This excerpt from \u201cThe Underground Railroad\u201d by William Still describes how slaves in Virginia required a written pass when traveling in the evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, this made escape even more difficult for those who didn\u2019t have a pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One successful fugitive arrived from Virginia to the Philadelphia station on the Underground Railroad. Charles Thompson had work delivering a Richmond newspaper, The Daily National American<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The newspaper printing office gave him a pass to show when challenged. This would have been useful in starting his escape from Richmond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Philadelphia railroad committee was in the habit of gathering as much evidence as they could about the tribulations of the South. William Still duly reproduced the pass in his book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n