We're glad you're here and you're going to learn a lot.

Judy Sweets, our researcher and historian in Lawrence, is telling us about underground railroad locations in Douglas County, Lawrence area.

But before we left you last time we were in Canada, Judy.

Why Canada?

Well, that was that they had abolished slavery in 1834 there.

And slavery in the United States was not abolished until 1863.

So that's why people went up there to be safe.

I mean, there were thousands of people that went to Canada.

So were more people of color able to be there and where they more welcoming of people of color in Canada?

Like, should they have just stayed there instead of coming back to the States?

Well, some of them did stay stay there.

And I have been in contact with a couple whose, whose ancestors came on the Underground Railroad with John Brown through Lawrence, Kansas.

And I was able to get in touch with that family.

And they had no idea that their family came with John Brown on the Underground Railroad, but they were still there.

I mean, the descendants were still living in Windsor, Canada, after 150 years.

That's amazing.

Okay now, you live close to a couple of underground railroad sites in Lawrence.

But tell us about Grover Barn.

Okay.

The 1858 Grover Barn is one of the best documented underground railroad sites in Kansas and maybe even in the nation.

It was built in, like I said, 1858 on a 160 acre farm.

And it's about three miles south west of Lawrence, the city of Lawrence.

And Joel Grover lived there with his wife, Emily.

That was one of ten known underground railroad stations in Lawrence.

And today, it's one of only two underground railroad structures that are still standing in the city of Lawrence.

So we've lost quite a few of the stations.

But we still have the stories.

So two groups that we know of definitely came through there.

The group with John Brown, the 12 they had 12 freedom seekers with John Brown that stayed there several days.

And then there were two teenage boys who were living on Vermont Street, sheltered there in a house.

And they were it's kind of a sad story.

They they just didn't want to stay inside.

They wanted to go outside and be in the sunshine for a little while.

They were, like I said, teenagers, 14 and 17.

And the lady that was there, Mrs. Abbott, she said, no, you can't go out, people might see you.

And and so one of them just he just he had to go outside.

You just want to go out in the sun, in the backyard for a while.

And later on, she told her husband, they they did that.

And so he said, well, they're going to have to be moved tonight because I'm sure someone may have seen them.

The neighbors may have seen them and tell the slave catchers.

And so they moved them into Grover Barn.

So that's the go to documented stories we know.

Ive got a lot more information about that one with John Brown.

So then were they safe?

Were they safe then?

They eventually got to, you know, another they kept moving them.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Yes.

So try to get them to Canada, if possible, or Iowa.

Either one.

Do we have an idea of how many people went through the underground railroads in Kansas?

Well, I can I can tell you about Lawrence.

They said between 301,000 they think came through.

I guess it was Douglas County on the Underground Railroad that was Dr. Sheridans estimate And was Lawrence the main hub in terms of underground railroads?

I know that it being more of a free area.

Was it like the main place for the Underground Railroad?

Yes.

And the people in the plantations in Missouri, they would they would you know, they passed a kind of like a grapevine that, you know, if one person knew about it, this is a safe place to go.

And that's a free state town.

And the people that owned them kept saying such terrible things about Lawrence that that's so they thought that's where we're going to go because they they don't like those abolitioni over there.

So, yeah, a lot of people came here and the other place was Leavenworth.

They went there.

And then the John Brown group that he brought here and southern Kansas, there was a place down there also.