With the growth of the abolition movement in the North, the repugnance of human enslavement, and the injustice of the Fugitive Slave Law, many whites and blacks joined together to create the Railroad. Its unique character, national in purpose, but with routes that were separate in action, embodied ideals common to all its participants. Homes along the routes were called stations, and the courageous men and women directly assisting the runaways were simply known as conductors. Advice, food, clothing and a human sensitivity to the needs of its passengers, were dispensed freely. The financial needs of the Railroad were underwritten by those who donated money, clothing, and other important goods to the enterprise. These people, with a noble commitment to the cause of freedom, became known as the Railroad’s stockholders. The Railroad’s gallant proponents and supporters included white and black abolitionists, enslaved African Americans, American Indians, and members of such religious groups as the Quakers, Baptists, and Methodists.

Routes were sustained to the northern states, Canada, the Caribbean (Great Britain abolished slavery in 1833), and Mexico, with the most popular routes leading to, and through, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Ohio alone had at least 23 entry points along the Ohio River.

Pursuit of the fugitives into the free states by slave catchers seeking the rewards offered by individuals and Southern legislatures was a constant source of danger to the runaways and the Railroad’s participants. Due to the perils involved and the exhaustive traveling, many of the escapees were young, healthy men; returning later to seek their family’s freedom. Although thousands of escaping slaves were spirited north under the guidance and expertise of railroad conductors, many individuals and groups cast aside the shackles of bondage and set out without assistance using only the North Star as their beacon of hope. With daylight travel difficult, and sometimes impossible, cloudless nights and a clearly visible star guided them on their nightmarish escape. A delayed or prolonged journey only increased the possibility of capture.

History credits Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass as the leading, famous, black conductors, while whites - Levi Coffin, Josiah Grinnell, Gerrit Smith, Theodore Parker, Thomas Garrett, the Reverend Charles Torrey, Samuel J. May, and Robert Purvis share similar honors. Levi Coffin and his wife, Catherine, were Quakers and celebrated Underground Railroad agents in the Cincinnati area, and he was often referred to as the president of the railroad. More than 2,000 fugitive slaves passed through their Newport (now Fountain City, Indiana) home causing it to be later known as the Grand Central Station of the railroad. Farther up the Ohio River another station was established by Reverend John Rankin, a Presbyterian minister at Ripley, Ohio. From these stations going northward through Ohio, other stations, separated by about one night’s travel, completed a road to freedom.