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The Underground Railroad
One of the most shameful periods in history was the institution of slavery in the nineteenth century 2. Slavery was a divided issue in the 1800’s. Most slaves brought to America were known as low class people who could bring no good, but history fails to state that many of the slaves who came were people of many trades, ambitions, as well as determinations. The Underground Railroad had its earliest beginnings with runaway slaves fleeing from the Southern United States into Canada. By confronting human bondage without direct demands or violence, the Underground Railroad played a definite role in the destruction of slavery.
The Underground Railroad was a term used to describe a network of people who helped escaped slaves on their way to freedom. Supposedly, the term Underground Railroad originated when an enslaved runaway, Tice Davids, fled from Kentucky and may have taken refuge with John Rankin, a White abolitionist, in Ripley, Ohio. Determined to retrieve his property, the owner chased Davids to the Ohio River, but Davids suddenly disappeared without a trace, leaving his owner confused and wondering if the slave had "gone off on some underground road." The Railroad was begun as a result of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 2. The Fugitive Slave Act demanded that if an escaped slave was sighted, he or she must be turned in and sent back to the rightful owner 2. The Nation grew divided on the slavery question. The Fugitive Slave Law called for the return of bonded and indentured runaways, as well as freed African Americans. This threatened the protection of the freed slaves. Many North American indentured slaves were freed after they had served their time after five to seven years 6. Most runaways were males, however women and children did escape. Their numbers were smaller because they were more likely to be captured. Yet, The Underground Railroad became the most dramatic protest action against slavery in United States history 2. The Railroad helped escaped slaves make their way from the Southern states through the northern states, into freedom. The Underground Railroad was operating in America, yet it was not a railroad and was not underground. This “railroad” was for blacks escaping from slavery in the South. They were escaping to the free North, and to Canada where there was no slavery at all. The Underground Railroad lacked in formal organization, relying on individuals or various groups.
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.
As many of the northern states began to change their policies on the enslavement of Africans, the South became aware that those areas might become a haven of refuge for runaway slaves. In an effort to appease southern slave owners, the Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1793, which allowed slave owners to apprehend fugitives in any state or territory and only required them to apply for custody from a circuit or district judge. Due to the act’s ambiguity and lack of uniform enforcement, slaveholders became increasingly agitated. The growing movement of abolitionists to smuggle and rescue fugitive slaves compounded this frustration; the best know organization being the Underground Railroad.
The Underground Railroad was an extremely complex organization whose mission was to free slaves from southern states in the mid-19th century. It was a collaborative organization comprised of white homeowners, freed blacks, captive slaves, or anyone else who would help. This vast network was fragile because it was entirely dependent on the absolute discretion of everyone involved. A slave was the legal property of his owner, so attempting escape or aiding a fugitive slave was illegal and dangerous, for both the slave and the abolitionist. In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass understands that he can only reveal so many details about his escape from servitude, saying, “I deeply regret the necessity that impels
The Underground Railroad ran through many states starting in the south and running through the North. The railroad helped many slaves escape slavery and start a new life with new found freedom. Since the Underground Railroad is an important part of history, and it helped lead to the ending of slavery it has a immense impact on society as it is today. Society was impacted vastly by the use of the Underground Railroad.
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.
After America acquired the West, the need for efficient transportation heightened. Ideas circulated about a railroad that would spread across the continent from East to West. Republican congresses ruled for the federal funding of railroad construction, however, all actions were halted for a few years on account of a war. Following the American Civil War of 1861-1865, the race to build transcontinental railroad began in 1866. Lincoln approved Pacific Railway Act of 1862, granting two railroad companies the right to build the first American transcontinental railroad, (Clark 432).
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 Transcontinental railroad could be defined as the most monumental change in America in the 19th century. The railroad played a significant role in westward expansion and on the growth and development of the American economy (Gillon p.653). However, the construction of the transcontinental railroad may not have occurred if not for the generous support of the federal government. The federal government provided land grants and financial subsidies to railroad companies to ensure the construction. The transcontinental railroad contributed to the formation of industry and the market economy in America and forever altered the American lifestyle.
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.
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 - )