The Saltwater Railroad: Resistance Networks from Slavery to Freedom

The story of the Saltwater Railroad—a term used to describe the covert maritime routes enslaved people took to escape bondage in the American South to freedom in the Bahamas and beyond. This episode focuses on the remarkable figure of Richard Barnard, a free Black fisherman from Charleston who risked his life piloting runaways through the treacherous waters of the Intracoastal Waterway. We explore the geography of escape: the Sea Islands, the Gulf Stream, and the British colonial outposts in the Bahamas that offered a chance at liberty after the 1818 Treaty of Ghent. Barnard's first-person account, preserved in a rare 1840s deposition, reveals the intricate logistics: hiding refugees under fishing nets, navigating by night, and the coded language of the maritime underground. We also examine the legal limbo of 'freedom by water' after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and the quiet complicity of Black and white sailors who formed an unlikely brotherhood of resistance. This is a forgotten chapter of the Underground Railroad—one that unfolded on the open sea. #SaltwaterRailroad #RichardBarnard #UndergroundRailroad #MaritimeEscape #Bahamas #FugitiveSlaveAct #IntracoastalWaterway #SeaIslands #GulfStream #TreatyOfGhent #Charleston #BlackSailors #Abolitionism #19thCentury #AmericanSouth #Slavery #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo