The Underground Railroad, Part 2: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Underground Railroad, Part 2, credited to William Still, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Underground Railroad, Part 2 by William Still. "This is one of the most remarkable volumes of the century. Its publication has only been made possible by a combination of circumstances which seldom attend the birth of a book. Before emancipation, and while the bane of slavery was on the country, the thrilling facts of this volume could not have been made public. Peace and the blessing of freedom permit their publication, free circulation and unmolested reading. Of all the thousands who favored freedom for the slaves, who gloried in the odium attached to anti-slaveryism, who witnessed the frequent efforts of the bondsmen to escape, who aided them in their quest for liberty, few dared to take notes of what they witnessed, and fewer still dared to preserve them, lest they should be turned into witnesses against them. But one man, and that the author of this book, is known to have succeeded in preserving anything like a full account of the workings of the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, as it was called before emancipation. These records grew on his hands during the years he acted as Chairman of the Philadelphia Branch of that celebrated corporation, until they reached the extent of the present volume. They are made up of letters received, of interviews held, of narratives taken down at the time, of real reminiscence and authentic biography. Nothing imaginative enters into the composition of the volume. It is simply succinct history, always startling, sometimes bloody. The annals of no time since the Inquisition are so full of daring ventures for life and liberty or heroic endurance under most trying circumstances." (from the Publisher) William Still is often called the Father of the Underground Railroad. Over 14 years, he helped hundreds of slaves escape to freedom in Canada. Still was committed to preserving the stories of the bondmen and he kept careful records of the many escaped slaves who passed through the Philadelphia “station”. The Underground Railroad was published in 1871 from Still’s records and diaries. In bringing you these stories, Librivox volunteers are reading from the 1878 edition. (Summary by MaryAnn)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Underground Railroad, Part 2
• Author credits: William Still
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 35
• Listed recording duration: 9:07:15

Catalogue topics

• underground railroad
• slavery
• slave
• escape
• runaway
• Philadelphia
• boxcar
• emancipation

Opening tracks: first 24 of 35

1. 01 - Several Arrivals From Different Places — 11:55
2. 02 - Arrival from Richmond — 7:22
3. 03 - Eight Arrivals — 10:44
4. 04 - Charles Thompson — 12:30
5. 05 - Blood Flowed Freely — 9:19
6. 06 - John Pettifoot; Emanuel T. White — 6:33
7. 07 - The Escape of a Child Fourteen Months Old; Escape of a Young Slave Mother — 12:42
8. 08 - Samuel W. Johnson; Family from Baltimore — 9:56
9. 09 - Elijah Hilton; Solomon Brown; William Hogg; Two Female Passengers from Maryland — 12:30
10. 10 - Captain F and the Mayor of Norfolk — 21:37
11. 11 - Arrivals From Different Places — 15:11
12. 12 - Fleeing Girl of Fifteen in Male Attire, Part 1 — 17:33
13. 13 - Fleeing Girl of Fifteen in Male Attire, Part 2 — 23:35
14. 14 - Fleeing Girl of Fifteen in Male Attire, Part 3 — 18:47
15. 15 - Five Years and One Month Secreted, Part 1 — 12:37
16. 16 - Five Years and One Month Secreted, Part 2 — 14:33
17. 17 - Five Years and One Month Secreted, Part 3 — 13:46
18. 18 - Five Years and One Month Secreted, Part 4 — 12:40
19. 19 - From Virginia, Maryland and Delaware — 13:52
20. 20 - Sam, Isaac, Perry, Charles and Green — 8:45
21. 21 - From Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia — 11:26
22. 22 - Four Arrivals — 27:36
23. 23 - From Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, Washington D.C. and South Carolina, Part 1 — 21:10
24. 24 - From Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, Washington D.C. and South Carolina, Part 2 — 20:20

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.