2024 Underground Railroad Forever First Class Postage Stamps

Description:

The pane of 20 stamps depicts 10 key figures of the Underground Railroad — freedom seekers and those who aided others’ escapes. The top third of each stamp features a sepia-toned portrait. Below it are several lines of text with the words: BLACK/WHITE, COOPERATION, TRUST/DANGER, FLIGHT/FAITH, COURAGE/RISK, DEFIANCE/HOPE, and UNDERGROUND RAILROAD/USA.

From the time slavery was introduced to the Colonies until it was abolished in 1865, enslaved people made ceaseless efforts to escape its reach. The flight to freedom — whether by foot, horseback, carriage, wagon or boat — was difficult and exceedingly dangerous.
In name only, the Underground Railroad started as a loosely organized secret network of courageous and imaginative freedom seekers, and the brave operatives who assisted them. It was powered not by coal but by human courage.

As railroads grew in the 1830s and 1840s, the secret network adopted their terminology. “Stationmasters” and “conductors” assisted “passengers” traveling from one “station” to another on the Underground Railroad. Over time, the network coalesced into a well-organized system as it responded to the increasing numbers of freedom seekers and a corresponding rise in attempts to thwart escapes.

Most remained anonymous, but some left their mark on history, including the 10 men and women honored on these Forever stamps: Harriet Tubman, Thomas Garrett, William Still, Harriet Jacobs, Jermain Loguen, Catherine Coffin, Lewis Hayden, Frederick Douglass, William Lambert, and Laura Haviland.

In 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, liberating all enslaved people. In 1865, following the end of the Civil War, the 13th Amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery throughout the country.