Underground railroad what is it

The Underground Railroad, a vast network of people who helped fugitive slaves escape to the North and to Canada, was not run by any single organization or person. Rather, it consisted of many individuals -- many whites but predominently black -- who knew only of the local efforts to aid fugitives and not of the overall operation. Still, it effectively moved hundreds of slaves northward each year -- according to one estimate, the South lost , slaves between and An organized system to assist runaway slaves seems to have begun towards the end of the 18th century.

In George Washington complained about how one of his runaway slaves was helped by a "society of Quakers, formed for such purposes. The system even used terms used in railroading: the homes and businesses where fugitives would rest and eat were called "stations" and "depots" and were run by "stationmasters," those who contributed money or goods were "stockholders," and the "conductor" was responsible for moving fugitives from one station to the next.

For the slave, running away to the North was anything but easy. Meanwhile, Canada offered Black people the freedom to live where they wanted, sit on juries, run for public office and more, and efforts at extradition had largely failed. Some Underground Railroad operators based themselves in Canada and worked to help the arriving fugitives settle in.

Harriet Tubman was the most famous conductor for the Underground Railroad. Born an enslaved woman named Araminta Ross, she took the name Harriet Tubman was her married name when, in , she escaped a plantation in Maryland with two of her brothers. They returned a couple of weeks later, but Tubman left again on her own shortly after, making her way to Pennsylvania. Tubman later returned to the plantation on several occasions to rescue family members and others.

On her third trip, she tried to rescue her husband, but he had remarried and refused to leave. Distraught, Tubman reported a vision of God, after which she joined the Underground Railroad and began guiding other escaped slaves to Maryland. Tubman regularly took groups of escapees to Canada, distrusting the United States to treat them well. Formerly enslaved person and famed writer Frederick Douglass hid fugitives in his home in Rochester, New York, helping escapees make their way to Canada.

Former fugitive Reverend Jermain Loguen, who lived in neighboring Syracuse, helped 1, escapees go north. Robert Purvis, an escaped enslaved person turned Philadelphia merchant, formed the Vigilance Committee there in Former enslaved person and railroad operator Josiah Henson created the Dawn Institute in in Ontario to help escapees who made their way to Canada learn needed work skills.

John Parker was a free Black man in Ohio, a foundry owner who took a rowboat across the Ohio River to help fugitives cross. He was also known to make his way into Kentucky and enter plantations to help enslaved people escape. William Still was a prominent Philadelphia citizen who had been born to fugitive enslaved parents in New Jersey. Most Underground Railroad operators were ordinary people, farmers and business owners, as well as ministers. Some wealthy people were involved, such as Gerrit Smith, a millionaire who twice ran for president.

In , Smith purchased an entire family of enslaved people from Kentucky and set them free. One of the earliest known people to help fugitive enslaved people was Levi Coffin, a Quaker from North Carolina.

He started around when he was 15 years old. Coffin said that he learned their hiding places and sought them out to help them move along. Eventually, they began to find their way to him. Coffin later moved to Indiana and then Ohio, and continued to help escaped enslaved people wherever he lived. Abolitionist John Brown was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, during which time he established the League of Gileadites, devoted to helping fugitive enslaved people get to Canada.

In he partnered with Vermont schoolteacher Delia Webster and was arrested for helping an escaped enslaved woman and her child. He was pardoned in , but was arrested again and spent another 12 years in jail. Charles Torrey was sent to prison for six years in Maryland for helping an enslaved family escape through Virginia. He operated out of Washington, D. Massachusetts sea captain Jonathan Walker was arrested in after he was caught with a boatload of escaped enslaved people that he was trying to help get north.

John Fairfield of Virginia rejected his slave-holding family to help rescue the left-behind families of enslaved people who made it north. He broke out of jail twice. The decision to assist a freedom seeker may have been spontaneous.

However, in some places, especially after the Fugitive Slave Act of , the Underground Railroad was deliberate and organized. Despite the illegality of their actions, people of all races, class and genders participated in this widespread form of civil disobedience.

Wherever there were enslaved African Americans, there were people eager to escape. There was slavery in all original thirteen colonies, in Spanish California, Louisiana, and Florida; Central and South America; and on all of the Caribbean islands until the Haitian Revolution and British abolition of slavery 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, road and trails. Locations close to ports, free territories and international boundaries prompted many escapes. As research continues, new routes are discovered and will be represented on the map.

Using ingenuity, freedom seekers drew on courage and intelligence to concoct disguises, forgeries and other strategies.