Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad

New York/London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2015. First Edition. Hardcover. Good/Good. 8vo - over 7?" - 9?" tall. Type: Ex-Library First Edition. Hardcover Book and Jacket Retired LIbrary Book in Good Condition. Except for minimal lib marks, book and jacket have almost no wear; tight, solid and square binding; pages very clean, no markings of any kind. The author liberates the history of the underground railroad from the twin plaques of mythology and cynicism. Using an extraordinary little known document, he tells of slavery living on legally and commercially even in the northern states that had abolished it after the American Revolution. Slaves could be found in the streets of New York well after abolition--he even tell of slave-catchers and gangs of kidnappers roaming the city, seizing free blacks, often children, and sending them south to slavery. The New York Vigiligance Committee formed in 1935 developd networks of anti-slavery resistance in New York known as the underground railroad--these operated in secrecy due to hostile laws, courrts and politicians. The city's underground railroad agents helped more than 3,000 fugitive slaves reach freedom between 1830-1860. This is largely an unknown part of American history. 301 pages with Notes and Index. 6.4 x 9.5 inches. 2015, W W Norton & Company, New York/London