The Underground Railroad : The Secret System Of Escape During Slavery

The Underground Railroad was one of the most remarkable protests against slavery in United States history. It was a fight for personal survival, which many slaves lost in trying to attain their freedom. Slaves fought for their own existence in trying to keep with the traditions of their homeland, their homes in which they were so brutally taken away from. In all of this turmoil however they managed to preserve the customs and traditions of their native land. These slaves fought for their existence and for their cultural heritage with the help of many people and places along the path we now call the Underground Railroad.

The Underground Railroad is a figurative railroad involving hundreds of thousands of people such as slaves, free Blacks, and White abolitionists. The Underground Railroad began in the late 1700s to 1865, with the height of the railroad happening in 1850 to the 1860s, where a thousand or more slaves were able to escape per year. The name of the Underground Railroad comes from the use of railroad code and the railroad being a form of resistance to slavery at the time (Wikipedia). Following the Compromise of 1850 that strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, slave catchers were allowed to work in free states and claim free Blacks as slaves and put them back into slavery. The specifics of the railroad are unknown to keep out infiltrators, everything relied on word of mouth, and many who helped only knew their part of the trip (Wikipedia).

The Underground Railroad was a path to safety and freedom for thousands of slaves before the Civil War. Escaping from the chains, confinement and abuse of slavery was no easy task and it took the cooperation of many people

The Underground Railroad was a passage to freedom for the slaves which made the slave-owners exasperate. The slaves had to risk their lives while travelling to the northern states but it was worth it as the result of such hard work was freedom. The underground railroad, a secret network running from the Deep South through the free states and to the Canadian border that helped slaves escape from the slave-holding states before the Civil War, allowed abolitionists and their allies to help runaway slaves, made "conductors" like Harriet Tubman famous, and reached its height after the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.

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.

The Underground Railroad was a series of routes that slaves would use to escape the ownership of their owners. It helped slaves escape and the people who would help the “underground railroad” function were white abolitionists who would hide the escapees in secret places, while supplying them with food and the things necessary to live. The Underground Railroad helped many slaves escape to the North.

The Underground Railroad was a secret system of individuals who assisted fugitive slaves in their quest for freedom prior to the Civil War. The term, used between 1830-1860, refers to the swift, “invisible” way in which the slaves escaped. Usually they hid during the day and moved at night. Coffin says: “fugitive slaves relied heavily on fellow slaves and free blacks, who rarely betray them.” (Coffin, 2006). The most famous black leader in the movement was Harriet Tubman, a nonliterate runaway slave who became the “Moses” of her people.

The Underground Railroad was a system of individuals who helped escaped slaves to obtain their freedom in the northern part of the states, even as far as Canada. “The Underground Railroad was the first American civil rights movement” (Snodgrass) which managed to operate secretly for more than fifty years. While there was no actual railroad underground, there was an organized network of secret routes and houses to help refugee slaves to their freedom.

In my opinion, the Underground Railroad was something that is taken way to lightly as if it was not as important as it was. I didn’t know HALF of this information I learned from my research. People mailed themselves to escape the torture of slavery! Some even committed suicide. Death was a better option then slavery. The Underground Railroad helped people take control of their rights, and their lives. This background information was not taught in school. Slavery tore families apart, it took people away from their homes, and it deprived people from their rights and freedom.

The Underground Railroad was a network of people that helped people escape from slavery to freedom. It provided shelter and medical assistance to escaped slaves in the south. It developed as a combination of different secretive efforts. There isn’t an exact date, but it took place around the 1800s to the Civil War. The Underground Railroad was run by conductors of fugitive slaves.

It is believed that the Underground Railroad began as early as the late 1790’s and ended by the year of 1870. “The Underground Railroad,... was an informal, constantly changing network of routes over which fugitive slaves were passed along, often at night, from Border and Southern states to Canada or to a safe city in the North.” The Underground Railroad did not get it’s name from being underground or from being a railroad, rather because it was used in secrecy and mostly at night to transfer runaway slaves from one safe house to another. The routes were referred to as “lines” and the stopping places along the way were referred to as “stations.” Those who helped the escaped slaves were named “conductors” and the slaves themselves were known

The Underground Railroad is viewed as simply a series of trails that led slave to freedom. It was more than that. What were the motivations behind the creation of it? Were there political involvements? Was it developed with financial gain in mind? The Underground Railroad is another one of those subjects that gets swept under the proverbial carpet. Slavery happened everywhere, whether people want to admit it or not. The Underground Railroad was a positive and a negative thing. Most people don’t comprehend what it fully entailed or the impact that it had on all people. It is important to review the past, so we can make an attempt to not make the same mistakes. The above questions will be answered in a well rounded account of all parties involved from the abolitionists to the slaves and those who were supporters.

Underground Railroad- Reached it’s height in the 1950-60s, with the help of abolitionists, slaves escaped across state lines to free states

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

The simple fact is that everybody has heard of the Underground Railroad, but not everyone knows just what it was. First of all, it wasn=t underground, and it wasn=t even a railroad. The term AUnderground Railroad,@ actually refers to a path along which escaping slaves were passed from farmhouse to storage sheds, from cellars to barns, until they reached safety in the North. One of the most widely known abolitionists in history is a slave by the name of Harriet Tubman. She is best known as the conductor of the Underground Railroad and risked her life to help free nearly 300 slaves. The primary importance of the Underground Railroad was the ongoing fight to abolish slavery, the start of the Civil War,