I apologize that Art Thomas, Chris Densmore and I have been exchanging some information about our Underground Railroad research by private Email messages. This was not intentional on our part, and Bennie has asked us to post this exchange on the Forum.

We are seeking to establish when and where the Underground Railroad in the United States originated. I do not feel that some of the information we are discussing right now address when and where the Underground Railroad began, but never-the-less it is important information!
In my view, the abolishment of slavery in northern states and emancipation of slaves there, are two somewhat different issues. Each northern state that abolished slavery drafted its own formula for emancipating slaves, so in reality, it seems that there were enslaved African American in some Northern States as late as the 1840s. This causes a great deal of confusion when discussing issues of African-American history. A researcher would have to know the details of the emancipation plans in order to engage in constructive discussions about this aspect. I readily admit that I do not know the details in every states’ emancipation plan.
History records that slavery in English Colonies of North America began in Jamestown in 1619. From that beginning, slavery became legal in every English Colony in North America. This remained the case right up until the American Revolutionary War began. From the very beginning of the enslavement of Africans in North America, Africans resisted their enslavement. There is a great deal of known and unknown history about this period. I feel that the following does not necessarily address when and where the Underground Railroad got started, but I feel we must discuss and understand some of this information before my view about the origin of the Underground Railroad can be accepted.
In 1777 the new state of New Hampshire abolished slavery. In 1780 Massachusetts and Pennsylvania did the same. Slaves began to run off to states where slavery had been abolished and claim they were free. This was particularly evident when slaves from Virginia and Maryland fled into Pennsylvania from 1780 to 1793.
The other states in the North soon abolished slavery: Connecticut and Rhode Island in 1784; New York in 1799 and New Jersey in 1804.
Meanwhile in 1788 the settlement of the Northwest Territory was established in Marietta Washington County, (Ohio). This extended the Mason-Dixon Line west to the Mississippi River. Article 6 in the Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory, but it also contained a clause that gave slave owners the right to pursue and capture their fugitive slaves.