How to Visit Canadian Underground Railroad Sites

We all know that many American slaves left the United States and arrived in Canada via the Underground Railroad. Most of us don't know where these people went in Canada or what happened to them after they arrived. Visit the Underground Railroad sites in Canada to find a missing piece of American history that has been preserved by Afro-Canadians who found freedom on the final station of the Underground Railroad.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Retrace the path to Canada taken by some former runaway slaves at Learners Online. View maps of routes from the United States into Canada and get links to research sources.
2. Get information about tour sites from The Ontario Black History Society and Canada's Electronic Collection of Library and Archives, the government's official website. Join a guided tour by checking the schedule of planned activities, on the Black History and in Canadian community newspapers.
3. Create your own independent itinerary of important sites to visit. Browse through the Emancipation website for suggestions and maps. Stop in Dresden to visit the real Uncle Tom's Cabin, of the Harriet Beecher Stowe fame. Take the Owen Sound Driving tour and see points of interest in an early runaway settlement. See a restored safe room in the cellar at Bertie Hall in Fort Erie.
4. Plan a trip to Canada's Ontario province. Quite a few of the Canadian Underground Railroad sites are in the Ontario province, near cities on the US border.
5. Take a flight to Buffalo, New York. Rent a car and drive cross the Canadian border at Niagara Falls, a 30-minute trip. You can fly into Toronto instead and drive to the Niagara region. This routing takes about two hours by car.
6. Participate in commemoration activities and Underground Railroad tours by visiting Canada around the first week of August. Many Canadian cultural organizations plan special events to celebrate Emancipation Day, August 1st 1834, when slavery ended throughout the British Commonwealth.
7. Meet local descendants of slave runaways, who often work as volunteer guides at Bertie Hall and get insider information about Underground Railroad sites in the Niagara region and in other Canadian provinces.

Tips & Warnings

• US citizens of all ages need to show a valid passport when reentering the United States from Canada by air, and will soon need to do so when crossing the border in a car.