By BRUCE SMITH
Associated Press
![runaway-slaves-on-underground-railroad](https://i0.wp.com/blacktruth.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/runaway-slaves-on-underground-railroad.jpg?resize=220%2C150)
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — While most Americans are familiar with the Underground Railroad that helped Southern slaves escape north before the Civil War, the first clandestine path to freedom ran for more than a century in the opposite direction.