Scott here with another episode of the History on Plug podcast.

As many as 100,000 enslaved people fled successfully to the north prior to the Civil War in the United States,

finding safe harbor along a network of passageways across North America, now known as the

Underground Railroad.

We imagine that all of them fled over land

and were received into the houses of sympathetic abolitionists and would sometimes have to hide in

pantries and in trapdoors in order to escape slavers. But there were many who were able to escape

not by going over land, but by going by sea. This was a secret world of stowaways and the vessels

that carried them to freedom

across the north and into Canada. It sprawled through the riverways of the Carolinas to the banks of

the Chesapeake Bay to Boston's harbors. This included Frederick Douglass, who escaped in 1838 by boarding

a ferry from Baltimore to Delaware, disguised as a free black seaman. It also included Robert

Smalls, who commandeered the Confederateship

Plancher from Charleston, South Carolina, and sailed past enemy lines of Union forces,

freeing himself and 15 others. Perhaps most notably was Thomas Jones, a preacher who escaped in

1849 by stowing away on a schooner from Wilmington, North Carolina, and a mile away from the

New York Harbor, lashed together a few boards to fashion a raft,

and made it to freedom to reunite with his family. Today's episode, we're speaking to Marcus

Rediker, author of Freedom Ship, The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea. We see the Atlantic

waterfront is a place of conspiracy, mutiny, and liberation. Hope we enjoyed this discussion.

And one more thing before we get started with this episode, a quick break for a word from our sponsors.

Let's start off with the story of Thomas H. Jones, before we get into the larger thematic issues of escaping slavery by sea,

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