the institution through deportation, which would remove the objection of
certain masters who would free their slaves provided they were not left in
the States to become a public charge.[35] Some of this sentiment continued
in the mountains even until the Civil War. The highlanders, therefore,
found themselves involved in a continuous embroglio because they were not
moved by reactionary influences which were unifying the South for its bold
effort to make slavery a national institution.[36] The other members of
the mountaineer anti-slavery group became attached to the Underground
Railroad system, endeavoring by secret methods to place on free soil a
sufficiently large number of fugitives to show a decided diminution in the
South.[37] John Brown, who communicated with the South through these
mountains, thought that his work would be a success, if he could change
the situation in one county in each of these States.

The lines along which these Underground Railroad operators moved connected
naturally with the Quaker settlements established in free States and the
favorable sections in the Appalachian region. Many of these workers were
Quakers who had already established settlements of slaves on estates which
they had purchased in the Northwest Territory. Among these were John
Rankin, James Gilliland, Jesse Lockehart, Robert Dobbins, Samuel Crothers,
Hugh L. Fullerton, and William Dickey. Thus they connected the heart of
the South with the avenues to freedom in the North.[38] There were routes
extending from this section into Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
Over the Ohio and Kentucky route culminating chiefly in Cleveland,
Sandusky and Detroit, however, more fugitives made their way to freedom
than through any other avenue,[39] partly too because they found the
limestone caves very helpful for hiding by day. These operations extended
even through Tennessee into northern Georgia and Alabama. Dillingham,
Josiah Henson and Harriet Tubman used these routes to deliver many a Negro
from slavery.