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Auction platforms enabled inspection by bidders. Enslaved family members suffer.. d separation.
America's economic success from the act could be gut-wrenching the colonial era to the Civi l War as chi ldren were torn a\·:ay from depended on the institution of their parents and ent1,.e fam111es slavery. Enslavement kept people were split apart forever. Captives of African descent toiling on in domestic situations a so suf- plantations and laboring in the fered emotionally from tneir hemes-aftd~esse~s-o~f4t~he~i~r~~-...u~n~b~e~a~.a~b~te...... ,la~c~k-o~- f1<--+f·r·,._,,4..,.,.,.,....i:.-,,~~~&.Jl≶Jlalllt!IL_i::a&~rt..11C111.--_ owners. Such repression existed learning to read and write could almost everywhere in the United result in merciless punishment. The Slave·hnnter is am.on~ us! States, including the North. BE ON YOUR GUARD! \\ \llltL\T ,, PL\ \UD TU·\llilll. Treatments varied, but were not nm Bondage came in many forms for always the reason to run away. Bil BEADY TO RECEIVE TllDI, those enslaved in America. The The desire for freedom innate WHENEVER THEY COME! inability to escape beating, brand in all humans provid\)d an un ing, and brutal plantation work deniable incentive to flee. This Top: An iron yoke collar cut from the neck of a proved spiritually oppressive in young enslaved New Orleans plantation laborer common yearning reruted that who had escaped from her owner. Center: iron itself. Being sold at auction was shackles with screw locks. Bottom: An undated enslavement was th0 natural sta broadside from an abolitionist community posted not only personally demeaning- tus of people of Afrilan descent. to warn fleeing freedom seekers-viewed either as a cal l to arms or a notice to help hide runaways. A Self-Emancipation Movement National Underground Railroad www.nps.gov/ugrr Network to Freedom Program
No single site or route completely reflects and c A N A D A characterizes the Underground Railroad. The story and resources involve networks and regions rather than individual locations and trails.
U"lOAGMllZED iERRHOfi.Y
f.E 8RA ~ A "ERR TOfiY
Born enslaved, Underground Railroad agent Mary Ellen Pleasant I \ fled Boston to avoid prosecution under the Fugitive Slave Law of I 1850. She opened a boardinghouse \ in San Francisco during the Gold UlAU URRIJOR._. Rush and helped African American 1'~ \ freedom seekers in both California CAllFORNIA and Canada. Pleasant supported KANSAS HRt.lTORY abolitionist John Brown and advo· As the light-skinned daughter of cated for civil rights and women's U N T E D an enslaved mixed race woman rights until her death in 1904. and her white owner, Ellen Craft passed as a white man in male clothing to escape by steamboat •.tW ~lX and train from Georgia to Pennsylva TIAfUTOlh' Lewis Hayden was born to nia with husband William in 1848. enslavement in Kentucky. In the ~. A fall of 1844 he met Methodist ' .. ALAl:CA'.~A minister Calvin Fairbank and Delia •.nss ~~•PP• Webster, a teacher from Vermont, ~;A who helped Hayden and his JEXAS Ji Natchez family escape to Ohio, and later to Canada. Fairbank and Webster t ] \(,o..... fllll •t sea. He eventually purchased his .,,,, ...V\~• M'llOl\lf •J110o!•~-"'-"' freedom and settled in Hawaii. Steward to Kamehameha the Great, ,,.. Allen married a Hawaiian woman -- VIRGIN fSLANDS and acquired six acres in Waikiki. On St. Croix, escape from slavery The successful business and prop PUERTO and the cruelty enforced at Fort erty owner left a fortune to his RICO Christiansvaern made many flee to family upon his death in 1835. Puerto Rico. In 1759 enslaved Afri· ---_,.IJ ~w ,._"' . ~ cans and free-agrlcultural workers planned a rebellion against plan JAMAIC tation owners on the island. Once exposed, the plot resulted in one suicide and the brutal torture and execution of 13 others. Why do you want your freedoin? Because