“There is no way of arriving at a correct estimate of the number of slaves that were assisted on the Nebraska line, but it is safe to say there were several hundred. The work taught those who were held as slaves in Nebraska territory that there were on free soil, of which they soon took advantage.”
—Alice A. Minick, 1896
As early as 1857, enslaved people in Nebraska became freedom seekers. Escaping their kidnappers and enslavers, these people traveled to Iowa where slavery was illegal, and either stayed there or continued north, often to Canada. In Missouri, which relied on enslaved people to build the state, and Kansas, where enslavement was growing in popularity, freedom seekers quickly learned they could get to freedom through the Underground Railroad in Nebraska.
Operating from Topeka, the Underground Railroad needed a safe passage to shuttle freedom seekers north into Iowa. As the Nebraska Territory opened for settlement and more pioneers moved in, a group called the Anti-Nebraska activists came. They were anti-slavery and pro-democracy and deliberately came to Kansas and Nebraska to fight enslavement.
These people faced dangers from enslavers, kidnappers, and others who profited from enslaving Black people. These hateful, hurt people believed Black people were sub-human, less than white people and were intended to be enslaved. They lived in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. They formed the strongest resistance to freedom seekers in Missouri, lining the route to the new territory with traps and ambushes to scare away, beat, or kill the so-called “Free Staters.”
The “Free Staters” were white people from the Eastern U.S. to keep Nebraska from becoming a slave labor state. To keep them safe, in 1856 abolitionist leader John Brown fought Bleeding Kansas and attacks on these settlers along the Missouri River. An Abolitionist militia leader in Kansas named James H. Lane (1814-1866), made the Lane Trail to safely move Free Staters from Iowa into Kansas by creating a route from Iowa through southeast Nebraska and into Kansas.
However, because of an Abolitionist doctor in Civil Bend, Iowa, named Dr. Ira Blanchard it actually had two functions. In 1856, Dr. Blanchard proposed to John Brown that the Lane Trail would be “the most practical route for transporting fugitives in Kansas to freedom in Canada.”
From then on, by day, the Lane Trail protected the white Free-Staters moving from the pro-slavery terrorists in Missouri, and at night it was an arm of the Underground Railroad for freedom seekers to escape to the north from Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. Rock piles and tall bunches of grass in the prairies called “Lane’s chimneys” marked the path.
In 1857, the town of Falls City was founded by abolitionists who actively supported John Brown as he moved formerly enslaved people through the area. Until 1860, there was a hotel in Falls City used as a regular base of operations for the Underground Railroad, including John Brown and Jim Lane himself.
Underground Railroad Stations in Nebraska
- Station 1: The first station in Nebraska was located on a farm just outside of Falls City. Built in 1857, it was a barn belonging to David and Ann Dorrington in Falls City was used to harbor formerly enslaved people traveling on the Underground Railroad along the Lane Trail. There were several places around Falls City used to hide freedom seekers.
- Stop 1: The next stop was a former town called St. Deroin. There, a half-Indian and half-French man named Antonine Barada (1807-1885) was called the “Lifeguard of the Missouri” because of his reputation for saving several slaves from drowning by personally carrying them across the Missouri River near where he lived.
- Stop 2: An Underground Railroad station was located in Nemaha from 1856 to 1859, when it was one of John Brown’s last stops in Nebraska before leaving for Harper’s Ferry. Furnished with “a stove and benches,” Brown had men, women and children freedom seekers in his last journey.
- Departure Point 1: After St. Deroin, the Lane Trail and the Underground Railroad went to Brownville and if possible, freedom seekers crossed the Missouri River.
- Station 2: One of the most important stops along this trail was a cabin outside of Nebraska City owned by Barbara (1833-1882) and Allen (1826-1862) Mayhew. Barbara’s brother John Henri Kagi (1835-1859) was John Brown’s second-in-command, and was likely responsible for the Jim Lane Trail leading to their doorstep. The Mayhew Cabin stands today as a testament to the role Nebraska played in the Underground Railroad.
- Departure Point 2: Crossing on the ferry in Nebraska City, the route of freedom seekers then went to Tabor, Iowa, and on to Iowa City. There, they would depart for Chicago and often, Canada.
John Brown in Nebraska
Much of this movement in Nebraska was led by John Brown (1800-1859) himself. Despite what current reports say, the newspapers in Nebraska from that era detail specific dates and numbers of enslaved people Brown brought north on the trail. Multiple times, John Brown met with Abolitionists along the way who the groups sheltered with, shunned blatantly racist towns, and trained his militia about the way. Shuttling slaves along this route through Cass, Otoe, Johnson and Pawnee Counties, Brown also traveled through Nemaha and Richardson Counties. He was the inspirational, deliberate and powerful Abolitionist activist who would soon die at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia—but not before he changed Nebraska forever. Brown got to Kansas in 1855. Some events and dates of John Brown’s time in Nebraska include:
- July 23, 1856: John Brown’s first trip from Kansas to Nebraska City to scout the route.
- October 8, 1856: John Brown escapes capture by Lieutenant Cooke near Nebraska City with an enslaved man.
- October 27, 1856: John Brown goes through Nebraska to Chicago and the east.
- Fall 1857: Brown goes back to Kansas through Nebraska.
- November 17, 1857: Brown arrives in Nebraska City offering to break a jailed freedom seeker from jail in Nebraska City and bring him to Tabor, where Abolitionists have funding for their costs. They refuse to pay and the enslaved man disappeared from the record.
- December 12, 1858:
- February 11, 1859: John Brown and 75 militia members on horses escorted a group of 11 freedom seekers through Nebraska.
When John Brown left Nebraska and was murdered later, his demise wasn’t the end of freedom seekers coming to the state. In August 1860, a group of nineteen formerly enslaved people stayed over in Wyoming, now a ghost town on Hwy 75 north of Nebraska City. On August 18, 1860 a group of six or more freedom seekers accompanied by 30-40 Abolitionists “armed to the teeth” were reported in Salem, west of Falls City. Freedom seekers also didn’t move in conveniently prescribed routes, either: In 1858, a formerly enslaved man call Phillips started staying in Dakota City, and lived there for almost a year until rumors of his presence were made widely known. Then, Abolitionists came from across the river to rescue him back to Iowa. After that he wasn’t heard from again.
Troubles Along the Trail
Freedom seekers and other people were fighting and dying to end enslavement, and those troubles continued along the Jim Lane Trail.
There was a bloody shootout between formerly enslaved people and kidnappers at the Nebraska House in Brownville that same year, in 1857. Three Black people had escaped from Platte County, Missouri, and made it to a hotel called the Nebraska House once located at the corner of Water Street and Steam Boat Trace Trail in Brownville. One formerly enslaved person was shot and jailed. After a speedy trial found him not guilty of shooting the kidnappers, he was sent back to enslavement in Missouri. The other two freedom seekers escaped.
In 1857, a brigade of Abolitionists gathered outside of Nebraska City. The Abolitionist militia rushed the city to find and free enslaved people there. Soon after, they converged on the farm of Nebraska City’s founder, who was enslaving at least four people then. Searching around, the militia could not find him and left. Apparently, Nuckolls hid his enslaved people in the Missouri River bottoms near the town.
A legislator from Nemaha County introduced a bill in Nebraska’s territorial legislature in 1858 “to abolish slavery in the territory of Nebraska.” The bill was eventually tabled.
Two enslaved men called Shade Grayson and Shack Grayson might have escaped from Stephen Nuckolls between 1857 and 1858. Shack operated a printing press in Nuckolls’ Nebraska City bank.
Noted businessmen in Nebraska City relied on enslaved people to build their wealth, and in 1860 several escaped their captors. Alexander Majors (1814-1900) was a founder of the Pony Express in St. Joe, Missouri, who moved to Nebraska City in 1856, bringing six enslaved people with him. On June 30, 1860, they became successful freedom seekers on the Lane Trail. Judge Charles Holly owned two enslaved people, and Robert Kirkham owned two. He owned an enslaved woman when he lived in Nemaha County earlier.
On December 5, 1860, despite a law against it, the Otoe County sheriff auctioned two enslaved people called “Uncle Hercules” and Martha or “Aunt Dinah” in front of the county courthouse in Nebraska City. They were owned by Judge Holly, who fell behind on payments on a credit and the sheriff seized his property. Auctioning the enslaved people, they were taken to Missouri to continue their captivity. There were no repercussions for this public sale, which was technically illegal at the time.
The Eliza Grayson Case
In 1858, an enslaved person from that farm named Eliza Grayson and a younger woman called Celia escaped from the Nuckolls’ house in Nebraska City on the Underground Railroad into Iowa, just across the Missouri River. There may have been a third person with them. Apparently, Eliza met a man from Iowa named John Williamson who said he’d help them escape. Williamson, a mixed man with Black and Native parents, was a freeman with papers who traded butter, eggs, and trinkets with farmers on both sides of the Missouri River. He was a suspected conductor on the Underground Railroad, and did his work with Eliza and Celia.
Going through the darkness, current research suggest the group crossed the river about six miles north of Nebraska City. Historical accounts say they got across the river on ice flows that were jamming it up. He got them across and brought them to Civil Bend, Iowa, which was a Black town near the Abolitionist town of Tabor. These towns were both safe havens at different times along the UGRR.
Discovering the women were missing, Nuckolls raised a posse the next day. There were 17 men on horseback, and Nuckolls offered a reward of $200 for the person who kidnapped these freedom seekers.
Using posses and professional kidnappers, Nuckolls hunted for her for two years. While Nuckolls hunted across Iowa with his posse, they beat a Black Abolitionist who he believed helped his slaves escape. In 1859, the man sued Nuckolls, and for the first time in history, a Black man was allowed to testify against a white man in an Iowa court.
In November 1860, Nuckolls and a professional kidnapper found Grayson in Chicago. After trying to capture her, city marshals arrested both Nuckolls and Grayson for disturbing the peace. Grayson was freed from the jail by an abolitionist mob and escaped to Canada, and was never heard from again. ,In 1861, there was a grand jury trial in Chicago against nine people in the “Eliza Grayson Freedom Case” under the pretense of violating the Fugitive Slave Act. After moving up from a district court to a circuit court, the case was dropped.
As a footnote, in 1860, Williamson, along with Henry Garner and Maria Garner, was kidnapped and brought to be taken to St. Louis and sold into enslavement. Williamson managed to escape, but his sister Maria and Henry were taken to St. Louis. They were found there and released after being proven to be freemen who lived in Civil Bend. The kidnappers were arrested and put in jail in Council Bluffs, but escaped before their trial.
The End of the Trail
A reflection on the Lane Trail from Alice A. Minick in 1896 said, “There is no way of arriving at a correct estimate of the number of slaves that were assisted on the Nebraska line, but it is safe to say there were several hundred. The work taught those who were held as slaves in Nebraska territory that there were on free soil, of which they soon took advantage.”
In 1859, John Brown left Nebraska for Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. There, he began the largest violent insurrection against slavery ever in the United States. He failed, was captured and hung for his efforts.
Other Underground Railroad Sites in Nebraska
There were other stops on the Underground Railroad in Nebraska that were not on the Lane Trail. Formerly enslaved people who went north of Nebraska City towards Omaha stayed in a storehouse near the former town of Wyoming, Nebraska, more than once, and in August 1860 a brigade of 40 people, including John Brown and other anti-slavery fighters, protected a group of 19 formerly enslaved people in Salem.
The Underground Railroad veered as far west as Table Rock, Nebraska. Several people in the city were involved in moving formerly enslaved people through the town at least twice, but many other times according to local lore. Today there are burial sites for Abolitionists who lived there in the local cemetery.
A few formerly enslaved people were important before they moved to Omaha, including Lewis Washington, who was a popular Abolitionist speaker in New York and Wisconsin before he came to Nebraska. Edwin Overall was a conductor on the Underground Railroad and a recruiter for the US Army before he got to Omaha. There were several formerly enslaved Civil War veterans who lived in Omaha, including Anderson Bell, Professor Waddle, July Miles and Dick Curry.
Remembering the Underground Railroad Today
Popular history records three stations on the Underground Railroad in Nebraska in Falls City, Nemaha, and Nebraska City. However, newspapers from 1855-1861 share many other locations along the route.
Between 2011 and 2016, a history teacher named Barry Jurgenson at Arlington High School researched a dozen sites related to the Underground Railroad in Nebraska. Before they started, there was one site in the state on the National Park Service Trail to Freedom, which is the official federal government list of sites related to the Underground Railroad. After their service learning project, there are a dozen sites listed. Following are a few in southeast Nebraska.
- Mayhew Cabin at 2012 4th Corso Street near Nebraska City.
- Dorrington House and Barn Site at 1601 Stone Street in Falls City. A former stop on the Underground Railroad, today the house is preserved for its historical role. The barn belonging to the Dorringtons was used to harbor formerly enslaved people traveling the Underground Railroad.The barn was burned down decades ago.
- Nuckolls Residence Site at Corner of 5th and Main (Central Avenue) in Nebraska City. This is the site where most enslaved people in Nebraska were held by a virulent enslaver.
- Barbara Ann Kagey Mayhew Bradway Burial Site in the Camp Creek Cemetery at S. 70th and P Street in Otoe County.
- Nebraska House Site at corner of Water Street and Steam Boat Trace Trail in Brownville. A bloody shootout happened here between kidnappers and freedom seekers. Two made it out and one was enslaved again.
Other sites in Nebraska related to the Underground Railroad uncovered by Mr. Jurgenson and his students include…
- Table Rock Cemetery at 9th St and Pennsylvania Street in Table Rock. Several white Abolitionists are buried here. They are presumed to have been active conductors on the Underground Railroad who ushered freedom seekers to the West.
- Robert Ball Anderson Burial Site in Hemingford Cemetery in the town of Hemingford. Anderson, was a successful freedom seeker who built a massive real estate portfolio in western Nebraska and was inspirational to many neighbors for generations.
In 2016, Jurgensen and three students raised $26,000 for a nonprofit organization called Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives by completing the 527-mile journey from Nebraska City to Chicago, which is what Eliza Grayson and Celia completed in 1860.
As of January 2023, the State of Nebraska offers no program or tour to help people visit the Lane Trail. There are historic markers related to the trail in Falls City and Nebraska City. There is no maker from History Nebraska or any other state-level program acknowledging the role of freedom seekers in the Nebraska Territory.
In my research, I have uncovered the stories of Edwin Overall (1835-1901), a once-enslaved man who became a conductor on the Underground Railroad in Chicago before moving to Omaha and fighting for Civil Rights. Lewis Washington (1800-1898) was a freedom seeker who became a popular Abolitionist activist speaker in New England before the Civil War, and gained new popularity in Wisconsin after the war before moving to Nebraska in 1880. Several other Nebraskans had important roles in the Underground Railroad, Abolitionist movement, and related activities nationally and in Nebraska.
Additional Nebraska Sites on the Underground Railroad
Other sites I have identified as related to the Underground Railroad, slavery, and formerly enslaved people in Nebraska include…
- S.J. “July” Miles Burial Site at Forest Lawn in Omaha
- Anderson Bell Burial Site at Forest Lawn in Omaha
- Lizzie Robinson Burial Site at Mt. Hope in Omaha
- Richard “General” Curry Burial Site in Omaha
- Josiah “Professor” Waddle Burial Site at Forest Lawn in Omaha
- Lewis Washington Burial Site at Forest Lawn in Omaha
- John Flanagan Burial Site at Forest Lawn in Omaha
- Phillip King Burial Site at Forest Lawn in Omaha
- Thomas Brown Burial Site at Forest Lawn in Omaha
- Edwin Overall Burial Site at Prospect Hill in Omaha
- Frank Walker Burial Site at Fairview Cemetery in Council Bluffs
- Site of the First Territorial Capital of Nebraska located on South 9th Street between Douglas and Farnam Streets in Omaha
- George W. Mattingly Burial Site in David City
- Fort Robinson State Park in Crawford where many formerly enslaved men served in the Army as Buffalo Soldiers after the Civil War
- Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge near Valentine where many formerly enslaved men served in the Army as Buffalo Soldiers after the Civil War
- Unnamed African Americans Burial Site at Laurel Hill in Omaha
- Fort Atkinson State Park near Fort Calhoun where several enslaved people were held by Army officers
- Site of the first Fort Kearny State Park near Nebraska City where several enslaved people were held by Army officers
- Site of the second Fort Kearny State Park near Kearney where several enslaved people were held by Army officers
- Sallie Sylvester Burial Site at Forest Lawn in Omaha
- Ophelia Clenlans Burial Site at Forest Lawn in Omaha (Unmarked grave)
- Joseph E. Payne Burial Site at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Omaha
- John E. Taylor Burial Site at Forest Lawn
- Thayer House, 1901 Prospect St. in Lincoln
Special thanks to Michaela Armetta for inspiring this article!
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MY ARTICLES RELATED TO ENSLAVEMENT IN NEBRASKA
Formerly Enslaved People: Robert Ball Anderson | Anderson Bell | Edwin Overall | Josiah “Professor” Waddle | Lewis Washington |
Pro-Slavery People: George Miller
Related Articles: Underground Railroad in Nebraska
MY ARTICLES ABOUT BLACK HISTORY IN OMAHA
MAIN TOPICS: Before 1850 | Black Heritage Sites | Black Churches | Black Hotels | Segregated Hospitals | Segregated Schools | Black Businesses | Black Politics | Black Newspapers | Black Firefighters | Black Policeman | Black Women | Black Legislators | Black Firsts | Social Clubs | Military Service Members | Sports
EVENTS: Stone Soul Picnic | Native Omahans Day | Congress of Black and White Americans | Harlem Renaissance in North Omaha
RELATED: Enslavement in Nebraska | Underground Railroad in Nebraska | Racist Laws Before 1900 | Race and Racism | Civil Rights Movement | Police Brutality | Redlining
TIMELINES: Racism | Black Politics | Civil Rights | The Last 25 Years
RESOURCES: Book: #OmahaBlackHistory: African American People, Places and Events from the History of Omaha, Nebraska | Bibliography: Omaha Black History Bibliography | Video: “OmahaBlackHistory 1804 to 1930” | Podcast: “Celebrating Black History in Omaha”
Elsewhere Online
- “Historical Marker: Mayhew Cabin, 1855,” Nebraska State Historical Society.
- “Historic home linked to underground railroad,” 1011 News
- “The Nebraska Path to Understanding the Underground Railroad,” Odyssey Through Nebraska
- “Mayhew Cabin,” Wikipedia article
- “Black History: Midlands played role in Underground Railroad,” The Walking Tourists
- “Underground Railroad site in Falls City recognized by National Park Service,” NebraskaExaminer.com
- “Mayhew Cabin and the Underground Railroad,” The Historical Marker Database
Sources
- “Nebraska Historical Marker: Mayhew Cabin, 1855” by History Nebraska
- Nebraska Advertiser newspaper archives (Brownville, NE: 1856-1882)
- Nebraska Palladium newspaper archives (Bellevue: 1854-1855)
- Bellevue Gazette newspaper archives (Bellevue: 1856-1858)
- Dakota City Herald newspaper archives (Dakota City: 1857-1860)
- “Slavery in Nebraska” by Edson P. Rich for the Nebraska State Historical Society in 1887
- “How Eliza Grayson escaped Nebraska slavery,” by David Bristow for History Nebraska
- Chapter XX “Slavery in Nebraska” by J.S. Morton in History of Nebraska from the Earliest Explorations of the Trans-Mississippi Region, pg 449-463 from 1918
- “Was He, or Wasn’t He? A Case of Mistaken Identity” by Gail Shaffer Blankenau for Discover Family History on August 11, 2020
- “Journey to Freedom: Graduate thesis addresses slavery in Nebraska Territory,” by Tyler Ellyson for UNK News on April 12, 2021
- “Todd, John” in the Biographical Dictionary of Iowa at the University of Iowa
- “Fact and Folklore in the Story of ‘John Brown’s Cave’ and the Underground Railroad in Nebraska” by James E Potter for Nebraska History 83 in 2002, pgs 73-88
- “Necessary Courage: Iowa’s Underground Railroad In The Struggle Against Slavery” by Lowell J. Soike in 2013
- “Slavery in Nebraska” by Addison Erwin Sheldon in History and Stories of Nebraska in 1914 for the University Publishing Company
- “History of slavery in Nebraska,” Wikipedia
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