For slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad, names like Springtown and Snow Hill promised sanctuary and salvation. Under the pressures of racial prejudice, free blacks, runaway slaves and even many Native Americans formed island communities on the periphery of South Jersey towns. While Lawnside and others continue to thrive today, fringe communities like Marshalltown and Timbuctoo now exist only in memory.
In this discussion of these primarily African American communities, Dennis Rizzo validates their role in the preservation of tradition, definition of extended family and creation of a social bond between diverse peoples; together they formed parallel communities based on, but independent of, the larger towns and villages familiar to us all.

Dennis Rizzo is the author of numerous books and articles. In late 2010, he moved to Orillia, Ontario, where he has joined the Mariposa Writers Group (a writing and critique group) and is their web manager. He is the chair of the Orillia Community Kitchen Resource Group and a member of the Orillia Museum of Art and History.