East Main Street downtown.

Jacob P. Morris, a free black, was an ardent abolitionist and helped Douglass juggle the duties of his newspaper and the Underground Railroad. Walter Vond, a Hilton-based fisherman, often rowed fugitive slaves to Canada in his fishing skiff.

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the first black congregation in Rochester, was one of the most frequently used stations in the city. Harriet Tubman often headed to the Reverend Thomas James's church, hiding slaves among the pews and in the church basement while she arranged their transportation with the help of Frederick Douglass.

And Douglass, using his downtown office and South Avenue home as stations, helped hundreds of men and women gain their freedom. In between giving speeches and organizing conferences, Douglass published his abolitionist newspaper, The North Star, first out of AME Zion's basement, then later from the Talman Building. He combined forces with Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, and in a major political incident, he ushered to Canada three Christiana, Pennsylvania, men involved in a bloody shootout with their former owner.

Douglass even befriended John Brown, architect of the ill-fated raid on Harper's Ferry. He invited Brown into his home several times. That connection would later prove troublesome: papers confiscated from Brown's carpetbag implicated Douglass in the planning of the treasonous raid. Douglass was innocent - he had actively discouraged blacks from enlisting in Brown's cause - but he was forced to flee to London to avoid arrest.

Strategically situated along Lake Ontario, Rochester was particularly attractive to those on the Underground Railroad. Its thriving shipping industry meant escapees had easy access to water transportation to Canada. Estimates vary due to a lack of detailed records from the time, but it's believed that anywhere from 150 to 300 slaves passed through Rochester each year of the Underground Railroad's existence.

Generally, slaves who fled to Rochester hailed from East Coast border states such as Maryland and Virginia. "Geography played a major role in who could escape," says Paul Bernish, chief communications officer at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. "Slaves in border states had the shorter path and probably heard more about what was going on."

While it's easy to imagine the Underground Railroad as a singular, straight route in and out of Rochester, the reality is that dozens of trails wound their way into the city. Escaped slaves usually traveled up through the Southern Tier to Naples and then on to Honeoye, but some came through Canandaigua and Mendon. Others came through Pittsford or East Avon.

And there were several routes leading out of the city. At Kelsey's Landing, along the west bank of the Genesee River, slaves could board riverboats flying the British flag bound toward Canada. Escaped slaves could also hide in shipping boats on Lake Ontario, casting off from Charlotte. Some decided to travel west along Route 104, toward Buffalo and Niagara Falls, others from the active port of Pultneyville. But one way or another, they all sought Canada and with it, freedom.

These days, however, Rochester has mostly ignored its abolitionist past. The story of theUnderground Railroad "isn't making as strong an impact today as one would expect, given our history," says Anderson. "It hasn't been presented very well in our educational institutions. It's not part of the ritual in our religious enclave. We've forgotten."

Neither of Douglass's two Rochester homes survived; the one on South burned to the ground, although a historical marker in front of School 12 indicates where the house once stood. The original AME Zion Church building was torn down. The Posts' drug store, on the corner of Main Street and Exchange, is now an Atlanta Bread Company location.

But Anderson says that the process of forgetting began long before the houses and buildings disappeared. "You get into the early 1900's here, and there's a feel of conservative thought coming over the city," he says. "Rochester was losing its edge, and race relations became certainly less promising."

Rochester's black population remained relatively small for decades - as of 1950, there were fewer than 10,000 African-Americans in the city - but it was also well-segregated. When the expressways were built to make travel to the suburbs easier, the city experienced a mass exodus, with its poorest residents, often black, left behind. Tensions escalated and culminated in the 1964 race riots.

"The ideas behind the Underground Railroad got sidelined, put under wraps, while we tried to find quick fixes for the problems staring us in the eye," says Anderson.

Although the situation has improved considerably since the 1960's, there's still much farther to go, says Anderson.

He points to the lessons of the Underground Railroad as a tool to help Rochester deal with the problems of today. "The Underground Railroad represented people risking life and property to help others, because they saw people risking their own lives to escape."

"It's the 21st century," says Anderson. "We shouldn't be that far from the way they operated in the 19th century.

"We canhave an impact and help people to become neighbors rather than adversaries," he says. "We are able to do this now."

The Rochester Public Library's Web site offers an online tour, "Many Roads to Freedom: Abolitionism and the Civil War in Rochester" including pictures and descriptions of probable stops.

Conference focuses on the Railroad

More than 30 of the nation's leading authorities on the Underground Railroad will be in Rochester this weekend, giving presentations at the Frederick Douglass International Underground Railroad Conference and Freedom Festival.

The conference is at the Riverside Convention Center Friday through Sunday, September 28 through 30.

Keynote addresses will be given by Juan Williams, senior correspondent for NPR and a Fox News political analyst (noon on Friday), and Bernice Johnson Reagon, curator emeritus for the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History (at 9:15 a.m. on Saturday). Actor Darryl Van Lear will perform his one-man show about Frederick Douglass' life, "My Life in Bondage," at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

Conference speakers include Linda Cousins-Newton, an activist trying to establish a Harriet Tubman shrine in Ghana; Rickerby Hinds, a California playwright with a hip-hop show centering on Frederick Douglass; and representatives from the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route. Local and national historians will discuss topics ranging from genealogy to the abolitionist movement in fiction. Those programs will take place from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

The Freedom Festival is a family-oriented event from 2 to 6 p m. on Sunday in Susan B. Anthony Square (off West Main Street, across from the Susan B. Anthony house). Art, crafts, and books on Underground Railroad history will be on sale, and re-enactors from AKWAABA Tours and the Rochester Museum and Science Center will bring to life famous abolitionist personalities, including Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, and Frederick Douglass. Local musicians and gospel choirs will perform 1850's music, and area students will perform slam poetry.

The Susan B. Anthony House will be open all day, admission free, and will feature a presentation on the Underground Railroad in Rochester. And members of the Susan B. Anthony Neighborhood Association, dressed in period costumes, will give house tours.

The Freedom Festival is open to the public free of charge. The conference fee is $150 and includes access to all sessions, the keynote speeches, and Van Lear's performance. Tickets for the conference's keynote speeches can be purchased separately: Juan Williams' luncheon talk for $40, Bernice Johnson Reagon's talk for $25. Tickets to Van Lear's performance are $35. Student discounts are available. A complete schedule of events and registration information is available at 256-4642 or the Workforce Diversity Network Web site.

Preserving the history

The Rochester-Monroe County Freedom Trail Commission, one of the organizers of this week's conference on the Underground Railroad, got its start in 2000, when David Anderson, the Commission's chair, approached then-Mayor Bill Johnson about the lack of historical tribute to the role the city played in the Underground Railroad. A volunteer committee of 15 was formed in response, named the Freedom Trail Commission.

The Commission has collaborated on projects with preservation and education organizations such as Heritage New York to build and connect trails through Underground Railroad territory, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. The latter culminated in the Frederick Douglass International Underground Railroad Conference and Freedom Festival this weekend.

The Commission has other projects in the pipeline. One example: it is in the early stages of planning a walkway to Kelsey's Landing, a former boat dock on the west bank of the Genesee River near Maplewood Park. Slaves boarded boats here to cross Lake Ontario to Canada.

The Commission's ultimate goal is to create "an interpretive and commemorative center" called "Annie's Safe House," says Anderson, to weave scholarly research and personal narratives about Rochester's role in the Underground Railroad. The center, to be named for Frederick and Anna Douglass's youngest child, would recreate her life and world. Exhibits would highlight contributions of lesser-known abolitionists as well as giants like Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. And young visitors could try on period costumes and play Civil War era games.

The Safe House is a partnership between the Commission and Nazareth College, the Freedom School, and MCC's Damon Center. A 10-panel exhibit on the city's role in the Underground Railroad will be presented at this weekend's conference.

Annie's Safe House, says Anderson, could encourage students to apply the lessons of the Underground Railroad to the present. History is a lens, he says, for looking at the city's problems in a new way and for spotting new opportunities.

More information on the Freedom Trail Commission's activities is available at the Freedom Trail Web site.