The Underground Railroad: Escape to Freedom
The Underground Railroad was a secret network of routes, safe houses, supported by abolitionists that helped enslaved African Americans escape bondage to freedom in the North States of America and Canada.
It operated from the late 1700s until the Civil War, using railroad terms as code and relying on abolitionist figures known “conductors”. It was a courageous act of civil disobedience and self-emancipation, forming a vital, clandestine system of support for freedom seekers.
“Stations” were safe houses like homes and barns, “station masters” those who hid people “conductors” guides, and “passengers” were the fugitives
The Underground Railroad wasn’t a single path but a collection of clandestine routes through free states and into Canada.The North Star and lanterns in windows signaled safe passage, with the ultimate goal often being Canada.
The Underground Railroad started at the place of enslavement. The routes followed natural and man-made modes of transportation: rivers, canals, bays, the Atlantic Coast, ferries and river crossings, roads and trails. Locations close to ports, free territories and international boundaries prompted many escapes.
The network, primarily the work of free and enslaved African Americans, was assisted by abolitionists and others sympathetic to the cause of the escapees.
Various other routes led to Mexico, where slavery had been abolished, and to islands in the Caribbean that were not part of the slave trade. An earlier escape route running south toward Florida, then a Spanish possession existed from the late 17th century until approximately 1790.
During the American Civil War, freedom seekers escaped to Union lines in the South to obtain their freedom. One estimate suggests that by 1850, approximately 100,000 slaves had escaped to freedom via the network.
Its estimated that by the end of the Civil War, 500,000 or more African Americans had self-emancipated from slavery on the Underground Railroad.
Destination: United States, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean
