The Underground Railroad Ended at These Falls

Niagara Falls was the last stop for thousands of enslaved people fleeing north. The reason was geography: the Canadian shore — where slavery was abolished in 1834 — was visible from the American side. Freedom was not an abstraction. It was a riverbank you could see.

The river above the falls runs fast and the falls would kill anyone swept in. But below the falls, crossings by boat were possible, and communities on both sides organized safe houses, ferries, and guides. The Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center at 825 Depot Avenue occupies the former US Custom House — the actual building where people crossed from slavery to freedom.

Standing in the customs hall where a person's status changed from "fugitive" to "free" in the time it took to cross a doorway collapses past and present. Josiah Henson — whose autobiography inspired Uncle Tom's Cabin — crossed the Niagara River in 1830 and fell to his knees on the Canadian shore and kissed the ground. The falls outside the window were the landmark that guided people north.