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Speedy Amtrak Acela Express train passes historic Perryville rail station in Maryland. (Wikipedia Common, Credit: MacKensen)
Perryville railroad station as lifeline for escaping slaves
Published: Tue, 2015-02-10 07:57-
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Amtrak tributes historic escape route
During ongoing Black History Month, the U.S. rail company Amtrak is highlighting two areas along its right of way in Maryland and Pennsylvania that the National Park Service (NPS) says provide significant contribution to the understanding of the Underground Railroad in American history.
The Underground Railroad was a network for those with help, or sometimes without assistance, escaped slavery in the Mid-Atlantic States and was resourceful enough to find a means to head north to the Free states or Canada during the antebellum years.
The Perryville Railroad Ferry and Station site in Maryland is located along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and was accepted into the NPS Network to Freedom in October 2014.
Former slave and leader of the abolitionist movement, Frederick Douglass, is one of many who escaped slavery by crossing the Susquehanna River on a steam ferry from Havre de Grace and arrived at the Perryville railroad station located on Susquehanna Point to ride the former Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad north.
The old railroad station was replaced in the early 1900s and was located near where an Amtrak electrical substation now stands.
Source: Amtrak
Av Markku Björkman
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