American history can be pretty complicated. There are tons of stories, monuments, and places with considerable historic relevance. One man, upon renovation of his family home, discovered that the place in which he had grown up in actually holds a pretty significant history. There had always been rumors floating around this man’s family home, which was completed in 1849.
But until the basement renovation that began in January of 2014, there was nothing to solidify the rumors. The house is located about 25 miles south of the Canadian border.
According to the man that discovered this secret, his family had always mentioned a secret hiding place located somewhere in their home. And as it turns out, that is exactly what there was.
It has since been discovered that the house was part of one of the United States most popular smuggling operations. And while most people think of smuggling as negative or immoral, the smuggling done in this home had to do with smuggling black slaves out of the United States as part of the Underground Railroad.
It is bizarre to think that there was a need to smuggle slaves out of the country with the moral code that has since developed in the United States. Yet surprisingly, more than 100,000 slaves were able to escape through the use of the Underground Railroad. Back in the days of this operation, slaves would often refer to Canada as “Heaven” or “The Promised Land”. Imagine discovering your house held such an important piece of the nation’s history!