Escape Itineraries of Some Prominent Fugitive Slaves

Few slaves escaped to the North from the Deep South, where most slaves lived. As the map shows, the greatest concentrations of slaves were in South Carolina, Georgia, and the lower Mississippi valley, but most successful runaways lived near free states. Those who managed to escape possessed exceptional skills, cunning, or luck, and usually a combination of all three. Frederick Douglass, for example, escaped from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1838, disguised as a sailor, and with borrowed seaman’s papers. He traveled by train to Wilmington, Delaware, by boat to Philadelphia, by train to New York City, and by boat to New Bedford, Massachusetts.