Violence In The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was an intricate system of households and farmhouses alike that were all connected throughout many towns and villages in the mid 1800s. It was formed by the common goal of people taking a stand against the law and helping thousands of black slaves escape from the south to gain their rightful freedom in the north. This happened because many people began to see slaves as human beings with value, rather than brutes that were valued less than a human. Throughout the mid 1800s, there were many cases of runaway slaves attempting to escape to freedom without anywhere to hide or anyone to help. A lot of people realized that this was a very impactful movement so they began to open up their minds and homes to these fugitive slaves as an attempt to help them make it into the north. Many people helped these runaway slaves because they believed it was morally right, that black oppression was a crime; slaves held value and deserved to keep their family together and lead a life as any other man or woman would, and former slaves shed light on these critical issues.

“A national benefit.” said John C. Calhoun about the evil act known as, slavery (“The History of the United States). However the world was not completely full of ignorance even though it is shown here. “Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally,” said by Abraham Lincoln. (“Quotes About Slavery”) No one had experienced anything other than a world with slavery, and were not for having a change like this occur and change many people’s lives one by one. This, lead to many people, including many Southerners taking the side of John C. Calhoun. Because, lets face it. No one actually likes change. But in the early 1800s it soon became a problem that abolitionists, people against slavery,

President John F. Kennedy once said, “If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.” This quote explains how one person will never be the same as another. Furthermore, if we all can accept each other’s differences, then our world will be safer for everyone. Salva was a Sudanese refugee who walked thousands of miles to reach safety from the civil war in Sudan. Underground railroad slaves were African Americans who escaped working for wealthy slave owners to find safety, and obtain freedom. Despite the different identities between Salva and an underground railroad slave, they share a connection of longing for freedom.

The Underground Railroad was the name of the network that was used by enslaved African Americans. It consisted of very intricate routes that were used so that those moving along its path could lose pursuers traveling under the guise of darkness and staying in safe houses during the day. The goal of the railroad was to get the slaves from the South to the Free states and to Canada where slavery was prohibited. A slave knew that once they crossed the border into any one of the Free states that they were safe from the cruelty of being a slave as long as they were not captured by slave catchers. A reason why the railroad was so successful was because they had allies who were both black and white. One such example is the Quakers, as well as the most astounding former slaves such as Harriet Tubman who was born a slave in Maryland. When she was a teen, an incident caused her to have seizures, severe headaches and narcoleptic episodes for the rest of her life. Sojourner Truth, another pioneer of the Underground Railroad, was born a slave in New York back when it was still a slave state in 1797. She is a famous abolitionist known for her speech, “Ar’n’t I a Woman?” Still another famous Underground Railroad freedom fighter was Anna Murray Douglas who was born free; she is the first wife of Fredrick Douglass, and she helped him escape to freedom by giving him money she had saved. What all these women have in common is that they each made a tremendous contribution to the Underground

During the first half of the nineteenth century, slavery was one of the most controversial topics in the United States of America, where the questions of whether or not slavery should be abolished or permitted sparked much debate and tension between the North and South – that ultimately lead to the Civil War. The Underground Railroad was established in the mid-1800s as an informational system of clandestine that aided slaves in escaping towards the Northern States and Canada through secret pathways, routes and safe-houses. The system was referred to as the Underground Railroad because of the rapid and secretive way in which slaves were able to escape - where they mostly traveled during the night using the North Star as a map and hid away

The Underground Railroad was one of the main attributes to the accomplishment of abolishing slavery. The Underground railroad was put together by runaway slaves and abolitionists; one of the main abolitionists was Harriet Tubman. Everyone knows who Tubman is but another one of the main, less known abolitionists was a man named William Still. William Still was an African American abolitionist, who was known as the father of the Underground Railroad. He was president of the Vigilance Committee of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, Still was an active part in the movement against slavery, and equal rights for all races.

Slavery was a horrific action that took place for hundreds of years., The Underground Railroad was a way to escape this atrocity. The Underground Railroad was not an actual railroad that was underground, but instead a system of homes and places that would house runaway slaves and help them to escape to the North. The Underground Railroad was a dangerous thing, but had the great reward of, freedom for slaves, if theyyou successfully completed the challenge. It took great courage and bravery to take the chance to run away and become free. Many people would try to harm the runaways and would do anything to send them back to the slavery they wanted to escape from. Even with all these challenges the slaves found it worth the risk for the freedom, and many have told their stories of hardships and hope of freedom.

The Underground Railroad, established by abolitionists in the early 19th century, was a dynamic and well-organized network for escaping slaves seeking rights and liberty from ruthless slave owners in the southern part of the United States with Canada as their main terminus in 1850-60. In this decade an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 fugitives reached Canada, while another 30,000 to 40,000 freedom seekers came through The Underground Railroad during the last decades of enslavement in the U.S. These African-American newcomers settled mainly in New Brunswick, Quebec, Nova Scotia, as well as various parts of present day Ontario. Amherstburg, Chatham, London, Oro, Woolwich, Windsor and Sandwich, Ontario became the first sanctuaries for those of the

The idea of Underground Railroad emerged in 1834 when the National Antislavery Society in the United States, an organization that was made up of both blacks and white abolitionists used the railroad to enable about 100,000 slaves to find a path to freedom (Smedley 23). The Underground Railroad became a formal organization in 1838 under the leadership of Robert Purvis, a black abolitionist. Under the guidance of several railroad agents, thousands of slaves made impulsive escapes from the Confederate South (Gara 96). Other slaves managed to utilise well-organised systems to achieve this escapes. Before providing a detailed analysis of the Underground Railroad and its role in the antislavery movement, it is important to note that the idea of ?Underground Railroad? has nothing to do with a real railroad. It is a movement that utilised a variety of means to enable the enslaved Africans to escape from the south (Delle 64). Therefore, the main role of the Underground Railroad was to actively support the ongoing demand for abolishing slavery, the onset of the American civil war, and its historical role of being the pioneer anti-slavery movement in the United States.

In the 1800s Black and whites worked to undermine slavery. People tried to undermine slavery by taking slaves the north using the underground railroad. Another way they helped slavery was to make newspapers and make speeches to the people about slaves. People also tried to write bills and pass laws to undermine slavery.

Between 1830 and circa 1865, slaves tried to escape to the north and Canada by using the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad operated at night and slaves were either moved from station to station by abolitionists or crept northward on their own, looking for a signal that designated the next safe haven. “Stations” consisted mostly of homes and churches that provided slaves a place to stay and eat for a short amount of time. Occasionally, to keep from getting caught, some white abolitionists would pretend to be a fugitive slave’s master. Sometimes lighter-skinned African-Americans could also take this role. Over three thousand two hundred people worked on the railroad and many of those brave individuals will remain anonymous. Several

The Underground Railroad was a path of unknown ways and some secret locations used by 19th century slaves of African fall in the New World in attempts to get to free states and Canada with the support of abolitionists and allies who were encouraging to their cause. This period is also appeal to the abolitionists, black and white, free and enslaved, who helped the refugees. The network also supplied a chance for against slave white Americans to take an opinion and play an important role in undercutting the industry called

“Anytime anyone is enslaved, or in any way deprived of his liberty, if that person is a human being, as far as I am concerned he is justified to resort to whatever methods necessary to bring about his liberty…” -Malcolm X, Oxford Union Debate, Dec. 3, 1964

Traveling through the Underground Railroad was an extended a dangerous journey for refugee slaves to extend their freedom. Fugitive slaves had to travel huge distances, many times on foot, in a short amount of time. They did this with little or no food and no shelter from the slave catchers following them. Slave holders were not the only pursuers of refugee slaves. In order to attract others to help in the arrest of these slaves, their owners would post bonus posters offering payment for the capture of their property. If they were caught, any number of horrible things could happen to them. Many captured refugee slaves were whipped, burned, jailed, sold back into slavery, or even killed.

The Underground Railroad is a fictional novel written by Colson Whitehead that was first published in 2016. This is WHitehead’s sixth novel he has written. However, this book is his first one to have won a Pulitzer prize award. I chose this book due to its connection with the slave time period and, after reading the novel, I would encourage others to read this novel as well. Colson creates an escapist approach to explore the legacy of American racial trauma. The Underground Railroad provides many thematic topics such as subtle forms of oppression, freedom, and the roots of violence. Colson uses symbolized references in his novel related to the Bible, the underground railroads, the Declaration of Independence, and the Gulliver’s Travels.