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The Underground Railroad

" Soon, several towns in Pennsylvania and New Jersey offered assistance to runaways. By the 1830s, participation increased and it was recognized as an effective weapon of attack against slavery. Though scholars estimate that the South lost 100,000 slaves between 1810 and 1850, the total number of runaways aided to freedom will never be known because of the movement's secrecy and because agents usually hid or destroyed their personal journals to protect themselves and the runaways. .
             The Underground Railroad was run by a vast network of people and not by any single organization or person. It included abolitionists and sympathizers who called for an end of slavery and acted to aid slaves. African American abolitionists played a key role in underground activities since most were former slaves and took a personal interest in helping loved ones or anyone who wanted to gain freedom. Many only knew of the local efforts to aid runaways and not of the widespread operation. Quakers are well known for their aid in the underground railroad and raised funds from church to feed and clothe the runaways. People who aided runaways ("conductors") risked their lives and property to escort runaways to freedom. Popular conductors of the Underground Railroad included James Fairfield (a white abolitionist who went into the Deep South and freed slaves by posing as a slave trader), Harriet Tubman (who became known as "Moses" in 1849 when she made nineteen trips to the South and helped free at least 300 slaves), and African American abolitionist John Parker of Ripley, Ohio (who ventured to Kentucky and Virginia and helped transport hundreds of runaways across the Ohio River). Levi Coffin was often called the president of the Underground Railroad.
             Most runaways were men whose ages ranged from sixteen to thirty-five years. The numbers of women and children were small because they were more likely to be captured.


Essays Related to The Underground Railroad

1. Underground Railroad

... Run! Slaves started turning to this story called the Underground Railroad. For fifty years the Underground Railroad secretly helped free fugitive slaves on the run to the "promise land" of the Northern Free States and Canada. During this time, over one hundred thousand slaves went looking for freedom through the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was not really underground or a railroad at all. The Underground Railroad was the symbolic term given to the routes the slaves took to gain their freedom. Free Blacks ... , Whites, Native Americans and former slaves served as conduct...

  • Word Count: 837
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Hariet Tubman and the Underground Railroad

... also a more logic based reason; Northern slavery did not play an important roll in economic investment and the number of prosporous free blacks caused few problems (Moore,20-21). The underground railroad, the route to freedom, was actually not a railroad nor underground. In all actuality it was a series of routes through which systematic and highly organized aid was given ... their way to freedom in the northern states (Dumond, 359). The term underground was coined because of the secrete nature of the operation which was aided by the fact that the travels usually took place at night. The...

  • Word Count: 1997
  • Approx Pages: 8

3. Underground Railroad

... people were called conductors and that's where the name underground railroad came from. these people helped a slave move from one safe house to another, usually at night so the chance of being caught were smaller. One of the most famous leaders of the underground railroad was Harriet tubman. During the 1850's Harriet tubman was popular for her role as a conductor on the underground railroad. After her own escape from slavery, ... she helped more than 300 slaves escape. Her commitment to the freedom of all slaves was above and beyond ... made that area a likely source of safe houses for ...

  • Word Count: 333
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Underground Railroad

... the Underground Railroad, but not everyone knows just what it was. First of all its neither underground nor a railroad. The term "Underground Railroad" actually comes from a runaway slave, who while being chased swam across a creek and was out of the owner's sight. The owner said, "...must have gone off on an underground railroad." That man was Tice Davids, a Kentucky slave who decided to live in freedom in 1831. The primary importance of the Underground Railroad was the ... on going fight to abolish slavery, the start of the civil war ... ...

  • Word Count: 1428
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Slavery In the 1800's

... work as a household servant and saved her money so she could return to help others escape. This is where the underground railroad comes into play. Harriet Tubman used this system to free other slaves. The Underground Railroad was neither "underground" nor a "railroad," but was a loose network of aid and assistance to fugitives from bondage. Perhaps as many as one hundred thousand ... enslaved persons may have escaped in the years between the American Revolution and the Civil War. In 1990, Congress authorized the National Park Service to conduct a study of the Underground Railroad, its r...

  • Word Count: 2041
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Underground Railroad

... Floyd County, Indiana. North Carolina: MacFarland and Company, 2001 In her book Pamela Peters points out key individuals in the Floyd County, who helped with the underground railroad. She helps with my claim that some key people who helped and were acknowledged for their contribution may have been in for their own profit. She is very credible source ... because her aim for writing this book was like mine. She also lived and experienced daily the tension and hostility that was among the community of Floyd County ... on were, "Henson McIntosh, William Harding, George Washington Carter an...

  • Word Count: 277
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

7. The Underground Railroad

... a slave escaping to the north with the help of the Underground Railroad was very interesting. The Underground Railroad was a loose network of antislavery northerners "mostly blacks "that illegally helped fugitive slaves reach safety in the free states (north) or Canada in the period before the American Civil War; it was also called the Liberty Line. It began in the 1780s under Quaker help; the activity got fame after the 1830s. It was once ... of 1850 said that a stricter Fugitive Slave Act would force people in the North to return runaway slaves to the South, but the activities of the ...

  • Word Count: 837
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad

... in our nation's history because of her strong desire for freedom despite the tremendous obstacles in her life. She selflessly went on to fulfill the dream of freedom for countless others. Due to her up-bring, character traits, and accomplishments in her life, she became the famous "Moses" of the Underground Railroad. Araminta Ross, also known as Harriett Tubman, was born in Maryland around ... save more slaves, Harriet became one of the greatest abolitionists in the country. While befriending and capturing John Brown's trust, he told of the secret raid at Harper's Ferry, which saved liv...

  • Word Count: 582
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

9. The Preservation Of A Precious Culture

... stories, folklore and fiction these slaves illustrated for other slaves an array of experiences including, pre-slavery Africa, the "middle passage" (period of time that the slaves traveled in horrible conditions in a ship to get to the new world), the underground railroad/runaway experience, working on the plantations, the hope of being freed and vindicated, and general daily hardships. But not all stories were shaded with gloom some ... were often used as work songs and sometimes contained coded information as a form of secret communication. For example many spirituals from the Civil W...

  • Word Count: 2002
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

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