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A Difficult Escape
Escaping from slavery was often tempting, but it wasn’t easy. Slave owners kept a careful watch over their slaves. Yet thousands of slaves managed to get to freedom by using the “Underground Railroad.” It wasn’t an actual railroad, and it did not travel under ground. It was a network of secret paths and safe houses that helped slaves escape from the South, where slavery was legal, to the North, where they could be free.
Slaves knew that there were laws against slavery in the Northern
states. And they knew which way north was. But they also knew that running away was a crime. A slave who ran away once could expect
to be beaten terribly -- as a punishment, and as a way of reminding other slaves not to try it. A slave who tried to run away a
second or third time could legally be put to death.
The South was also patrolled by police and professional slave catchers on horseback. A slave on foot who did not know where he was going or have anywhere to hide was usually caught within a day or two of running away.
How the Underground Railroad Worked
The Underground Railroad changed the odds, helping more than 30,000 slaves run away to the North, and to Canada. As a first step, volunteers with the Underground Railroad would sneak onto plantations in the South. They would find slaves who wanted to run away, often persuading those who were afraid. They would lead small groups on foot or put them in wagons using secret paths and traveling at night so they wouldn’t be caught. In the daytime, the slaves would stay at a safe home, where the owner had volunteered to help. The next day the group would set out again, reaching a new home each night. Sometimes they would travel by boat or train, averaging about fifteen miles every day. Volunteers donated money for tickets and clothing for the runaways. Ohio was the state with the most routes from South to North.
One of the best-known workers on the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman. She escaped from slavery herself, but she wanted to help all slaves to be free. She went back to her old slave home and helped her family escape. She came back again and again, leading more than 300 slaves to freedom. When she was an old woman, she said, “I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”
- Constitution Webquest
- Slavery in America
- Waves of Immigration
- Declaration of Independence