Underground Railroad Teaching Partnership of Long Island

   Ask a Long Islander today about the name Hicks and they are likely to tell you it's the name of a nursery in Nassau County. The Answer, while true, does not tell the tale of the import of Elias Hicks, whose descendants operate the well-known garden business, and his fellow Quakers as they helped bring about the abolition of slavery.
  Throughout the communities of what is today Long Island there are tracks laid as part of the Underground Railroad, the movement that brought escaped slaves to freedom. From Port Washington in the North to Wantagh in the South to Smithtown in the East, Long Island- then eastern Queens County- played a vibrant role in the march to freedom.
  "A Map to Long Island's Past" was created in conjunction with the Spring 2002 showing of "Angels of Deliverance," an exhibit on load from hte Queens Historical Society and showcased in the Old Westbury Library.