National Park Service Network to Freedom U.S. Department of the Interior National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom The Underground Railroad Nishnabotna Ferry House, Iowa, The Underground Railroad refers to the efforts of enslaved African Americans to resist overlaid with an 1836 letter from a enslavement and gain their freedom by escape and flight through the end of the Civil War. Mississippi slave owner listing the names Wherever slavery existed, there were efforts to escape. Early escapes led slaves to form maroon and shoe sizes of the enslaved people communities in rugged terrain away from settlements, and later to move across state and on his plantation. Image courtesy of international borders. Stephen Marc. While most individuals began and completed their journeys unassisted, active efforts to aid those escaping increased with each subsequent decade of legal slavery in the United States. Some may have decided spontaneously to assist a freedom seeker, but particularly following the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the Underground Railroad was deliberate and organized. Freedom seekers went in many directions—Canada, Mexico, Indian Territory, the West, Caribbean islands, and Europe. The Fugitive Slave Acts Until the end of the Civil War, enslavement fine. Clearly, the Underground Railroad was at was legal in the United States. In contrast to work decades before it was given its name. the Revolutionary War era rhetoric about freedom, the new United States constitution Increasing escapes sparked a tougher law, the protected the rights of individuals to own and Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which compelled enslave other people. all citizens to participate in the capture and return of freedom seekers with penalties of The Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 enforced these fines and prison sentences. For individuals slaveholding rights, requiring the return to in the North, watching African American enslavement of any African American acused re-enslavement on the slightest pretext and or suspected of being a freedom seeker. the sale of kidnapped free African Americans Denied access to an attorney or a jury trial, a brought home the moral dilemma of slavery. freedom seeker stood alone against a white person making an oral claim of ownership to Freedom seekers and those who helped them a magistrate. Those who assisted the freedom to escape were part of the Underground seeker or interfered with an arrest faced a $500 Railroad. Motivation of the Conditions of enslavement varied based owners expressed such surprise. Freedom Seekers on time period, geographical region, the Many who fled were relatively favored type of agriculture or industry, the size people, who had more material comforts of the slaveholding unit, urban and rural and privileges than field hands. Access to environments, and even the temperament and information and skills, even literacy, was the financial stability of the enslaver. edge that helped many to escape. Common to all of these experiences is the Regardless of status, freedom seekers’ act of dehumanization of both the oppressed and self-emancipation demonstrated that they had the oppressor by a system that treated human not internalized the status of “slave” imposed beings as property. Perhaps more than any upon them. They resisted, although the system other factor, dehumanization explains why of slavery was designed to condition the some people chose to flee and why often their enslaved to accept their status. © CREDIT 2010 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Geography of the Wherever there were enslaved African Atlantic Coast, ferries, river crossings, roads, Underground Railroad Americans, there were people eager to escape. and trails. Location close to ports, free There was slavery in all original thirteen territories, and international boundaries colonies, in Spanish California, Louisiana, and prompted many escapes. Florida, and on all of the Caribbean islands until the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) and Using ingenuity, freedom seekers drew on British abolition of slavery (1834). courage and intelligence to concoct disguises, forgeries, and other strategies. Slave catchers The Underground Railroad started at the and enslavers watched for runaways on place of enslavement. Routes of escape the expected routes of escape and used the followed natural and man-made modes of stimulus of advertised rewards to encourage transportation—rivers, canals, bays, the the public to catch runaways. Commemoration of Commemoration is only possible once is critical to public understanding and Underground Railroad Underground Railroad participants and events commemoration. History are identified. Primary sources—period letters, court testimony, or newspaper articles— Sites of significant events, though altered, can verify the history. Next, the protection of still be remembered. Where a site has been significant sites leads to public education and paved over, modified, or rebuilt, a brochure, preservation. walking tour, school curriculum, road marker, or plaque can explain the significance of Use of accurate history in heritage tourism, the spot to members of the public. Local educational programs, commemorative celebrations can increase public awareness of sculpture, and museum and traveling exhibits hidden history. Uncovering Underground Despite years of claims that Underground Documents from before 1865 reside in Railroad History Railroad history was secret and un-knowable, Federal instituations like the National local historians, and other researchers today Archives; state archives and historical society find that there are primary sources describing libaries; local libraries and special collections; the flight to freedom of many enslaved and private hands. Researchers can assemble African Americans. Coming to light are court freedom seekers’ stories by looking at the records, memoirs of conductors and freedom start, end, and in-between points of a journey. seekers, letters, newspaper runaway ads, and Once a freedom seeker can be identified in military records, all of which testify to the a runaway ad or letter belonging to a slave determination of the enslaved to seek freedom master, newspaper accounts, diaries, or for themselves and their families. so-called slave narratives may fill in the story. Unknown Underground The Underground Railroad is frequently of the Confederate ship the Planter sailed Railroad Heroes associated with Harriet Tubman, the “Moses from its dock in Beaufort, South Carolina, of her people,” and Frederick Douglass, a to surrender to a Union flotilla. freedom seeker who became the greatest • In California, black businesswoman African American leader of his time. Mary Ellen Pleasant sheltered runaway Archy Lee in her San Francisco home, Both came from Maryland. Freedom seekers, leading to an important state court case. however, came from all places where the • Levi Coffinand John Rankin were white law supported enslavement, including the ministers and Midwestern conductors, northern colonies: who assisted freedom seekers. • Based in Ripley, Ohio, freedom seeker • Harriet Jacobs came from North Carolina John Parker helped numerous runaways after seven years spent hiding in her to cross the Ohio River into free territory. grandmother’s attic. • Residents of Wellington and Oberlin, • Sixteen-year-old Caroline Quarles fled Ohio, both black and white, refused to life as a house servant on a plantation in let slave catchers take John Price back to St. Louis and traveled 700 miles until she enslavement in Kentucky. reached refuge in Canada. • A biracial network in Washington, D.C., • Anthony Burns stowed away on a ship in including Thomas Smallwood, Rev. Richmond to enjoy a few years of freedom Charles Torrey, Leonard Grimes, and in Boston. Jacob Bigelow worked over years to help • Lewis Hayden, his wife, and their child people such as Ann Marie Weems, the escaped from slavery in Kentucky to Edmonson sisters, and Garland White Ohio with the help of Delia Webster and to seek freedom. Calvin Fairbanks. • Using a clever disguise, William and • In the middle of the Civil War, Robert Ellen Craft escaped over one thousand Smalls and other black crew members miles from Georgia to Boston. National Underground In 1998, Congress established the National Railroad Network to Underground Railraod Network to Freedom. Freedom See www.nps.gov/ugrr EXPERIENCE YOUR AMERICA™ PRINTED ON 100% RECYCLED PAPER.