Freedom connection

[undergroundrailroad]

Freedom connection

Researchers are exposing Long Island as a little-known “stop” on slaves’ Underground Railroad


BY BILL BLEYER
STAFF WRITER

March 31, 2005

It appears that the unusual door on the second-floor landing of The Maine Maid Inn in Jericho might open into a linen closet. But the door, set into the wall more than two feet off the floor, provides access to a steep staircase that leads to the attic.

The door and attic tell a story about a little-known facet of Long Island history -- the region's connection to the Underground Railroad. But research is revealing new details of how Long Islanders helped slaves make their way to freedom.

The Jericho structure was originally the home of Valentine Hicks, a Quaker who, before the Civil War, saw an escaped slave running by his house being chased by a bounty hunter. Hicks gave the slave sanctuary.

"He probably put the slave up in the attic," said Kate Velsor, an associate professor in teacher education at SUNY Old Westbury and authority on slavery on Long Island. "And the next day he took him to the water" to continue the trip to Canada.