Under Ground Railroad

723 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Q and a about the underground railroad

6 days of work, mistreatment, no pay, unbearable conditions and no rights. This was a slave’s life and there one was only one way to overcome this kind of life. The Underground Railroad was an important part of our nation’s history and served as a getaway from slavery. It gave slaves a route to freedom. Although the system was no easy task slaves had to take incredible risks in order to achieve freedom. The Underground Railroad gave slaves a route to freedom and equality. Slaves lived in horrible conditions. Their life centered on their work for their owner. Their owners owned everything they had including their families and their freedom. They were treated and sold at auctions like animals (Matthew Kane). Who wouldn’t want to get away from these horrible conditions? The Underground Railroad served as this getaway. Many ask what exactly is the Underground Railroad? Some people at first might give it a literal meaning and think of a railroad station underground. But it was nothing like that. The Underground Railroad got underground from their routes to freedom’s secrecy as if the route was underground or invisible. The railroad part of the name came from the terminology they used, slaves were called cargo, safe houses were called stations, and those who guided the slaves were called the conductors. . Others say the network of pathways got its name from a Kentucky slave Tice who was being chased by his slave owner. Tice was so determined to escape slavery by swimming to the Ohio shoreline. He dove into the freezing water with his slave owner chasing him on boat. Tice was going so fast that when his slave owner lost sight of him he said he must have taken an “Underground Railroad”. But the Under Ground Railroad had a much greater m... ... middle of paper ... ... Imagine if you were a slave and had to follow these treacherous routes knowing you could be found or killed at any second. Works Cited Cayton, Andrew.et.al.Prentice Hall America; Pathways to Present. Wright City, MO, U.S.A: Prentice Hall, 1 January 2007. Print. “Facts about the Underground Railroad.” Factsmonk.com.FactsMonk.com. 2005-2011.Web.29 October 2013. underground-railroad>. “Fast facts- The Underground Railroad.” mapsofworld.com.Compare Infrobase Ltd.2014.Web. 28 January 2014. mapsofworld.com/pages/fast-facts/ the-underground-railroad/>. “The Underground Railroad.”pbs.org. Resource Bank.2014.Web.28.January 2014. 4p2944.htn>. “Pathways to Freedom.”pathways.thinkport.org. Maryland Public Television.2014.web.21.April 2014. < pathways.thinkport.org/about/about2.cfm‎>.

Show More
Related

  • Essay On The Underground Railroad

    2342 Words  | 5 Pages

    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 of the Underground Railroad because it caused people to realize just how cruel slavery was, which invoked an increase in the support and aid of the strong, free, black population, who were a crucial component to the Underground Railroad, as well as abolitionist and anti-slavery white, resulting in the expansion of the Underground Railroad.

    Read More

  • Signs, Symbols and Signals of the Underground Railroad

    3218 Words  | 7 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Legend Of The Underground Railroad Analysis

    1099 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Transcontinental Railroad Essay

    1297 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shen, Evan. "The Economic Impacts of the Transcontinental Railroad on the US." City of Sacramento, n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.

    Read More

  • Taking a Look at the Underground Railroad

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Underground Railroad received its name from two events involving masters chasing after the slaves. In 1831 a slave escaped to Ohio and has to swim across the Ohio River because that was the only way to escape his master. His master got into a small and continued to trail him. The slave reached the shore and then disappeared. When his master wasn’t able to find him, he told his friends that, “he must have gone off on an underground road”. Eight years after this incident, spoke of the torture of a captured slave. The reporter said he told of a railroad that went underground all the way to Boston. This is how the Underground Railroad became the Underground Railroad, although it doesn’t deal with railroads or underground (The Underground Railroad by: Shaaron Cosner).

    Read More

  • The Effect of the Transcontinental Railroad

    868 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Debo Galloway, The First Transcontinental Railroad: Central Pacific, Union Pacific (New York: Simmons-Boardman, 1950), 141, http://www.questiaschool.com/read/14065867.

    Read More

  • Harriet Tubman's Arguments About The Underground Railroad

    299 Words  | 1 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Underground Railroad to Mexico

    1232 Words  | 3 Pages

    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. ...

    Read More

  • The American Transcontinental Railroad

    3285 Words  | 7 Pages

    Spearman, Frank H. "The First Transcontinental Railroad." Harper's Monthly Magazine, Volume 109 2011: 711-20. Web. 29 Sept. 2013. .

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Underground Railroad

    942 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Two steel rails ran the visible length of the tunnel, the steel ran south and north presumably…” (Page 67). Despite the assumptions the real Underground Railroad was not a real train but it was simply a vast network of routes and people who helped escaped slaves on their way to freedom in the northern states or Canada. The passage on the Underground Railroad was fraught with danger. The slave or slaves had to make a getaway from their owners, usually by night. “Keep yo eye on the North Star” was the watchword; by following the North Star the runaways knew they were heading north. The purpose of his use of magical realism is to make the story more relevant to a reader’s existence. If Whitehead did not use realism, the story would not be as interesting and would not provide such a strong visual for the reader. Also, another falsehood found in the book is the Underground Railroad operating in the South. Mainly running in free States the Underground Railroad was primarily a Northern phenomenon. Typically fugitive slaves were on their own until they crossed the Ohio River or the Mason-Dixon Line, thereby reaching a free state. Once they crossed the line, the Underground Railroad could take effect. Throughout the North were well-established routes and conductors, and some informal networks that could move a fugitive from the abolitionists’ office or homes to various points north and west. In Whitehead’ novel the railroad was operating deep in the south and the conductor, Mr. Fletcher, that helped them escaped lived in Georgia. It was rather uncommon for the railroad to be running so deep in the south but this again was another strategy used to keep the story interesting and intriguing to the

    Read More

  • Essay On Harriet Tubman

    761 Words  | 2 Pages

    A historic phenomenon known as the Underground Railroad left an immense impact on the history of slaves and abolitionists. A notorious woman by the name of Harriet Tubman had a paramount role in this audacious and venturesome event. She was even nicknamed Moses from the Bible! Multitudinous slaves had followed Harriet, trusting her as their leader to guide them through the routes of the Underground Railroad; therefore, it is suitable and appropriate to say Harriet Tubman was an extraordinary heroine. Her fervid and passionate determination made her capable of traveling to the Underground Railroad. Using that driven motivation, she assisted countless slaves to their freedom.

    Read More

  • The Underground Railroad

    631 Words  | 2 Pages

    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 - )

    Read More

  • Slavery And The Underground Railroad Essay

    699 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Should the Driving Age be Raised to 21?

    613 Words  | 2 Pages

    Web.

    Read More

  • Effects of Plastic Bottles On the Environment

    1327 Words  | 3 Pages

    Web.

    Read More

More about Under Ground Railroad

Open Document