Henry Burke is correct to point out the current debate over what activities and time periods the study of the Underground Railroad should include. As I understand it, the National Park Service's "Network to Freedom" project (www.cr.nps.gov/ugrr/) takes the most inclusive approach, including all activity by all freedom seekers and those who made any effort at all to give aid to them in their efforts to escape bondage. Other groups prefer to focus studies and resources on more specific time periods and geographical areas. The advantages and disadvantages of both views are apparent, and I believe it is up to each group or organization to determine their own course of study.

What we must all be careful to avoid, however, is any sort of scholarly snobbery in regard to differing viewpoints as to how others approach the subject. After all, we are all interested in basically the same subject, and can certainly benefit and learn from each other.

I hope there is no serious argument that all northern-bound activity was controlled by European Americans, and all southern/caribbean-bound activity was controlled by those of African descent.

One further note, to correct a minor mistatement, is that Pennsylvania did not abolish slavery in 1780, but rather, passed a law of gradual emancipation, which kept slavery in place in the state for all enslaved persons, while allowing for the eventual emancipation of their children 28 years later. Some enslaved persons in Pennsylvania actually escaped south, across the Mason-Dixon line, to Maryland, in the first few decades after the passage of the 1780 act.