George Dolton's Bridge to Freedom Underground Railroad

George Dolton built a toll bridge across the Little Calumet River in Chicago. At the time it was called Riverdale Crossing and was unincorporated. Slaves were escaping from the South and coming through Illinois from Kentucky and Missouri. His bridge became a destination for the freedom seekers as part of the Underground Railroad. He would send them to the farm of Jan Ton, a Dutch immigrant living on George’s land along the river and Jan would provide shelter in his barn and share some of his food.One of the escaping slaves was Isaiah James. He had come from Missouri where he escaped from a cotton plantation with his wife Elizah. They made it to George Dolton’s Bridge and George liked him and provided housing in exchange for work. Isaiah would row the freedom seekers down the river to Jan Ton’s farm where they would rest and eventually Isaiah would row them further along the river system to Hammond. From there they were taken further east to Gary, Indiana and then walked across the desolate sand dunes and made it into Michigan where they followed the Underground Railroad to Holland, Michigan where the Dutch abolitionists would help them get passage on a lake steamer into Canada or they would go to Detroit and eventually crossed the Detroit River into Canada. Canada’s code name was Dawn. It meant freedom because Canada granted freedom to escaping slaves.This one act play tells the story of George Dolton, Jan Ton, and Isaiah and Elizah James and their efforts to help escapees find freedom and avoid the southern slavery bounty hunters trying to take them back to the south where they would once again be slaves. They were part of the Underground Railroad. It was a spontaneously formed network of helpers to get those people to freedom. A lot of courage involved on the part of the people helping , and also the freedom seekers. One of America’s finest hours.