URCD Resources
URCD Publications
The resource documents available for download here have curious people like you in mind. The unifying theme is “How to.”
The Underground Railroad Historic Context is both a database of Underground Railroad information for Delaware (up to 2009) and a framework for the time and space of the stories. The authors are acclaimed Tubman biographer, Kate Clifford Larson and Delaware historic preservation professional and educator, Robin Krawitz.
Reconstructing Delaware’s Free Black Communities, 1800-1870, is a guide by the University of Delaware, Center for Historic Architecture and Design to the ins and outs of using primary documents to get to the essence of fading or disappeared communities that were essential to newly free people and freedom seekers. It includes case studies of Polktown, Belltown and several others.
Resource Downloads
The Underground Railroad in Delaware
A Research Context
1787-1865
Final Draft
January 17, 2007
Written and compiled by
Kate Clifford Larson, Ph.D
Department of History, Simmons College
Boston, MA
and
Robin Bodo, Historian
Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs
For
The Underground Railroad Coalition of Delaware
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Researching the Underground Railroad in Delaware
Sponsored by The Underground Railroad Coalition of Delaware & The City of Wilmington
James M. Baker, Mayor Peter D. Besecker, Director, Department of Planning
June 2008
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The Growth of Delaware's Antebellum Free African American Community
U.S. Courthouse Wilmington, Delaware
This 1997 paper was researched and written by Dr. Peter Dalleo (1944-2021) in 1997, first posted on the Court’s website and later hosted by the University of Delaware. Dalleo was an expert in West African and Caribbean history and had a special interest in the African American history of Delaware, including the Underground Railroad web in Wilmington. He was an excellent historian and writer, and always the gentle and encouraging teacher that was at his core. The study presented here has been updated to reflect some bits of new research since 1997 but remains Dalleo’s thoughtful and thorough work.
- Debra C. Martin, editor, 2022
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Reconstructing Delaware’s Free Black Communities, 1800-1870
Center for Historic Architecture and Design, University of Delaware, 2009.
For Underground Railroad Coalition of Delaware.
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