One of the most disgraceful periods in history was the ninth teen century institution of slavery. Slavery was a very controversial issue back in the 1800’s. Most slaves who were brought to America were mostly known as lower end people who provided no service. But history fails to tell us that some slaves who came as different hopes and dreams. The Underground Railroad had a lot of runaway slaves who risked their lives to try and survive. There was so much violence happening to the slaves they were willing to flee in order to survive. And the Underground Railroad played a crucial part in the destruction of slavery. A term that was used to describe the Underground Railroad is an organization of people who helped slaves escape for their freedom. …show more content…
It was given that name because they used terms or codes taken from the language used on a real railroad. It was a way for African American to escape slavery in the south and make their way to the north. There were some flaws to this railroad it lacked an organization so they had to rely on conductors which was code for people on the opposite side helping them, from hiding them in their homes to giving those rides and food. But not all people got this chance. Most slaves were brought here against their will and were passed around from cellars, barns, to even storage sheds. But the ones that made it out got at least a fighting chance. The Underground Railroad had several different locations which covered many states. A huge part played in assisting the runaway slaves to freedom was the African American abolitionists. And since they have been through similar situations as the escapees they would do whatever they could to help …show more content…
She was an ex-slave herself and was born into a family of slave parents. She was born in Maryland, on the eastern shore. Harriet unfortunately grew up unable to read or write since slaves were not taught nor allowed to do so. So one day in 1849 Tubman made plans to escape. Her plan was to follow the stars and she only knew of a couple southern states in her path. Once she made it to Philadelphia she found work and saved money. When you escape your journey take a long time known can easily pan out how the trip will go. So runaways had to be smart they could not travel main roads because the hunters patrolled them. The railroad stretched for thousands of miles and took a long time to get there. They had to take the hard and forbidden routes like in the mountains and swamps. And while you are trying to escape your owner puts a reward on whoever can capture you. For Harriet her price was forty thousand dollars. But no one got her. She was a huge help in saving slaves lives and guiding them to freedom. I think that’s why she was worth so much. But she survived it all and made over twenty trips over the south and saved more than three hundred slaves escape. As time passed she worked as a cook, nurse, and spy for the civil war. Then later she settled down in New York until her death in
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.
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 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 was large group of people who secretly worked together to help slaves escape slavery in the south. Despite the name, the Underground Railroad had nothing to do with actual railroads and was not located underground (www.freedomcenter.org). The Underground Railroad helped move hundreds of slaves to the north each year. It’s estimated that the south lost 100,000 slaves during 1810-1850 (www.pbs.org).
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
“Slavery existed in the nation’s capital from the very beginning of the city’s history in 1790 when Congress created the federal territory from land that was formerly held by Virginia and Maryland [which were slave states].” It was an accepted part of the life, but with each new year, people were getting more restless and started movements to abolish it in the nation. For instance, there was the formation of the Underground Railroad, which was a “secret organization that helped slaves from the South escape from slavery by providing shelter, transportation, forged documents, and other materials. It was illegal to do so, but it existed everywhere that there was slavery.” Members of the Under...
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. ...
The Underground Railroad was what many slaves used to escape slavery. It was not an actual railroad, although it could easily be compared to one. It was a route, with safe houses and many other hiding spots for the slaves to use. The paths had conductors telling you where to go and people who would drive you to the next safe house. You had to be quick, you had to be strong, and you had to be very courageous. The Underground Railroad led all the way to Canada. There were many people helping the slaves, and even more people that were opposing them. It was no easy task. Many slaves died of sickness or natural causes, gave up and returned back to the plantation, or were caught and either killed or brought back. It was a rough journey but a good number of slaves prevailed and escaped to liberty, which in this time was not America.
The underground railroad was a system organized to safely move slaves into free states (Coddon). Harriet Tubman was an outstanding abolitionist and black leader of her time. After freeing her whole family from slavery, Tubman’s main concern was the freedom of all slaves. She became well acquainted with many white abolitionists and often received food and shelter from them, while trying to free someone from slavery (Coddon). Most of the Underground Railroad was organized in Philadelphia, where Tubman became acquainted with William Still (Coddon). This was were the first anti-slavery society was established. Still was a black man who was the executive director of the General Vigilance Committee and later became known as “The Father of the Underground Railroad” (Coddon). Since written records were life-threatening to keep, many were burned or not kept at all. Although William Still did say this about Harriet Tubman, “She was a woman of no pretensions; indeed , a more ordinary specimen of humanity could hardly be found...Yet courage shrewdness, and disinterested exertions to rescue her fellow man, she was without equal. (Coddon)” Still encouraged African resistance to slavery, and even taught himself how to read (Turner). He worked nonstop to end race discrimination and, in 1867, he published A Brief Narrative of the Struggle for the Rights of Colored
Harriet Tubman was a selfless woman, who devoted her life to save others. Many other slaves from the South escaped to freedom in the North like Tubman. Many of these people stayed where they were free, frightened to go anywhere near the South again. However, that was not Tubman, she was different. She wanted everyone to have the feeling of freedom that she had newly discovered. Harriet was known “to bring people of her race from bondage to liberty,” (S Bradford et al 1869). Harriet Tubman was known as a hero to lots of people during the Civil War.
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,
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 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 - )
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.
The Underground Railroad was a series of safe houses, meeting places, and passageways that were used to help