Church was stop for escaped slaves

From Maryland-

The short stretch of tunnels and paths that makes up the local portion of the Underground Railroad remains as relevant today as it ever did.

The Rev. Edward Chapman of the Emmanuel Episcopal Church on Washington Street said “several thousand” students, scholars and curious travelers visit the trenches and tunnels under the church each year to follow firsthand the footsteps of an unknown number of slaves who used the basement of the church as an oasis before resuming their quest for freedom.

According to oral history passed down through generations, a slave named Samuel Denson escaped from a plantation in Vicksburg, Miss., and traveled along the Underground Railroad until he reached Cumberland. For unknown reasons, Denson, then just about 14 years old, stopped running. He was offered a job as church janitor by the Rev. Hillhouse Buell.

Buell was from New York and a known sympathizer to slaves. By hiring Denson, Buell risked his own freedom and social standing.

Buell, Chapman said, “was white and prominent ... he is likely to have been able to afford a good attorney. He probably would not end up serving more than a few decades in prison” if he’d been caught.


More here-

http://www.times-news.com/local/local_story_052233648.html