Black Rock Harbor / From Plantation to Promised Land Historical

Black Rock Harbor / From Plantation to Promised Land Historical (HM1UI2)

Location: Buffalo, NY 14213 Erie County
Buy New York State flags at Flagstore.com!
Country: United States of America
Buy United States of America flags at Flagstore.com!

N 42° 54.884', W 78° 54.167'

  • 0 likes
  • 0 check ins
  • 0 favorites
  • 610 views
Inscription

National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom

[left panel] Black Rock Harbor. The Village of Black Rock received its name from a large rock outcropping that jutted into the river about a half mile south of this site. The original ferry crossing was located at the rock and a small village grew up around it. The rock outcropping was demolished for construction of the Erie Canal and the ferry and village relocated here. Black Rock and Buffalo competed to become the terminus of the new canal. Buffalo won, in part, due to concerns about damage from ice flows in the river during winter. Nonetheless, a protected harbor was created here by construction of a long stone pier connecting Unity Island (formerly known as Squaw Island) to the north and Bird Island to the south. Originally, canal boats entered the harbor, traveled upriver and enetered a final canal segment leading to Buffalo. The configuration of the Erie Canal at Black Rock Harbor changed over the decades as industrial growth increased. Black Rock was absorbed into the City of Buffalo in 1853. An 1825 view of Black Rock, facing north. The ferry dock is on the stone pier to the left where the ships are shown. Source: Buffalo History Museum. Stone pier looking north toward the ferry dock with river on the left and harbor on the right. Image courtesy of the Queens College CUNY Graduate
School Library & Information Studies "Waterways of New York" project and the "Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York" database. Background image: Detail, 1866 Stone and Stewart Atlas. Map of the City of Buffalo. Source: Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library "City of Buffalo [Township]" The New York Public Library Digital Collections, 1866. [right panel] From Plantation to Promised Land. In the decades before the Civil War, the Black Rock Ferry was an important crossing point of the Underground Railroad. Fugitive Freedom Seekers used the ferry to cross the river to Canada and freedom. Other documented crossing points were located downriver at Niagara Falls, Lewiston, and Youngstown. The Underground Railroad was an informal, interlocking series of local networks through which fugitive Freedon Seekers were assisted in reaching free states and Canada. The fugitives faced long journeys, great danger, and daunting odds. 1836 publication of the American Anti-Slavery Society in which a fugitive crossing at Black Rock is recorded. Period accounts, memoirs, and local histories record crossings at Black Rock beginning as early as 1824, increasing though the following three decades. Each story has its own character and recounts its own dangers. Broderick Park's Freedom Walk engravings note
important events and moments in American slavery combined with documented crossings of fugitives at Black Rock. Left: Samuel Ringgold Ward, an escaped Freedom Seeker, newspaper editor, and abolitionist, wrote about the 1836 escape at Black Rock depicted in the Anti-Slavery Record in his 1855 autobiography. Source/l "Samuel Ringgold Ward, "TPL Virtial Exhibits, accessed May 18, 2016, http://omeka.tplcs.ca/virtual-exhibits/items/show/172
Details
HM NumberHM1UI2
Tags
Year Placed2016
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Monday, September 19th, 2016 at 5:02pm PDT -07:00
Pictures
Sorry, but we don't have a picture of this historical marker yet. If you have a picture, please share it with us. It's simple to do. 1) Become a member. 2) Adopt this historical marker listing. 3) Upload the picture.
Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)17T E 671179 N 4753479
Decimal Degrees42.91473333, -78.90278333
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 42° 54.884', W 78° 54.167'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds42° 54' 53.04" N, 78° 54' 10.02" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)716
Which side of the road?Marker is on the right when traveling South
Closest Postal AddressAt or near Robert Rich Way, Buffalo NY 14213, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

Is this marker missing? Are the coordinates wrong? Do you have additional information that you would like to share with us? If so, check in.

Check Ins  check in   |    all

Have you seen this marker? If so, check in and tell us about it.

Comments 0 comments

Maintenance Issues
  1. Is this marker part of a series?
  2. What historical period does the marker represent?
  3. What historical place does the marker represent?
  4. What type of marker is it?
  5. What class is the marker?
  6. What style is the marker?
  7. Does the marker have a number?
  8. Who or what organization placed the marker?
  9. This marker needs at least one picture.
  10. Can this marker be seen from the road?
  11. Is the marker in the median?