20 Facts About Underground Railroad

Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century.

Underground Railroad routes went north to free states and Canada, to the Caribbean, into United States western territories, and Indian territories.

Underground Railroad did not have a headquarters or governing body, nor were there published guides, maps, pamphlets, or even newspaper articles.

The Underground Railroad consisted of meeting points, secret routes, transportation, and safe houses, all of them maintained by abolitionist sympathizers and communicated by word of mouth, although there is a report of a numeric code used to encrypt messages.

Underground Railroad benefited greatly from the geography of the U S –Canada border: Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and most of New York were separated from Canada by water, over which transport was usually easy to arrange and relatively safe.

Related searches

William Still, sometimes called "The Father of the Underground Railroad", helped hundreds of slaves escape, sometimes hiding them in his Philadelphia home.

Underground Railroad kept careful records, including short biographies of the people, that contained frequent railway metaphors.

Underground Railroad maintained correspondence with many of them, often acting as a middleman in communications between people who had escaped slavery and those left behind.

Underground Railroad later published these accounts in the book The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts, a valuable resource for historians to understand how the system worked and learn about individual ingenuity in escapes.

Underground Railroad found employment on a Lake Erie steamer and transported numerous fugitives from Cleveland to Ontario by way of Buffalo or Detroit.

Underground Railroad hoped a significant Black community would form a bulwark against those who wished to unite the island with the United States.

Underground Railroad wrote critically of the attention drawn to the ostensibly secret Underground Railroad in his seminal autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave :.

Underground Railroad went on to say that, although he honors the movement, he felt that the efforts at publicity serve more to enlighten the slave-owners than the slaves, making them more watchful and making it more difficult for future slaves to escape.

Southern Underground Railroad went through slave states, lacking the abolitionist societies and the organized system of the north.

Underground Railroad headed to Texas and once there he enlisted in the Mexican military.

Underground Railroad tried again in the winter of 1819, leaving the cotton plantation of his enslaver on horseback.

Underground Railroad was a white southerner and she was an enslaved woman, who had been childhood sweethearts in Alabama.

Underground Railroad was the son of her slaveholder, who helped a group of seven families in 1857 and others cross into Mexico.

Underground Railroad's published South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War.

Underground Railroad was a company created by Tupac Shakur, Big D the Impossible, Shock G, Pee Wee, Jeremy, Raw Fusion and Live Squad with the purpose of promote and help young black women and men with records allowing them to initiate and develop their musical careers.