AUBURN - The Seward House came alive for young history buffs Tuesday through a Story Hour for kids, featuring books about the underground railroad and a visit to the basement room where the abolitionist family once hid runaway slaves.

Curator of Education and Outreach Jennifer Haines organized the event to give children something educational to do during the spring break and to engage them with the history of the area.

Following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, authorizing marshals to track down runaway slaves in northern states, until the end of the Civil War in 1865, the New York state underground railroad provided safe passage for escaped slaves from nearby states such as Maryland and Virginia.

One of the biggest lessons many took away from the stories was that the “railroad” was not a tunnel or road, but a network of safe houses and hiding places.

And through stories such as “Nettie's Trip South” about a young northerner's trip south during slavery, and “Henry's Freedom Box,” about a slave who mailed himself from slavery in Richmond, Va. to freedom in Philadelphia via a wooden box, many were able to imagine the experience of slavery for themselves.

For Laney Zicari, a second-grader from Fairport who was in town visiting her grandmother Georgena Gunn, the story of Henry Box Brown was especially moving.

“I felt sad for him because he only had a few biscuits to eat,” she said.

Haines also showed the young visitors the former kitchen in the basement where at least four fugitives sought refuge.

The Sewards got involved in harboring slaves after witnessing the cruelty of slavery in the South first-hand. Writing in her diary about a trip to Virginia in the mid 1820s, Frances Seward described seeing enslaved children chained together, naked, on their way to auction. She was so distressed by the sight of them drinking from the animals' water trough and sleeping on the ground in the open air that she and her husband canceled the rest of their trip.

Helping visitors understand the emotions evoked by historical events such as slavery is part of why Haines said she loves working for the museum.

“When you see it for yourself it becomes a place,” she said. “That's when it becomes real.”

To learn more

Some books about the underground railroad:

• “An Apple for Harriet Tubman” by Glennette Tilley Turner

• “Almost to Freedom” by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

• “Nettie's Trip South” by Ann Turner

• “Henry's Freedom Box” by Ellen Levine