LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Underground Railroad: Slaves
built 287 days ago
Harder - The Underground Railroad was a network of escape routes that were described using railroad terms. 'Passengers' were runaway slaves fleeing from the South. Their guides were called 'conductors' and they led them from one 'station' to another.
Source:
The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes by which African slaves in the 19th century United States attempted to escape to free states, or as far north as Canada, with the aid of abolitionists. Other routes led to Mexico or overseas....
Source:
The story of the Underground Railroad had its beginnings in Africa, when the Portuguese captured the first slaves in the 1400s. It has been estimated that twelve million Africans were uprooted from their homeland and sold into a life of slavery between 1450 and 1850. Of this total, five percent were delivered to British North America and to what later became the United States of America.
Source:
The escape network of The Underground Railroad was not literally subterranean, but rather "underground" in the sense of underground resistance. The network was known as a "railroad" by way of the use of rail terminology in the code. 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, which helped to maintain secrecy since some knew of connecting "stations" along the route but few details of their immediate area. Escaped slaves would move along the route from one way station to the next, steadily making their way north. "Conductors" on the railroad came from various backgrounds and included free-born blacks, white abolitionists, former slaves (either escaped or manumitted), and Native Americans.
Source:
As the Underground Railroad gained notoriety, it became even more secret. A virtually undetected escape route ran from Texas to Mexico, but almost no information exists about how it functioned or how many African Americans quietly blended into the Mexican populace. It became difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction in accounts of the escapes. But researchers have been able to uncover many details, especially from the accounts of free blacks who wrote memoirs or autobiographies. Free blacks such as William Still, David Ruggles, William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglass, and Henry Highland Garnet joined Tubman in the struggle for self-emancipation. Most worked in silence and sometimes even in disguise.Runaway slaves waded through swamps, concealed themselves in the hulls of ships, hid on the backs of carriages, and navigated circuitous routes by using the North Star at night — always with the understanding that they might be caught or betrayed at any time.
Source:
Samuel Fitch House, Westford, MA: A basement tunnel believed to be part of the slaves' route on the Underground Railroad can still be toured by guests. A removable wall in one bedroom is where slaves hid next to the warmth of the house's chimney.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Slaves