<P> According to Still, messages were often encoded so that they could be understood only by those active in the railroad . For example, the following message, "I have sent via at two o'clock four large hams and two small hams", indicated that four adults and two children were sent by train from Harrisburg to Philadelphia . The additional word via indicated that the "passengers" were not sent on the usual train, but rather via Reading, Pennsylvania . In this case, the authorities were tricked into going to the regular location (station) in an attempt to intercept the runaways, while Still met them at the correct station and guided them to safety . They eventually escaped either to the North or to Canada, where slavery had been abolished during the 1830s . </P> <P> Following upon legislation passed in 1990, in 1997, Congress passed H.R. 1635, which President Bill Clinton signed into law, and which authorized the United States National Park Service to establish the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program to identify associated sites, as well as preserve them and popularize the Underground Railroad and stories of people involved in it . The National Park Service has designated many sites within the network, posted stories about people and places, sponsors an essay contest, and holds a national conference about the Underground Railroad in May or June each year . </P> <P> Since the 1980s, claims have arisen that quilt designs were used to signal and direct slaves to escape routes and assistance . According to advocates of the quilt theory, ten quilt patterns were used to direct slaves to take particular actions . The quilts were placed one at a time on a fence as a means of nonverbal communication to alert escaping slaves . The code had a dual meaning: first to signal slaves to prepare to escape, and second to give clues and indicate directions on the journey . </P> <P> The quilt design theory is disputed . The first published work documenting an oral history source was in 1999, and the first publication of this theory is believed to be a 1980 children's book . Quilt historians and scholars of pre-Civil - War America have disputed this legend . There is no contemporary evidence of any sort of quilt code, and quilt historians such as Pat Cummings and Barbara Brackman have raised serious questions about the idea . In addition, Underground Railroad historian Giles Wright has published a pamphlet debunking the quilt code . </P>

Where did the underground railroad start at in what state