Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a secret network of routes and safe houses in the United States. Black slaves used the Underground Railroad to escape from slavery. It was created in the early 1800s, and was at its biggest between 1850 and 1860.[1] The term “Underground Railroad” also describes the abolitionists, both black and white, free and enslaved, who helped the slaves along the way.[2]
Routes on the Underground Railroad led to free states, Canada, Mexico and overseas.[3] While traveling along these routes, slaves received help from abolitionists and those who had sympathy to their cause.[4] British North America was another popular stopping point. Slavery was not allowed there, and its long border gave many points of access. More than 30,000 people were said to have escaped there using the network at its best,[5] although U.S. Census statistics shows only 6,000.[6]
One statistic suggests that by 1850, about 100,000 slaves had escaped to freedom by the "Railroad".[1]
The Underground Railroad fugitives' stories are recorded in the Underground Railroad Records.
Underground Railroad Media
- The disappointed abolitionists LCCN2008661783.jpg
David Ruggles between two men confronting John P. Darg
- Great Dismal Swamp-Fugitive Slaves crop.jpg
Freedom seekers escaped to the Great Dismal Swamp's maroon community.
- Harriet Tubman.jpg
Harriet Tubman (photo H. B. Lindsley), c. 1870. A worker on the Underground Railroad, Tubman made 13 trips to the South, helping to free over 70 people. She led people to the northern free states and Canada. This helped Harriet Tubman gain the name "Moses of Her People".[7]
- Levi coffin.JPG
Quaker abolitionist Levi Coffin and his wife Catherine helped more than 2,000 enslaved people escape to freedom.
- Rail Road Suspension Bridge Near Niagara Falls v2.jpg
Freedom seekers escaped slavery and reached Canada by way of the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge.
- William Still portrait.png
William Still was a free Black man in Philadelphia who helped hundreds of freedom seekers escape from slavery.
- 4271695318-marymeachum.jpg
Mary Meachum was an Underground Railroad agent in St. Louis, Missouri
- Underground Railroad Handbook.jpg
Enslaved people living near rivers and the Chesapeake Bay escaped from slavery using canoes and boats.
- Maroons preparing to ambush a convoy.jpg
The Maroons In Ambush On The Dromilly Estate In The Parish Of Trelawney, Jamaica. An aquatint (from a painting by F. J. Bourgoin) depicting British troops caught in an ambush by a group of Maroons in 1795.
Related pages
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Vox, Lisa, "How Did Slaves Resist Slavery?" Archived 2011-07-11 at the Wayback Machine, African-American History, About.com, Retrieved July 17, 2011.
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).
- ↑ "Purpose and Background". Taking the Train to Freedom. National Park Service. Retrieved July 17, 2011
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).
- ↑ "From slavery to freedom" Archived 2007-07-13 at the Wayback Machine, The Grapevine, pp. 3–5.
- ↑ Clifford Larson 2004, xvii.
