There were no rails but plenty of stops on the Underground Railroad.
Historian Rick Geffken will talk about the Underground Railroad and the role it played in helping runaway slaves find their way to freedom at the Lawrence Historical Society’s annual meeting Feb. 23.
The event is free and starts at 6 p.m. It will be held at Lawrence High School at 2525 Princeton Pike in Lawrence Township.
Geffken will outline the history of slavery in New Jersey, the Quakers who pushed for manumission of slaves, and the people involved in the Underground Railroad. He is the guest speaker at the Lawrence Historical Society’s annual Ruth Barringer Lecture Series.
The Underground Railroad was not really a railroad. It was a network of secret routes and safe houses that aided the runaway slaves on their way to freedom. It traces its origin to abolitionists, starting in the 1780s, who were opposed to slavery.
In New Jersey, the most traveled route ran parallel to the Delaware River from Salem County to Trenton. The escapees cut across the narrow part of New Jersey and headed for New York.
Geffken, who has written many articles on New Jersey history, is part of a project called the New Jersey Slavery Records Index in conjunction with Rutgers University.
He has presented historical papers at the New Jersey Education Association, the New Jersey Library Association and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
Geffken wrote “Stories of Slavery in New Jersey,” which was published in 2021. New Jersey was the last Northern state to abolish slavery, which it did so in 1866.
Geffken is a current member of Truehart Productions. The company created an Emmy-nominated documentary about the prevalence of slavery in New Jersey.
Geffken retired from a career with Hewlett-Packard. He is a former U.S. Army officer and a Vietnam War veteran.
Barringer, for whom the lecture series is named, moved to Lawrence Township with her husband, Donald Barringer, in 1961. She served on the Lawrence Historical Society Board of Trustees from 1987 to 2022.
She also served on the Lawrence Township Historic Preservation Advisory Committee and on the Delaware & Raritan Canal Watch Board of Trustees.
Barringer co-chaired the fund-raising committee in the 1990s to restore the Lawrence Township-owned Brearley House at the end of Meadow Road, off Princeton Pike. The brick farmhouse was built in 1761 by the extended Brearley family. They were among the earliest settlers in Lawrence Township.
The Lawrence Township Council set a goal of $175,000 to be raised by the committee to help restore the house. The committee raised more than $175,000, which proved crucial to the restoration effort.
