THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

ESCAPE TO FREEDOM

                                

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."
Harriet Tubman

Slavery in America was considered ‘legal’ from 1619. Most of the slaves – men, women and children – were of African descent and ‘owned’ by White masters to live on their plantations and work their crops of tobacco, cotton, sugar, and coffee. By the early decades of the 19th century, the overwhelming majority of slaveholders and slaves were in the Southern United States.

It was literally back-breaking – and sometimes soul-destroying – work; and many slaves would do anything to break the chains of servitude.

Slaves in a Cotton Field

Before Abraham Lincoln signed The Emancipation Proclamation in 1865, some slaves – mostly in Northern States – were either given their freedom, or were able to purchase it. Also, most States in The North had already outlawed slavery – making them ‘free’ States.

For those slaves who were not free, many tried to escape. Many were unsuccessful and greatly suffered upon recapture. However, over 100,000  who were successful; with the help of Black and White Abolitionists and most often following harrowing journeys on ‘The Underground Railroad’ – a network of secret routes and safe houses, to escape to free States, Canada, Mexico and overseas, with the aid of abolitionists and allies, who were sympathetic to the slaves’ cause.

                                               

Despite those laws, the Underground Railroad thrived. The escape network was not underground, nor was it a railroad. It was figuratively "underground" in the sense of being an underground resistance. The Underground Railroad consisted of meeting points, secret routes, transportation, and safe houses, and assistance provided by abolitionist sympathizers. Individuals were often organized in small, independent groups; this helped to maintain secrecy because individuals knew some connecting ‘stations’ or ‘depots’ along the route, but knew few details of their immediate area. Escaped slaves would move North along the route from one way station to the next; and the routes were often purposely indirect to confuse pursuers.  "Conductors" on the railroad came from various backgrounds and included free-born Black people, White abolitionists, former slaves, and Native Americans.  The stations consisted of homes, churches, barns, shops and shacks.

                                                     

                                                                                                  Runaway Slaves

The encoded messages were delivered through folk songs such as "Follow the Drinking Gourd," whose coded information helped the escaped slaves to navigate The Underground Railroad. 

To listen to the song click the below link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw6N_eTZP2U

Many people helped the slaves to freedom. Some of the notable ones were:

HARRIET TUBMAN, an escaped slave, herself, who made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. She was known as “the Moses of her people”. Pauline Hopkins, noted Black author, wrote the following about Tubman: "Harriet Tubman, though one of the earth's lowliest ones, displayed an amount of heroism in her character rarely possessed by those of any station in life. No one of them has shown more courage and power of endurance in facing danger and death to relieve human suffering than this woman in her successful and heroic endeavors to reach and save all whom she might of her oppressed people."

Harriet Tubman

“I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say; I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”
Harriet Tubman