For
slaves escaping on the
Underground Railroad, names like Springtown and Snow Hill promised sanctuary and salvation. Under the pressures of racial prejudice, free blacks, runaway slaves and even many Native Americans formed island communities on the periphery of South
Jersey towns. Rizzo validates their role in the preservation of tradition, definition of extended family and creation of a social bond among diverse peoples; together they formed parallel communities based on, but independent of, the larger towns and villages familiar to us all.
Background Information
American slaves were almost entirely African and formed the basis of the cotton economy of the South until the Civil War. A system of secret transportation known as the Underground Railroad conducted ruanway slaves from the Deep South to freedom in Canada. New Jersey is a central state on the Atlantic Coast, closely associated with both Philadelphia and New York City.
