The saga of the Underground Railroad looms large in the national Canadian consciousness. Canada views itself, especially when juxtaposed with the United States, as a bastion of freedom for fugitive slaves and free Blacks looking to preserve their liberty. The national identity rest largely on Canada being one of the primary destinations on the Railroad. It is curious that so little of the Railroad’s operational details are generally known; the century a half that has passed since the Underground Railroad’s last running has only deepened its mystery. We shall find that there are two Underground Railroads, the legend and a factual history that has yet to be fully realized. For most people today the phrase Underground Railroad conjures images of trapdoors, flickering lanterns, and moonlit pathways through the woods. The real Underground Railroad was neither underground nor an actual railroad; the metaphor described a coordinated system of civil disobedience directed and supported by thousands of people committed to what they saw as a just cause. The fugitive slaves that rode the railway brought with them the one institution that was truly theirs, the Black church.
The church was an important institution in the Black Canadian community; it provided spiritual care, education, and the social and economic organizations necessary for building new communities. This paper will attempt to unearth the factual history of the Underground Railroad and discover how its tracts intersected with the Black Baptist Church in Canada. This will not be an exhaustive list of churches or the entire story of the Railroad, but it will highlight those towns and churches that played a significant role in the Underground Railroad saga in Upper Canada.