Rumors of a Tunnel in the Underground Railroad: Using Both Reason and Evidence to Learn the Truth

This past weekend my wife and I went to hear a presentation about the Underground Railroad in Orland, Indiana. This small town has quite an interesting past with regard to aiding runaway slaves. Then we went on a walking tour of a few of the homes where these slaves found rest on their journey to Detroit and then into Canada, which was a free country. The people of this town probably helped thousands of them.

Our guide mentioned that there are rumors of an underground tunnel between the leader’s house to either the library or someone else’s house. But the library wasn’t built until years later and she couldn’t find any evidence of a tunnel.

Here then lies an example of what we do in testing a claim. The first thing we do is to think. Can we account for the origin of a rumor that would lead us to think it’s not true? The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor was it a railroad (although in some cases slaves did hitch a ride on trains). Rumors after all, like folklore, spring up all of the time because we’re story-telling people. Rumors of tunnels have sprung up everywhere with no basis (although archaeologists did discover one under George Washington’s home). Then too, we must ask ourselves what would be the purpose of a tunnel? Tunnels to transport slaves would require a great deal of work, so the payoff would have to be significant. Our tour guide told about one house that had a trap door on the second story where runaway slaves would climb down into a room with no windows and no other way to get out but to climb back up. That seems to have been a good enough hiding place. Why would they need a tunnel? These runaway slaves could be easily transported at night, which they were.

While this disproves nothing, it does cause us to require evidence before we’ll accept such a claim.

See, that way easy. The analogy here at DC is obvious. If it isn't then my next post will make it so.