Eric Foner Revisits Myths of the Underground Railroad

“Gateway to Freedom,” a book about the Underground Railroad by Eric Foner, began with the notebook of an abolitionist editor, Sydney Howard Gay.

There have been studies of the Underground Railroad in Washington, southern Pennsylvania and New Bedford, Mass., among other locations, as well as biographies of black abolitionists like David Ruggles, a member of New York City’s biracial Committee of Vigilance for the Protection of People of Color, founded in 1835.

In “Gateway to Freedom,” Mr. Foner ties much of that work together, while uncovering the history of the eastern corridor’s key gateway, New York City.