[Ads-l] Antedating of "Underground Railway"

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Underground railroad"

1842 _Evening Post_ (N.Y.C.) (Sept. 23) 2: We passed twenty-six prime
slaves to the land of freedom last week....All went by the
"underground railroad."

The item is credited to the Abolitionist paper _Tocsin of Liberty_
(Albany. N.Y.).

The phrase "prime slaves" in this context is quite startling. Perhaps
it's meant to mock the former owners.

JL

On Tue, May 26, 2026 at 6:14 AM Shapiro, Fred
<00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> Underground Railway (OED, (b), 1868)
>
> 1843 Liberator 23 June 1 / 2 (Newspapers.com)
>
> From the New-York Journal of Commerce. ... If another planter holds his negroes fast, but they are willing to try the hazards of the chase to Canada, Abolition jumps into the benevolent plan at once, sets up all night watching, arranges its underground rail-ways, and its above-ground carriages, and when the negro is safely landed in the cold dominions of Victoria, counts that benevolence has achieved a victory.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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