The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of ways that slaves used to escape to the free-states in the North. The Underground Railroad did not gain that name until around 1830 (Donald - ). There were many conductors, people who helped and housed the escaping slaves, but there are a few that have made records. The Underground Railroad was a big network, but it was not run by one certain organization; instead it was run by several individuals (PBS - )
The Underground Railroad was not an actual railroad, it was just an idea of indirect paths from on station to another. The Underground Railroad began when slaves had first entered America in 1619, and it ended along with the American Civil War in 1865 (Lavine - ). Slaves had the choice of escaping to the free-states in the North, or to Mexico. Depending on where you were coming from and what happened on the way, it could take from 24 hours to a year’s worth of running (How Stuff Works “How it Worked”).
Along the way, stopping at a “Safe House” or “Station” was a slaves best chance during the daytime or when needing to rest. The Stations would normally hang a lantern outside on the porch for a time to show slaves it was a safe home (Chugger “Underground Railroad...for kids”) After the fugitives got what was needed, they would move onto the next station with the help of a conductor’s direction. Some conductors gave the fugitives a little bit of money or clothes to help them along their way (Pathways).
There were different times of day/week/year that were counted as the better time to move. The best time of day was probably around the night time hours; chances are the best time of week was on Saturdays, only because the paper did not run ads that day (Levein - ); and most slaves moved around winter time.
After a fugitive reached their desired place in the North, they normally would have found a all black town, a religious group, or a vigilance committee to live with for a time. They may have gotten money and a living place, provided by these groups, to start a new life with. If they gained enough money, fugitives would attempt to buy family members out of slavery (How Stuff Works “How it Worked”)
Well-known conductors are mainly known for how many fugitives they helped and/or housed, one being Harriet Tubman.
An Underground Railroad is not actually underground nor a railroad. It was named this because it worked similarly to the way railroads do. This process is most popularly known for the network of people, safe houses, and routes that helped escaped slaves in the South travel to the North to be free in the 1800s when slavery was at its most popular in the United States.
Fugitive slaves, or runaway slaves, were fleeing a life of hardship and confinement for a life of h...
In roughly every retelling, the objective of secrecy in all aspects of the operation is emphasized. Gara writes “Some individuals, however, plotted and executed their own escapes without consulting anyone, and...learned from bitter experience that it was best to keep such plans to themselves” (Gara 45). This illustrates how slaves told very little, if anything, to others for they feared problems were sure to arise if more and more fugitives were involved. One story in Gara’s book is about a man by the name of Henry Brown, who is hailed for his most creative and daring escape from slavery in 1849. While working in a tobacco factory in Richmond, Virginia, Brown observed large boxes being shipped out, he then cooked up a risky plan with befriended carpenter Samuel Smith who built a similar crate just for him. He had just enough room to fit and after a short time he was on a train headed to the Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia. After a 26 hour trip, out walked a free man who coined the name Henry “Box” Brown. His story soon became an international sensation, newspapers around the world printed every detail of his elaborate escape. He then began to lecture about his planning and with no surprise shipments headed to the north were inspected by a much closer eye. His associate Samuel
When enslaved they worked from sunrise to sundown with little to no food. They would live in shacks on the plantations and sleep on dirt floors since they had no furniture. But, depending on who they worked for the conditions varied. If they worked for a small farm the were fed well. On large plantations there were domestic slaves that worked inside the house and did house work. This job was the most sought after due to the better circumstances (Slave Life and Slave Codes).
It helped shape our society to what it is today, even if it took over a hundred years. In a hundred years we, as a country went from having slaves, to having segregation, and now everyone gets along and is equal. Sure we still have racism, but we changed a lot. If we never had the Underground Railroad, we might have never got the ball rolling.
After Harriet Tubman had successfully freed herself, she returned to the dangerous ground she just fled from to help free her family. After formulating these first few rescues, Harriet had begun to establish the Underground Railroad that would help her free hundreds of slaves from discrimination and injustice in the southern parts of the United States. The Underground Railroad was a secret transportation route that escaped slaves would use to travel North towards freedom. Harriet had made over 19 trips to the Deep South and rescued over 300 slaves during the years she was involved with the Underground Railroad. There was an immense amount of planning and direction that was needed in order for this escape route to be successful. She was in charge of people’s lives an...
Another point that someone might argue about the Underground Railroad is Harriet Tubman. She was one of the conductors of the Underground Railroad. She would an African American born slave, spent most of her life on the plantation, who risked her life multiple to times to get her fellow slaves to safety. She escaped from Maryland but see continued to put her freedom on the line for fellow slaves who wanted to use the Underground Railroad. Her original intent was to go back to Maryland to get her husband, but to her surprise, he had taken a new wife. She was angered by this but this anger was only used for the good of getting her whole family out of slavery and to their freedom. She continued to travel back south help people about ten years
Many slaves found an escape system that led them to freedom. Although the Fugitive Slave Act was passed which meant that it was harder for former slaves to live in the United States (Crewe 8). This confidential system was called the Underground Railroad and the system circulated rapidly from plantation to plantation and from one slave to another (Ray 45). The Underground Railroad was a system which assisted fugitives to flee to the north, ran by genuine townspeople (Ray 46). The helpers on the Railroad provided nourishment, clothing and protection from the slave catchers (Ray 46). They illegally transported fugitives in wagons through threatening regions and led them along the independence path. The most brave among them was Harriet Tubman who fled to independence in 1849 (Ray 46). Tubman would voyage the north by night and would hide every time she heard sounds of horses (Ray 46). She assisted for ten years and helped free slaves (Ray 46). Time after time, she would go back to the South to guide more than three hundred blacks on a unpredictable get away path (Ray 46). Harriet never gave up because at one point, slave hunters proposed twelve thousand dollars for the catch of the heroic "Railroad conductor" (Ray 46). Of course, that didn't stop her. This led to Harriet carrying a gun to prevent scared slaves from going back (Ray 46). At once, Tubman got asked if she would really shoot a fugitive who endangered the other
In the nineteenth century, before the American Civil War, slavery was a normal occurrence in most of America. The Underground Railroad was a series of routes in which in enslaved people could escape through. The “railroad” actually began operating in the 1780s but only later became known as the underground railroad when it gained notability and popularity. It was not an actual railroad but a series of routes and safe houses that helped people escape entrapment and find freedom in free states, Canada, Mexico as well as overseas.
The Underground Railroad was not an actual railroad, nor was it an established route. It was, however, a way of getting slaves from the South to the North, or in this case, from the Deep South, to Mexico. In the 1800s, slavery was a major issue. As the United States began to mature, slavery began to divide. Slavery in the considered “Northern States” was emancipated, and slaves, still under bondage in the South, were looking for ways to get to the North. The Underground Railroad was one way to find freedom. A common myth about the Underground Railroad is that it was only in a pathway full of people, all trying to make it to the North for freedom. The truth is there was hardly any help in the South. The major help came along when the slaves reached the North. A former slave by the name of James Boyd was once interviewed in Itasca, Texas on this very subject. He recalls that many slaves running across the established border between Mexico and Texas to reach freedom in Mexico. ...
It is believed that the system of the Underground Railroad began in 1787 when a Quaker named Isaac T. Hopper started to organize a system for hiding and aiding fugitive slaves. The Underground Railroad was a vast, loosely organized network of people who helped aid fugitive slaves in their escape to the North and Canada. It operated mostly at night and consisted of many whites, but predominately blacks. While the Underground Railroad had unofficially existed before it, a cause for its expansion was the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act allowed for runaway slaves to be captured and returned within the territory of the United States and added further provisions regarding the runaways and imposed even harsher chastisements for interfering in their capture (A&E). The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act was a major cause of the development o...
The Underground Railroad was not a real railroad with a train but a network of meeting places in which African slaves could follow to Canada where they could free. Those who helped were at risk of the law but got the satisfaction of knowing that they were helping those who did not deserve to be treated like less than everyone else. People who escaped had to take care, they were creative with giving instructions and the way they escaped their owners but if they were caught the punishment was not very humane.
The Underground Railroad began at the end of the 18th century, by this time slavery had been abolished in every northern state. The Underground Railroad was most widespread within the 3 decades following the Civil War. When the north made the decision to abolish slavery, the south reacted by making laws against helping slaves to escape and rewards began to be offered to anyone who could return a slave to their master. In 1807 slaves could no longer be brought into the country, this sky-rocketed the value placed on slaves. The Underground Railroad...
The Underground Railroad despite occurring centuries ago continues to be an “enduring and popular thread in the fabric of America’s national historical memory” as Bright puts it. Throughout history, thousands of slaves managed to escape the clutches of slavery by using a system meant to liberate. In Colson Whitehead’s novel, The Underground Railroad, he manages to blend slave narrative and history creating a book that goes beyond literary or historical fiction. Whitehead based his book off a question, “what if the Underground Railroad was a real railroad?” The story follows two runaway slaves, Cora and Caesar, who are pursued by the relentless slave catcher Ridgeway. Their journey on the railroad takes them to new and unfamiliar locations,
The Underground Railroad was an escape network of small, independent groups of individuals bound together by the common belief that enslaving a human being was immoral. A loosely structured, informal system of people who, without regard for their own personal safety. Conducting fugitives from slavery to free states, and eventually to Canada where they could not be returned to slavery was a dangerous undertaking.