Argumentative Essay On The Underground Railroad

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.
John Fairfield was a white man, born into a family in Virginia who owned slaves; he never liked the idea of owning slaves, so he became friends with them. When he turned twenty he helped his friend escape by taking him to Canada. When he returned to his family’s farm, he learned his uncle planned to have him arrested so he ran away taking with him a few more slaves to Canada. For a few years he would continue to do this and in turn became one of a few “conductors” of the Underground Railroad. No one really knows how he died some say that he died protecting one of the slaves others say he faked his death to live in peace.
On another note those who had to escape themselves had to be creative and
Some were sold to other masters and forced to work on plantations. Others had the Achilles tendon cut; worst of all some were killed. Not only where these punishments if they tried to escape, but the punishments that may have been given if caught escaping where nothing compared to what could have been done just to keep the slaves in check. On a few accounts owners in Virginia, would smoke their slaves like meat. Another master would nail the slaves in a box with the nails sticking out and toss them off a steep hill so that they would hit the nails as they went down. These are only a few examples of what could have