A century and a half later, Still's words struck a chord with a Canadian actor trying to bring him to life in the documentary "Underground Railroad: The William Still Story," airing Feb. 6 on PBS.

Dion Johnstone found himself relating to Still's tales of fractured families struggling to reconnect after years of forced separation.

The years he spent in the British Columbia foster-care system after being taken from his mother, he said, gave him insight into a man who spent decades separated from his siblings and devoted his life to ensuring others did not meet the same fate.

"Just the feeling of being separated from family and then all the feelings that come as you start to piece them together; the joy, the fear, the anxiety, learning that there are some things that are gone, that you can't really replace.... Those are very potent experiences that helped me to identify with what it must have been like for Still."

"Underground Railroad: The William Still Story" - a joint brainchild of Toronto's 90th Parallel Production and New York-based WNED-TV - combines historical commentary, detailed re-enactments and excerpts from Still's own journals to tell the story of the man often dubbed the father of the Underground Railroad.

The son of an escaped slave, Still used his position as a free man and activist at a Pennsylvania abolitionist organization to connect with slaves fleeing a life of hard labour in the deep south of the United States. Still helped hundreds of former slaves establish new lives north of the Mason-Dixon line.

A prime destination was Canada and documentary executive producer Gordon Henderson said the story of the Underground Railroad is an integral piece of Canadian history that is not widely known to the general public.

Still's detailed records on the subject and compelling personal story, he said, provided the perfect entrypoint for the tale.

"This guy was in the centre of the action, and he kept the records. We've got words that he said," Henderson said. "I couldn't make this stuff up. This is real-life, extraordinary drama."

Still's anecdotes vividly portray the struggles faced by former slaves.

They include accounts of men being smuggled to freedom while nailed inside a wooden box, and families desperately trying to reunite after being scattered far and wide through slave auctions.

One of those reunions involved Still himself, who was reconnected with his brother who was left behind in the deep south when his mother made her bid for freedom years before.

The moving stories are told in the formal language of the day, which Henderson said presented a challenge for any actor taking on the role.

Harder still, he said, was the challenge of bringing a story to life without the benefit of photographs or other visual footage.