Talk:Underground Railroad

Discussion continued from Project:Requests_for_articles#Itineraries_.28List_of_itineraries.29

I bet the Underground Railroad sites in the USA would also be a good itinerary. —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) Kire1975 (talk • contribs)

That's an awesome idea—I'm going to take a look and see if I can't come up with a suggested route. I know some old Quaker-run sites in Maryland, but I'll have to branch out further than that! --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 00:52, 25 July 2008 (EDT)

I still have this in the back of my mind. The NPS has a list [1] dedicated to the topic, although the sites they list are only those that have an NPS designation—there are tons of other relevant sites that a traveler could visit on any of these given paths [2]. The most rewarding itinerary implied by those vague arrows, I think, would be the one leading from the Carolinas and then through all the major Mid-Atlantic cities. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 15:22, 15 September 2009 (EDT)

Do you think the itinerary should restrict itself to actual underground railroad sites, or might nearby related attractions be of interest as well? (To be specific, the Rochester Museum and Science Center has a permanent exhibit on the underground railroad, and Rochester also has a Frederick Douglass Resource Center, in addition to several extant houses that were actual stops on the railroad.) (WT-en) LtPowers 09:57, 22 September 2009 (EDT)

I definitely think related attractions have a place in the itinerary. I'm still very unsure which route would make for the optimal itinerary, though. The East Coast route has far better public transportation and attractions are closer together, which brings down the price and time required, but there are a ton of interesting sites on a Midwestern route. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 13:59, 23 September 2009 (EDT)

I envision this as containing more than one possible route, much like Trans-Canada Highway (were it ever written properly) has two possible choices for western terminus (Victoria or Prince Rupert) and various alternate routes through places like Charlottetown. If there's a need to mention Rochester, it would be downline on the UGRR through Auburn (New York), already listed for its ties to Harriet Tubman (her last home, retirement house, church and gravesite) in the same approximate area.

Definitely, we need a Kentucky-Ohio-Ontario line as one of the options as the shortest, most-travelled Underground Railroad line (only one state and a lake separated Kentucky slavery from Canadian freedom). Perhaps there should be a western route (Chicago-Détroit-Windsor) and an eastern route (maybe follow the coast all the way to Halifax, not Canadian until 1867 but still free). K7L (talk) 14:14, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

Existing articles which mention the Underground Railroad or list UGRR sites

These should likely be grouped into geographically close (or geographically linear) routes as 'rail' lines. Ohio seems to account for nearly a quarter of all UGRR listings currently in Wikivoyage cities and should be one of the itinerary options as it and Pennsylvania have the most to see:

Delaware New Castle Maryland Cambridge Olney Illinois Jacksonville Quincy Indiana Fishers New Albany Westfield

Michigan Détroit Washington Township New England Newton MA Warwick (Rhode Island) Wilton (Connecticut) New Jersey Cherry Hill New York Auburn Buffalo Franklinville Oswego Palmyra Scarsdale

Ohio Alliance Ashtabula, Ashtabula County Cincinnati Clermont County Kent Lorain, Lorain County Ohio and Ohio Museums Sandusky Springboro, Warren County Yellow Springs Zanesville

Pennsylvania Chambersburg Gettysburg National Military Park Kennett Square Philadelphia Reading Shrewsbury Yardley Ontario and Canada: Chatham-Kent, Windsor-Quebec corridor Miscellania: Itineraries, Cycling, Dixieland

• One missing from our guides, but certainly my favorite relevant site that I've visited, is in Memphis: Slave Haven. I should get around to actually adding the listing... ;) --Peter ^Talk 04:14, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

Previous version

As this article did not make usable status after the course of one year, it has been deleted, but I have moved the content to my userspace for future development. If you would like to work on it, please feel free to do so at User:(WT-en) Peterfitzgerald/Underground Railroad. Once it reaches usable status, we can recreate the actual article here. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 17:24, 13 September 2011 (EDT)

Stay safe?

Isn't the Underground Railroad#Stay safe section a bit weird? Surely it is for safety implications today, not in the nineteenth century? Andrewssi2 (talk) 01:21, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Rearranging this (its current state) with {{cautionbox}} looks worse... the reader sees "today, the slave catchers are gone" first and only later, in the sidebar, sees the explanation of what exactly a slavecatcher was and why they represented a danger to the traveller in 1850. That puts everything out of sequence. It makes no sense. K7L (talk) 01:08, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

Actually it is an {{infobox}}. In any case, surely 'stay safe' is about today's travel implications and not those in the 1850's?

I didn't object to the content, simply I don't understand why 'stay safe' is the place to put it? (Unless slave catchers are a present concern) Andrewssi2 (talk) 03:22, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

As far as I know, the Obama administration hasn't continued with the slave catchers... but I have no idea what the next administration will do. Maybe this will need to be updated tomorrow? :) K7L (talk) 14:58, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Africville?

This article now contradicts itself with respect to Halifax (Nova Scotia) as a destination on the Underground Railroad; Underground Railroad#Understand claims "an Africville ghetto existed in Halifax until the 1960s" while Underground Railroad#Into the Maritime provinces now claims "Halifax still has a substantial mostly-black district, largely populated by descendants of underground railroad passengers." Which is correct? K7L (talk) 01:32, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

I don't see a contradiction. As I understand it, Africville - an unrecognized settlement without municipal services or land registration - was bulldozed in the 1960s. Many of the inhabitants and their descendents now live in the community of North Preston. Wikipedia probably would tell you more, but I do not have access to it. Ground Zero (talk) 04:39, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

To guide and FTT

Wikivoyage:Destination of the month candidates#Underground Railroad has this article assigned "pending fixes and stronger consensus to support" for the July 20, 2018 featured travel topic. The discussion there lists some items to fix. Which ones are still current? K7L (talk) 14:40, 9 June 2018 (UTC)

These looked to be addressed:

• "Tubman's Pennsylvania, Auburn and Niagara Railroad" contains an ugly bullet-point list that needs to be converted to prose and fleshed out with more context. The list of bullet points in "Tubman's Pennsylvania, Auburn and Niagara Railroad" needs to be turned into at least markers if not listings.

These are waypoints, not points of interest with something specific to see or do. They've been turned into markers -K7L

• The lead section only consists of one sentence.

This has been expanded with a proper "Understand" section. -K7L

• At a minimum we should cover any of the "what links here" points in Talk:Underground Railroad#Existing articles which mention the Underground Railroad or list UGRR sites where a destination article has listings we can use here. That would most likely mean expanding the existing "two rail lines" to three or four by adding one along the Atlantic seaboard to Halifax and another through Illinois/Indiana to the Great Lakes.

This has been done. Certainly there are more than two (or four) possible roads to freedom, but what we have is reasonable and manageable. -K7L

• In the last section in the "Then" part, what is the last line "it's coverage, while national, was uneven" supposed to mean? It reads better without that line.

This has been reworded to explain the "sundown towns" concept. -K7L

• I assumed that this article was about the slavery era, but what time period is this itinerary really supposed to represent?

The Underground Railroad belongs to the antebellum era, ending with the US Civil War. This is explained in the article. -K7L

• In the "Now" section, the line "While an ordinary degree of caution remains advisable on this journey" sounds kind of terrifying. It makes it sound as if the Underground Railroad is still treacherous to travel.

How so? Travel advisories usually have "an ordinary degree of caution" as the lowest (normal) level with "avoid unnecessary travel" and "avoid all travel" as the red flags. -K7L

What about these?

• Many of the listings in the "Go" section need to be expanded, especially in the "Tubman's Pennsylvania, Auburn and Niagara Railroad" subsection.
• In addition, there's some copyediting and mos-ifying that needs to be done (including some old-school, footnote-style external links that need to be converted to the inline style)
• "Go next" and "See also" should have one-line listings explaining the connection.
• How much of the railroad is still left out? And then: How important are those sections of the road either historically or in terms of modern remnants that can be visited?
• There are still a few holes left to fill and the article could use better illustration; the most severe issues appear to have been addressed. I see two gaps of sparse coverage (one between Reading PA and Syracuse NY, one between Boston MA and Halifax NS) which need to be filled.NYS has plenty of sites which aren't in the article which could fill some gaps, for example. There may also be portions of the historic context which need to be expanded.
• This article seems fine, except for some of the pictures and the maps, which do not have the quality that may be needed for a Featured Travel Topic.
• But wasn't the Underground Railroad a way for African-Americans to escape the South as well as providing a route to Canada? I mean, isn't at least some of the railroad in the South?

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:

• Gateway to Freedom International Memorial to the Underground Railroad - Detroit - front.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 02:36, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

Considering the content of the nomination, it is probably a good idea to upload this photo locally at Wikivoyage. Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:52, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

The ferry from Detroit to Windsor is gone too

The crossing at Marine City MI is gone for good (they sold off the boats during the Wuhan virus pandemic) but the Truck Ferry is now also gone per https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/detroit-windsor-truck-ferry-closing-1.6799856 leaving just https://www.walpolealgonacferry.ca/fares or the bridge to Sarnia or Windsor.