WATERTOWN â Learn more about the abolitionist movement and the Underground Railroad in Tug Hill and the North Country by joining the Tug Hill Commission for a new historical three-part webinar series.
Several 19th century abolitionists with land on Tug Hill and the North Country worked to free enslaved people by providing them safe passage north, fighting for their legal rights, and offering them land to till. The North Country was an important part of the trek north on the Underground Railroad with several sites serving as stations for rest and safety. In the first half of the 19th century a settlement was created to provide land to formerly enslaved people so that they could own land and, ideally, gain the right to vote as landowners. Much of this history is hidden in archives and on the land itself.