U.S. Postal Service Remembers Shining Beacons of the Underground Railroad on New Forever Stamps

This Saturday, March 9, the US Postal Service is releasing a new set of first-class mail Forever stamps featuring the Underground Railroad. The U.S. Postal Service is honoring 10 courageous men and women who helped guide enslaved people to freedom via the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe houses in use before the Civil War.

From the time slavery was introduced to the Colonies until it was abolished in 1865, enslaved people made ceaseless efforts to escape its reach. The flight to freedom, whether by foot, horseback, carriage, wagon, or boat, was difficult and exceedingly dangerous.

In name only, The Underground Railroad started as a loosely organized secret network of courageous and imaginative freedom seekers, and the brave operatives who assisted them. Over time the network coalesced into a well-organized system as it responded to the increasing numbers of freedom seekers and a corresponding rise in attempts to thwart escapes.

Most remained anonymous, but some left their mark on history, including the 10 men and women honored on these Forever stamps: Catharine Coffin, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Garrett, Laura Haviland, Lewis Hayden, Harriet Jacobs, William Lambert, the Rev. Jermain Loguen, William Still, and Harriet Tubman.

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