Barbara Smucker’s novel Underground to Canada may be a work of fiction, but it provides a realistic portrayal of an enslaved person’s journey from a plantation in the American South to the Canadian town of St. Catharines in the mid-19th century. During this period, the United States was legally, politically, and morally divided on slavery. Northern states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Vermont had declared themselves “free states” in which slavery was abolished. There was constant controversy over whether the federal government should permit the nation’s newer territories, such as Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska, to practice slavery; American abolitionists advocated for a total ban on slavery throughout the country. Meanwhile, the Southern states continued to allow white plantation owners to enslave millions of Black Americans. (By the outbreak of the Civil War in 1860, four million Black Americans were enslaved in Southern states such as Florida, Virginia, Kentucky, North and South Carolina, Louisiana, and more.)

Over the course of the 19th century, tens of thousands of enslaved Black Americans made the bold decision to escape slavery by running away to the Northern free states, and ultimately, to Canada. In doing so they risked being recaptured and punished, endured separation from friends and family, and had to navigate new landscapes and cultures.