The Underground Railroad

   Port Deposit, Maryland had one of the largest free black communities in the United States on the eve of the Civil War. There were three verifiable free black communities all located in the hollows of the town.  In the south of the town the area was known as  Snow Hill (in Heckartown), it is now listed on the National Historic Register  To the center where Tome Highway is now located was the Howard Chapel (M.E.) community and to the north was Rock Run community. As well as numerous black families along the old canal.

In 1860 Cecil County had one to the highest ratios of free blacks to slaves in Maryland.

Due to Port Deposit's location, being on the north side of the Susquehanna River as well as being a prosperous river community dealing in manufacturing commerce more than agrarian type commerce, Port Deposit's African American community prospered.  In turn, a well knit Black community developed that also served well as ideal station houses for the underground railroad.

In this community there were many churches as well as individuals who could afford to maintain the structure it took to transport, clothe, feed and comfort those who made the journey from places south that practiced slavery.

The Port Deposit white community normally turned a blind eye to this activity. Many of Port Deposit's leading citizens were pro-abolitionist with the Hon. John AJ Creswell being the first elected representative to propose a constitutional amendment for the abolition of slavery. This was historically important since his was a former slave owning family. Jacob Tome, the Port Deposit millionaire another leading (white) citizen was also a financial advisor to Abraham Lincoln, It was  rumored that he gave a rather large donation to President Lincoln and the United States on the eve of the Civil War. Most all of Port Deposit men who enter the war were on the North's side. (see Snow's Battery)

FREDERICK DOUGLAS ROUTE
Port Deposit is along the Frederick Douglas Route to Freedom. This route starts mostly in Baltimore and follows the railroad lines tracks North. Once on the North  side of the Susquehanna river the paths to freedom are more diverse and safer. The Underground Railroad was a hardship journey and often tragic for many of those who traveled it. Because all activities were carried on in secret  railway terms were used to describe the system in order to disguise the real nature of the operation. Often groups or individuals had to travel hundreds of miles to arrive at a "station" house, the entire time bounty hunters with bloodhounds could be close on their trail. If caught, the return trip as well as the penalty for returning runaway slave was extremely harsh and cruel.

STATION HOUSES
James Chapman before he died told Fred Kelso that "The Howard Chapel (M.E.), Bethel A.M.E., and the Paw-Paw (M.E. Church) were all local stations on the Underground Railroad".  Also that a house down by Canal Rd was a station.

HOWARD METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH SITE
The Howard Methodist Episcopal Church, also known as Howard Chapel, was built by freed African Americans in 1853, a decade before the Emancipation Proclamation. Church members worked to free other Blacks, and the church became a station on the Underground Railroad. The church on Center Street was demolished in 1981. Today, the cornerstone remains, proclaiming "Howard M.E. Church Built 1853."