Book excerpt: "In this study, Kathryn Grover addresses these questions. She documents fugitive traffic in and around New Bedford and analyzes it within several spheres - the origins, persistence, and growth of the city's African American community; the place of Quaker ideology in shaping the extent and character of local opposition to slavery; and the role of the city's coastal trading and whaling industries in the presence of fugitives in the port. Through an intensive examination of demographic data, fugitive narratives, Underground Railroad accounts, and correspondence, Grover concludes that the issues of helping fugitives in fact divided white abolitionists at the same time that it strengthened the resolve of abolitionists of color."--BOOK JACKET.