Portsmouth had stopovers on the road to freedom

In recognition of Black History Month, Portsmouth museums recently hosted programs honoring black heritage in the city.

Part of that history includes Portsmouth’s role in the Underground Railroad, a network of safe places from the South to the North that runaway slaves used to escape to freedom.

Norfolk State University history professor Cassandra Newby-Alexander said identifying those places is hard because often they were kept secret.

But through published reports, oral accounts and other records, some of the hiding places and escape routes have been documented, she said. Newby-Alexander points out many of the places in a book she co-edited, “Voices from within the Veil.”

Late last year, she wrote an application for Portsmouth’s Emanuel AME Church, a safe haven for runaways, to be included on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

Many Portsmouth runaways left from the Norfolk waterfront.

“We know a lot of people got to Norfolk using the North Street ferry before it was shifted to High Street,” she said. The slaves would hide aboard small schooners traveling along the Elizabeth River.

The map on the cover shows a handful of those places in Portsmouth, many of which were near the waterfront.