Caroline Courthouse In the Shadow of Justice - Denton, MD - Underground Railroad Sites on Waymarking.com

Caroline Courthouse-In the Shadow of Justice

— Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway —

Many facets of 19th century rural life focused on a county’s courthouse. Elected officials, lawyers, merchants, and ordinary citizens all had reasons to gather at the Caroline County Courthouse Square. For the enslaved and abolitionists, the square possessed a more sinister purpose.
Conducted in the shadow of the courthouse—the symbolic center of government and justice—local slave auction exhibited the inhumanity and raw, lucrative economics of the antebellum slave trade. The county jail also held abolitionists like Hugh Haziett, accused of aiding the runaways he tried to guide to freedom.
Above: As the time of their intended escape drew nearer, their anxiety grew more and more intense, their food was prepared and their clothing packed. Douglass had forged their passes. Early in the morning they went into the fields to work. At mid-day they were all called off the field, only to discover that they had been betrayed.
Right: Hammatt Billings depicted a slave auction to illustrate Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Address: Caroline County Courthouse Square Denton, MD USA 21629 Site Details: None Open to the public?: Public Name of organization who placed the marker: Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway Web site: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   10/28/2021 Don.Morfe visited it