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
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.
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Slaves in a Cotton Field
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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
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."
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Harriet Tubman
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