In the decades prior to the Civil War, Blacks in Boston were prominent in developing and operating one of the principal stations of the 'Underground Railroad' that helped escaped slaves from the South find refuge in the North or in Canada. From his home at 66 Phillips Street on Beacon Hill (now a national historic site), Lewis Hayden (1815-1889), the leading Black abolitionist in Boston, directed the secret operations of the 'underground Railroad.' More than one-fourth of all fugitive slaves who passed through Boston were hidden, fed, and clothed there by Hayden and his wife Harriet. In May 1853 there were 13 fugitive slaves under their roof.