A Syracuse Abolitionist is featured on a new set of U.S. Postal Service stamps commemorating the Underground Railroad.
Jermain Wesley Loguen was nicknamed the "King of the Underground Railroad,” and is said to have helped more than 1,500 people who escaped slavery in the South as they passed through Syracuse.
That's according to Milton Sernett, a board member of the National Abolition Hall of Fame and former Syracuse University professor of African-American studies.
"He would advertise in the papers that if you were a freedom seeker and you came to Syracuse, you should seek shelter with the Fugitive Aid Society at Loguen's house," Sernett said.
Sernett notes the Syracuse area was a key stop of the Underground Railroad, especially for its proximity to Canada.
"Not only were there important geographical nodes that created a kind of network that funneled people up to Syracuse, there were that's a geography part of it," Sernett said. "The historical part is that this area of upstate New York was sympathetic to abolitionism."
There are ten honorees featured on the stamp set. Other upstate New York Abolitionists featured on the stamp series include Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass.
