After northern states began abolishing slavery during the Revolutionary era, fugitives from throughout southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina started to escape by ship from the Norfolk waterfront. With luck and determination, many succeeded in enlisting the aid of black crewmen working aboard northward-bound vessels. Two of the South's most famous Underground Railroad fugitives, George Latimer and Shadrach Minkins, escaped from Norfolk, most likely by sea. A few ship captains were known by local Railroad agents as being sympathetic to fugitives or at least agreeable to transporting them secretly for a price. Captain William D. Bayliss of the Keziah and Captain Alfred Fountain of the City of Richmond bravely transported runaways from Norfolk during the 1850s when local sentiment against the Underground Railroad was at its highest. The City of Richmond docked at John Higgins' wharf, east of the Berkley Bridge. Higgins was a former owner of Shadrach Minkins.

The City of Norfolk was placed on the National Park Service's Underground Railroad Network to Freedom in 2004.

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Show me all markers in:  Norfolk, VA  |  23510  |  Virginia  |  United States of America

Ferries to Portsmouth and Berkley
Main Street
Norfolk 1682
The Customhouse, 1859
Commercial Place
Four Farthing or Town Point
Navy Escort Carriers Based in Norfolk
Granby Street
The First Battle of Ironclad Ships, 1862
Col. Samuel Leroy Slover (1873-1959)

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