Underground Railroad Teaching Partnership of Long Island

Valentine married Elias Hick’s daughter, Abigail Hicks, and moved to Jericho in 1814. He employed former enslaved people, and was a member of the Manumission Society. He helped to start the first African Free Schools. Valentine was the second President of the Long Island Railroad and was responsible for naming Hicksville.

Valentine Hicks hid a runaway slave, then one of his employees, in a hidden staircase in the Maine Maid Inn.

"The linen closet had  a panel immediately as you opened it and forward of the staircase behind it.  At the time it was shown to me, the panel could be pulled forward and taken out in one unit as one would unload a layered box, ..upright. Then the entire panel could be pressed back into the recess provided for it and the hinged door  closed on it. The stair was behind all this." - Doris Pailet 

Other parts of the Underground Railroad on Long
Island involved the homes of several Quakers, as well as means to transport the runaway slaves. Hay wagons with false bottoms were built from 1820 to 1840 for hiding escaping slaves. Quakers used them to transport runways from New York City to Long Island. 

Back

Next