Subterranean Freemason Secrets | Cities of the Underworld (S1, E10) | Full Episode | History

nine of the 56 men who signed the declaration  of independence were members of a mysterious   brotherhood one that was behind almost  every major event in our nation's history   the freemasons and beneath the streets of  two of america's oldest cities lie the keys   to understanding the freemason's power and  influence on the birth of this great nation   from a masonic water world few know  exists my foot is literally stuck   this is not on the tour this is the crypt to a  maze of tombs and escape tunnels buried under   boston even a forgotten death row military  prison in philadelphia seen on tv for the   first time oh my god this is so cool w.h hal he  is the prisoner who was actually executed yes at   the gallows outside the symbols of freemasonry can  be found everywhere around boston and philadelphia   but the truth behind this brotherhood can  only be found underground yeah there we go   we're peeling back the layers of time on  cities of the underworld freemason underground buried beneath the streets of big cities like  boston and philadelphia are the untold secrets   of america's rebellious founding fathers secrets  that help topple an empire and build a nation   for over 200 years they've been  built on top of and forgotten   but the clues left behind from these  dark days all have one thing in common   they link the greatest achievements in american  history to members of an elusive secret society they're called the freemasons and little is  known about them from buried water worlds beneath   philadelphia to tunnels running below boston's  north end their secrets changed the world as we   know it and today they're about to be revealed  the freemasons had their hands in many parts of   the american revolution some say the constitution  of the united states was so influenced by the ways   of the masons the founding of our nation  has been dubbed the masonic experiment   the actual origins of the freemasons are  shrouded in mystery but we do know that in   the middle ages they were an exclusive group  of master artisans who passed on their craft   or building skills to fellow masons accepted  into their group but for reasons no one can be   sure of masons in scotland began accepting  non-artisans buildings suddenly became much   more than just structures they were symbols in  stone when the first freemasons came to the new   colonies they went from building structures  to building a nation one city at a time one of the most famous masons was paul revere  revere and many of boston's other citizens   refused to be ruled by the british and were  the spark that lit the fires of revolution   in april 1775 tensions between the british  empire and the american colonies had grown   to a fever pitch american patriots operated  secretly among british troops by using the   narrow streets and subterranean tunnels right  here in boston's north end but when they got   wind the british were coming they had to rely  on the sacred loyalty of an ancient brotherhood the freemasons gave new meaning to the idea of  the underworld membership allowed revolutionaries   to operate underground even while carrying  out military actions high above the city   before i went down i had to go up to  the very spot the masons made famous   soaring 191 feet above boston the steeple of old  north church was the highest point in the city   it gave the conspiring masons a commanding  and strategic view reverend ayers good   morning welcome to the old north church  thank you thanks for the old north vicar   reverend stephen ayers gave me special access  to the spot the mason's plan was put to action   follow me up to the bell ringing chamber  at about 10 o'clock on april 18 1775   freemason robert newman a church caretaker climbed  these stairs and lit two lanterns signaling that   the british were headed for the colonists weapons  depot in concord while paul revere was on his way   to lexington to warn john hancock and samuel  adams here we are at the top oh yeah fantastic   oh this is where it all began huh spectacular  view from up here oh man look at this oh it's   great wow 360 degrees all of boston around us huh  this was the tallest point in the colonial times   leaders of the growing rebellion john hancock  and sam adams were in hiding out of reach of   the british they were well connected with  other revolutionaries because they too were   masons most of the american revolution at least  in boston was either organized at masonic meetings   or in the local taverns in a back room the  masons used this church's steeple to help the   cause of the revolution but the church also has a  subterranean story to tell and reverend ayers was   going to take me to it all right well now that  we've shown you the steeple let me show you the   tunes hidden beneath this church is something  few know about an underground world of the dead as we come into the old tombs note the sign  watch thy head there are lots of pipes in here   wow yeah okay so this is the crypt this is the  [ __ ] in less than 40 tombs there have been   eleven hundred bodies from wealthy admirals to the  working class some of the dead in this crypt were   even killed during the revolutionary war in the  battle of bunker hill so patriots members of the   king's army and freemasons may have been buried  side by side the crypt is large but even so there   were times when these tombs would be so packed  with dead bodies it was unbearable down here this   is not the most sanitary form of burial if you go  along the outside of the church you will see vents   running along the base of the church on both sides  that was to air out the basement just imagine the   smell of mouldering bodies down here on a hot  summer day over a thousand bodies have passed   through here over the centuries some were surely  masons carrying their secrets along with them   but reverend ayers told me the subterranean  space wasn't initially built to bury people   the tombs were built over a series of years  here it wasn't designed originally to have   tombs the north end was filled with smuggling  tunnels during the colonial era i mean you   wanted to avoid the revenue agents as a matter  of fact there's a story that uh some folks sent   put signals in the steeple to signal  which ship to go to which wharf to have   offload some of their cargo into a smuggling  tunnel before the revenue agents would show   up we believe that there are tunnels they  met into this basement or quite close by many of the smuggling tunnels have since been  sealed up or have collapsed but as reverend   ayers took me back upstairs i got a glimpse of a  strange contraband that once passed through them   those angels were given to the church by a  member of the congregation captain thomas   grushi he by profession was among other things a  privateer he lived just up the street and actually   underneath his house is an old smuggling tunnel as  a privateer of course that meant he was a licensed   pirate which means that those are stolen angels  so you got pirates booty right here in the church   pirates booty right here in the church so a pirate  actually used underground tunnels to smuggle his   stolen booty and it all went down right below this  church but how did he even know about the tunnels   reverend harris says there's this guy across the  street from the church here that has a smuggler's   tunnel from the revolutionary period used to  belong to the pirate who gave the cherubs to   the church let's go check it out sunny mirabella's  house was just a few blocks from old north church   rumors of tunnels used by everyone from the  freemasons to pirates to bank robbers run   rampant in the neighborhood a sealed off hole  in sonny's basement only adds fuel to the fire   hey hey sonny yes don wildman hi noah  reverend ayers told me to come over oh   how you doing pleasure to meet you thanks for  having me over sonny got right to business be   careful what you stepped in an old building okay  and led me to his crowded basement it's a basement   yeah this is a basement this is this is it this  is the tunnel okay this is the original that's the   this is all the original brick this the same  size brick they use in the old north church   so the guy that had the angels in the old north  church captain gucci lived in this house yes and   he got the contraband coming from the waterfront  so he's a big time smuggler this guy he's a thief   the north end tunnels are more than  an urban legend some locals say there   are entrances to the tunnel system in just  about every cellar in the old neighborhood   even though it no longer allows access  to subterranean boston today use of these   passageways may have continued until well into  the 20th century eleven men robbed an armored car   company headquarters and stole nearly 2.7 million  dollars it was a perfect crime and law enforcement   search high and low for the missing cash believe  it or not my new friend sonny actually became a   suspect yeah it's a true story okay i get  a knock on the door like you just knocked   there's two or three big guys out there and  this is gonna help you this is where the fbi   what can i do for you because we want to see  the tunnel this is how do you know i have a   tunnel he says we know everything so i took him  down i said it's been blocked he said i want to   see i showed him they look he says okay i said  you know who did it he says no cause i thought   you guys knew everything oh yeah so you're not  doing any smuggling these days no my smuggling   days are over the fbi did finally apprehend all  11 accomplices in the brinks robbery but their   stash of 1.1 million dollars disappeared forever  somewhere in boston's cd underground from the lost   brinks cash and captain grucci's pirate booty to  the secret stomping grounds of paul revere and the   freemasons boston soil is full of secrets  and this city is only just the beginning i'm in philadelphia ground zero  for the american revolution   since the beginning this country was built by  rebels misfits members of secret societies like   the freemasons so how did this ragtag group of  patriots defeat the world's most powerful empire   well there's only one place you can  still find the answers the underworld but before i went underground i was granted an  interview with ronald a angst who holds the same   title as ben franklin once did grand master grand  master good to see you how you doing thank you for   having me oh my pleasure to have you incredible  building the temple itself is an amazing structure   one of philadelphia's most iconic buildings  and is covered with masonic symbols   but freemasonry and its symbols have  reached far beyond the halls of its grand   lodges their seeing eye sign can  even be found on the dollar bill   along with mason george washington while symbols  like the eye or the mason compass can be seen   all over the u.s the initiation ceremonies  for the brotherhood are held in secret   as secretive as they are they're just a process uh  procedure it's nothing different than when one is   baptized in the church but it's a procedure only  for the eyes of the masons and it actually links   them to the ancient temple of solomon solomon's  master builder was a man named hiram abif   he was a master mason and his three apprentices  desperately wanted to know the secrets of his   craft they were tired of waiting and plotted to  force him to tell his secrets or else one day each   demanded the guarded information and each time  hiram refused an apprentice hit him over the head   the third blow killed him hiram's death is  reenacted in today's mason initiation ceremonies   only after the new mason pretends to die he is  resurrected through the power of the masonic grip   the grip is a secret handshake  known by all modern day masons   the masons are believed to not only be linked  to the bible but also to the knights templar   this ancient order of powerful christian crusaders  were persecuted and fled to england and scotland   many said they hid underground becoming stone  masons as a cover for their true identities   some say the freemasons still possess the holy  grail that the knights templar took with them   to scotland today there are over 4 million  masons in the world 2 million in the united   states alone and this exclusive fraternity  continues to inspire and mystify the world   freemasonry we have three degrees the apprentice  we had the fellow craft and we had the master   mason degrees and those were the same thing as far  as construction of the temple so from those times   we then transposed them to a more modern culture  of now instead of building temples we build men   and 230 years ago george washington  ben franklin john hancock paul revere   men built by the freemasons were  literally pushing the buttons of revolution as the capital of the breakaway  colonies philadelphia was a prime target   for the british to defend the city from attack  city leaders called upon two famous freemasons   george washington was named general of the  continental army and ben franklin was in   charge of defenses around the city so when  the british attacked the rebels were ready before they were rebels the freemasons  were builders and most people have no   idea that they had a hand in one of the most  important forts of the american revolution   it's called fort mifflin or the fort that saved  america it all started when benjamin franklin's   first job was to complete the construction of a  fort that would defend philadelphia against attack   today this fort sits in the  shadow of philadelphia's airport but even archaeologists had no idea what else  was hiding there and for the first time ever   on television we've been given access into  a newly discovered piece of american history gentlemen how you doing don lee nice to meet you  hey thanks for having me i met with lee anderson   and andrew firon the team of experts who recently  helped unearth another world beneath fort mifflin   their discovery is so new i was among the  first to ever be allowed down this place   is incredible uh we think so yeah hidden here  off the highway best kept secret in the country   its best kept secret was not the fact  that fort mifflin actually changed the   course of the revolutionary war or that the  great battle that took place here actually   kept the british at the mouth of the river  allowing general george washington and his   troops to regroup at valley forge the best  kept secret was in fact buried underground   so how did you find this place well it  was actually the site manager had uh   uh it was mowing the lawn and actually  part of the ground had given away   and the soil kept on right here yeah was  continually displaced so this is a tunnel system   under here yeah thanks to something as simple as  a lawn mower this entire unknown section of fort   mifflin was discovered after being buried for over  130 years the find is so new that no one knows   exactly what went on down here or how it's managed  to stay intact and hidden for so long basically   we've got a hole underneath there that leads to  the entrance of of what we're calling casement 11.   and you had no idea this was here absolutely no  idea casement 11 lies underneath the original fort   mifflin it's believed that while the masons were  spearheading the revolution in the barracks above   this subterranean space was supplying them with  ammunition but that's only the beginning can we   lift this off yeah if you help me just  get this guy you can send him back here archaeologists have just started  clearing away the debris oh my god   watch that but if they keep digging casement  11 could link up with an entire underworld   of storage that provided munitions to the  barracks nearly 15 feet above but this was   much more than an underground storage depot  later it was actually converted into a prison   for america's hardcore criminals and pows during  the civil war on your belly huh yep here we go   wow it's really tight it opens up totally yeah  oh my god this is so cool the discovery is so new   no one can be absolutely sure what this room was  used for but here's how they think it got buried   the prison is thought to be part of the original  fort design from 1771. there are five subterranean   rooms all supported by brick arched ceilings these  rooms were initially used for munition storage later gun mounts were built above the room to  defend against enemy threats from the river   and during the civil war these munitions  rooms were turned into a prison   but once the war was over the entrance was  filled in over time and the prison was forgotten so we'll just walk through here and just be  careful and mindful of the inscriptions off   to the right okay the inscriptions were  from prisoners who served time down here   incredibly they've been left untouched since  the late 1860s until now unbelievable what are   these inscriptions oh i see right here you  can see these were some of them prisoners   oh they're like graffiti yeah but we can  see here bernard devon company 81st cavalry   and what would you think was the age of this  well some of them are dated so i think the   one up here for instance is dated 1864. and  there's we've got henry bradley july 1864 and   some other ones down there we are among the few  that have seen this writing since the civil war   you've got it wow that's amazing but there's more  one particular inscription tells of the bleak   existence of the men who were imprisoned here wait  hold on you've got to see this inscription here oh   my god it's so clear yeah shun this place o man  whomsoever thou art to be good is to be happy   well he'd learned his lesson apparently no look at  this it's like a movie prop yeah it's in perfect   condition and this remember this wood hasn't seen  the daylight so it's it never faded exactly yeah   it's been in a little time capsule this  is pretty advanced uh woven metal for   go this time depot and get your  screening no no jeez it's amazing so nearly a century after master mason  benjamin franklin helped finish this   fort during the revolutionary war it was used as a   prison during the civil war deserters pows  and murderers for some this was death row so we can now enter what we  think is william howe's cell   william howe was no ordinary prisoner he  was a union soldier during the civil war   a hero who rallied the troops and proudly  carried his flag at the battle of fredericksburg   despite his efforts they lost the battle and  howe and one thousand other soldiers became   disillusioned and deserted desertion was a major  problem during the end of the civil war and the   army had to do something about it they used howe  as an example and after three weeks in captivity   here beneath fort mifflin they hung him in the  prison yard just above he was the only prisoner   executed at fort mifflin during the entire civil  war ironically exactly 142 years to the day   after his ceremonial hanging howe's subterranean  prison was discovered beneath the ground we know that william howe signed his name  up here another excellent job of penmanship   w.h hal he is the prisoner who was actually  executed yes at the gallows outside oh man that is heavy you know buried beneath a freshly mowed lawn andrew and  lee had stumbled upon the actual foundations   of the freemason's indestructible fort it was  just a small clue into the beginnings of this   secret society a society that both literally  and figuratively helped to build our nation for a group of rebels to take on the british  army they needed both manpower and money   the freemasons had both master  mason ben franklin used that   money to complete philadelphia's fort  mifflin today the fort's located just   off the airport but 230 years ago it was a  key stronghold during the american revolution wow that's amazing unbelievable i had just been  one of the first to enter the newest discovery   beneath this fort but there was more lying  beneath the soil it was at this very site that   400 volunteer patriots held their own against  the british for over five and a half weeks   but how did they do it how are  the patriots able to survive the   barrage of british artillery for  so long the answer was underground wow this is the largest of six in here we're  under about 10 feet of dirt wow this is amazing   this is all original 18th century construction  late 18th century yes it would have been used as   a barracks in case of another siege it would hold  about 120 guys these barracks were built to last   but the masons didn't lay the first brick  instead it was the british and when they   began construction of the fort to protect their  largest colonial city they never could have   imagined that just a few years later fort mifflin  would be in the enemy or freemason hands it all   happened in 1776 the revolutionary war was in  full swing and under freemason ben franklin   colonists took over the fort america was ready  for war and fort mifflin would help them win it the thickness of its outer walls ranges between  6 and 10 feet which allowed it to take endless   direct hits from ships in the bay in fact these  walls survived the largest bombardment ever   seen by the north american continent and during  those bombardments the rooms we were in served   an essential purpose so in a in a time of danger  battle this would be the alternative barracks it   would it would be the uh place where the soldiers  can keep out of the bombardment which they could   have used in 1777. okay because you're actually  living inside the wall here you're pretty safe   back then cannonballs didn't explode most of them  were solid shots so they couldn't get through here   but thanks to the genius of the colonists it  would take a lot to actually reach the fort   their first line of defense were basically  booby traps lining the bottom of the river   these were 30 foot square boxes crossed by timbers  iron spikes were then fastened to the timbers   the boxes were then sunk into  the river with 30 tons of stone   the hope was that british ships would have gashes  ripped into their hulls as they passed over them the second line of defense was this fort its walls  were up to 10 feet thick and were enlarged by the   colonists when they took it over from the british  the fort appears to be designed in the shape of   a pantograph it's a tool used for copying plans  or maps and the sides created useful angles that   allowed the greatest range of fire for the troops  but there are other rumors about the fort's unique   shape the pantograph is also linked to the  freemason's compass and square symbol could   the mason-heavy government that commissioned  fort mifflin have been sending a message   some say by building this fort in the  shape of a pantograph they leave no doubt   who built both the city of philadelphia  and the new nation they would soon govern   and this isn't the only time the freemasons have  literally left their mark there are even theories   that link the masons with landmarks in washington  dc the intersection of five major roads form a   pentagram or five-pointed star with a white house  at its southernmost tip this location also links   up with another freemason emblem the compass  and square similar to the shape of fort mifflin   the u.s capitol building sits at the hinge  of this compass but what actually went on in   this room what are these holes in the wall  those are actually gun ports oh really so   those would face out oh yeah they're all over  the place here you go it would have been very   hard to shoot out these yeah i'm sure they  don't want to be able to shoot in so you're   not going to win a battle from anything no  no you're just gonna wait it out yeah okay 230 years ago i would have been standing among 400  men they were cramped inside for over a month the   temperature dipped well below freezing supplies  ran low and the sleeping situation was just as bad   so this is like generally the size of them it's  exactly the size people back then were so short   yeah that's a fallacy what they yeah their  feet really came out they slept sitting up   oh really yes they thought it was better for their  health no kidding yes it wasn't until later in the   near the 20th century that people started  laying straight on their back yeah are you   the only person in this country that knows that  i had to come to fort mifflin to find that out   by fending off the british fort mifflin  changed the course of the war but fort   mifflin is just the beginning of the legacy the  freemasons left behind beneath philadelphia just   a few miles away is the mason-inspired  maze of tunnels that few realize exists in the late 18th century philadelphia  was booming it was the largest city in   the country and in desperate need of a  clean source of fresh water the solution   city planners came up with was  an engineering marvel no city   in the world had developed a water  system like this since ancient rome philadelphia was home to one of america's most  famous masons grand master ben franklin franklin   like most masons was a man of great power and  wealth and he was determined to use his status   to make his city a better place he  willed one thousand pounds to the   city of philadelphia insisting that part of  it be used to build a municipal waterworks   this system of clean water that allowed  philadelphia to grow into the city it is today   was not only the brainchild of master mason  franklin it was also designed by one freemason   benjamin latrobe believe it or not latrobe also  worked on the white house and the u.s capitol   but it was his philadelphia water works  that helped revolutionize the way cities ran   and over 200 years worth of mason-inspired  water tunnels still remain beneath the streets   hey ed hey john i met with ed gruscheski an expert  on the fairmount waterworks i have you here look   at this this is a this is a perfect location  uh to see the entire site for most of the 19th   century the fairmont waterworks was the major  pumping station for the city of philadelphia   frederick graf latrobe's apprentice  designed fairmount waterworks in 1805   improving on latrobe's system which could  no longer meet the needs of the city   today fairmont is the best example of how  the masons inspired the building of the city ed took me through the guts of the  building where until 98 years ago   philadelphia still got its water supply it was  like a time capsule dating back almost 200 years   but that's not all this system  was way ahead of its time   and its remains are still here in the building  we're going into when it was completed   it had three huge turbines operating pumps that  pumped water up to the reservoir deep beneath   the engine house the 3000 foot long tunnel was  a part of the original water works and i got   special access i'm gonna go down and check out  these tunnels delivered the water to philadelphia   in the old times hey hey you're gonna need this  thanks gets dark down there huh it is indeed yeah   so this is where the water was coming in 1851  this is an actual 1851 brick floor but this   bedrock represents the fact that this building  has been here since 1812. this is the original   uh foundation for the original  building it's been around for a while the waterworks project was continuously changing  toward the end of its life it was even turned into   a sewer but the first version goes back to 1801  and that's the one that was a freemason design   it was an ingenious plan that brought water from  the schuylkill river into a canal dug through   bedrock from there the water went to a steam  driven pumping station where it was lifted to an   underground brick conduit and delivered by gravity  to a pumping station in center square graf made   this innovative design bigger and better and i was  inside that system this is the intakes for the uh   water to go up to the pump which is on the other  side of this wall i see there's a gate here and   everything wow what's all this oh this is the old  cast iron or something i guess there's another   one here and right through here is the pump  housing there it is that's the original pump   wow it looks like modern age it's amazingly modern  so this would have been all filled with water   and it would have come from down in this part  here i'm going to go down here and take a look i see wow here is actual water two feet deep  groundwater and this tunnel back here goes keeps   on going it's an old sewer from 1920 so it was  1851 here and then 1920 down here and they used it   actually for open sewer i gotta go check this out  i'm gonna need some waders and a stronger light yeah there we go okay all right well this is the fun part of  my job i have no idea how deep that silt is oh yeah it's nice and solid let me  see oh this is so cool so you can see   this is the 19th century right here this  stonework and that as well that brickwork this   is the original flume tunnel that used to bring  the water right in now this has been a totally   refitted tunnel and you can see the original  water gate right there but new work this poured   concrete coming from the 1920s when it was changed  into a sewer but i have no idea what's back here   yeah here we go this is all ground water this  is no longer a flowing tunnel hello wow the   silt is like a foot deep underneath of this very  soft clay-like my foot is literally stuck in the so this is not on the tour i was nearly 20 feet beneath the streets inside  the waterworks that made this city possible   and the people above me had no idea  it ain't pretty oh it's really stuck you can see the housing for  the whole turbine it's huge   and this would have been where this  turbine and the blades would have come   right down here and the water would have  rushed through here turning these blades in the end over 5.3 million gallons of water  were pumped through here each day compared   to the 7 500 gallons from the original mason  design and this is just the end of the tunnel   that they sealed off with railroad ties it looks  like someone has sealed up this old tunnel but   beyond this it snakes for miles underneath the  homes businesses and streets of modern philly   the waterworks closed down for good  in 1909 but these very tunnels remain   a glimpse into the foundations of our nation  but philadelphia and boston aren't the only   american cities that were literally built by the  famous secret society beneath the streets of a   sleepy new england town are clues from the  freemason's most secretive and deadly days the freemasons have played their part  in fighting for america's independence   and in shaping the cities that emerged  they have been linked to everything   from the night's templar to the revolutionary  war but that's just the beginning   just outside of boston another stunning piece  to the freemason puzzle has been discovered   inside an ordinary house this time it's a  possible link to the underground railroad the american revolution wasn't the only time  americans were forced to operate in secret in the   1800s a massive network of abolitionists secretly  transported southern slaves to freedom with   thousands of lives and the fate of a nation at  stake there was only one place to go underground and this small town was center stage  for america's newest fight for freedom   the underground railroad made an important stop  here on route to canada while the underground   was just a figurative name for many networks  established to carry slaves to freedom in the   north here it actually went underground and today  these houses in concord still sit directly on top   of links to the secret past few people know  that the freemasons played a major but hidden   part in the fight against slavery in fact mason  benjamin franklin was a leading abolitionist   here in concord massachusetts i was about to  see an eerie reminder of america's darker days   unearthed accidentally during  the renovation of this home   hey john hi john chatenoth knows  concord like the back of his hand   he's a local resident who's been exploring  this small town's underground for years   in 1922 when some restoration work was done  on this building they had removed a section   of wall in a section uh to get to a chimney  and they found this room that was hidden and   research revealed that it was in fact used on the  underground miller oh let's take a look huh okay   the building is now an art gallery but few  realize that hidden behind the fireplace   is a secret room where hundreds of slaves  would have stayed on their way to freedom   wow look how small it is amazingly this room concealed within the walls  of this former home is only three foot by six   foot and doesn't have much headroom there are no  windows and it's cold in this little space they   would have come up and stayed for for the evening  or whatever uh before they were moved on to the   next station in the railroad typically what would  happen in the middle of the night perhaps someone   would come along with a wagon pick up who was  ever being hidden here and they would move west   toward west fitchburg where they would bring  them to a train that would head north to canada   the fact that this secret space was uncovered  at all is incredible but it's those who met in   the house that have opened up a pandora's box this  beam up here has these designs what's what's going   on with that well this beam was uncovered during  restoration work up on the third floor the designs   on here they suspect have some connections  to the history of the masons in concord   the designs on this beam are believed to be the  work of the masons but exactly what the carvings   mean is still a mystery does this mason-carved  beam prove the freemasons built this subterranean   escape route we know that in 1802 this house  was in fact a meeting place for the masons   but skeptics warn that the cryptically carved  beam could just be coincidental and could have   been used to build the room after the masons left  here but one thing is for sure the free masons   specifically the african-american lodges called  the prince hall lodges were heavily involved in   the underground railroad the prince hall lodges  would have been ideal stops along a slave's escape   to freedom they had secret hiding spots but most  importantly they were already a secret society and   had the perfect clandestine infrastructure to pull  off such a dangerous operation and just like the   freemasons used symbols to communicate during the  revolution stops along the underground railroad   actually had a secret system of codes used to help  people identify safe houses if there was a quilt   stitched with a house with smoke coming out of  its chimney hanging on a clothesline that meant   that house was a safe house a white ring of bricks  around the top of a house's chimney meant the same   and various geometric patterns stitched  into displayed quilts helped guide slaves   to freedom and into rooms like the one i was  standing in but how did slaves actually get   into this hiding place some say these hidden  rooms were connected by underground tunnel systems   the access to this room was through a cave  that came into the house it would be below us   and the entrance to that cave is out in the  ridge out back but that's not the half of it   a ridge of caves just a few feet away from these  homes dates back to the 17th century the caves   were initially built as separate storage areas  for each house but during the abolitionist era   some speculate that they were in fact connected  and used to help the slaves move to their freedom   these connections prove to be the perfect  hideouts for slaves on the underground railroad oh my god look at that now  this is the only remaining   opening in the ridge that we know of at  this time wow it's really a tight space   i'm going to take a look down  there wow it's really really small   you know don you're probably the first  person in there in about 70 years from this small cave escaping slaves would crawl  through an underground tunnel across the backyard   under the house and finally to the hidden  room by the chimney there they might get   a meal or they may not racism persisted even  among those dedicated to eradicating slavery   then after a few hours it's through  the tunnel and out the cave again but logistics aside there was a real  human aspect that was hard to ignore   there's all of about i don't know three feet  of space it is amazing and poignant to think of   scared people being brought here in the  night and asked to keep quiet or else   stashed in here until they can be secreted away  to another room where they're also kept quiet   and fed until they're moved on it's amazing  and dehumanizing but that's how it was done the underground railroad carried over  50 000 slaves to their freedom in canada   later many former slaves returned home  finally citizens in the land of the   free few are aware of the role the masons  played in this chapter of american history today the freemasons continue their legacy  of silence one that has lasted for centuries   it's hard to calculate just how much  the secret society of the freemasons   change the world we live in  and as residents of boston   philadelphia and concord walk the streets of  the cities the masons help to build they have   no idea how close they come to clues hidden all  around them clues that lie both above ground and below you

Channel: HISTORY

Views: 1,019,453

Rating: 4.7654853 out of 5

Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, cities of the underworld, history cities of the underworld, cities of the underworld show, cities of the underworld full episodes, cities of the underworld clips, full episodes, Cities of the Underworld s1 e10, Cities of the Underworld se1, Cities of the Underworld season 1 episode 10, Cities of the Underworld se1 ep10, Cities of the Underworld 1X10, Freemason Underground, Episode 10, hundreds of feet deep

Id: G5_haW10aaQ

Length: 43min 21sec (2601 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 10 2021