The Underground Railroad in the Blackstone Valley

      I know from other research that Elizabeth Buffin Chase of Cumberland / Valley Falls,
    RI, an ardent and well, publicized abolitionist and conductor on the Underground
    Railroad, had a very close friendship with Adin Ballou. Several of her boys attended
    Practical Christian School in Hopedale.  Samuel May of Leicester, also a well connected
    abolitionist and his house was used as a stop on the UGRR, was very close to both Adin
    and Liz.  So, there is a wide-spread connection between those ardent abolitionists and
    Hopedale is right in the middle.  The UGRR ran on connections and the sites in the
    Blackstone Valley are connected in ways we are still trying to understand.  Ranger
    Chuck Arning, The John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage
    Corridor, One Depot Square, Woonsocket, RI 02895

      What Chuck wrote in the paragraph above was a response to a question I asked him
    in December 2006. I was looking at evidence that escaped slaves had stayed in
    Hopedale, but there didn't seem to be anything to indicate that it was part of an
    established escape route. Rather, it seemed that the fugitives came here by special
    arrangement, as the case of Rosetta Hall mentioned by Adin Ballou, and not as part of
    a town to town route. I asked Chuck if homes such as the Thwing place in Hopedale
    would be considered as Underground Railroad houses (or "stations") or if there was
    some other designation. He said that they would be considered Underground Railroad,
    and that New England was something of a special case in that era. Rather than being
    moved on to the next station very quickly, if there was work for them and the area was
    considered to be safe, they might stay in one place for quite a while.  Dan Malloy

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