The Underground Railroad

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

The Underground Railroad was known as a vast network of people who helped fugitive slaves escape to the North from the South. It was not operated by any single organization or person. In fact, it was assisted by abolitionist sympathizers. The Underground Railroad took place in thousands of miles, from Kentucky and Virginia across Ohio and Indiana. In the North, it extended from Maryland, across Pennsylvania, into New York, through New England. At that time, it successfully moved hundreds of slaves northward each year - according to one estimate, the South lost 100,000 slaves between 1810 and 1850.

At that time, The North was a more industrialized region where jobs were filled by newly imported immigrants, by new technology which made them less dependent on slave labor. In contrast, the South had rich fertile land mostly used for farming and plantation. Huge number of plantations demanded a vast number of slavery. Slavery was seen as the vital of the South economy. However, the life of a slave was horrible. Most slaves in the South were treated cruelly by their masters or they were living in unhealthy conditions: long exhausting hours, malnutrition, beatingsÐ'... The slaves were now extremely angry, scared, desperate, and confusedÐ'...As a result, they determined to run away seeking for a life of freedom to the North. Others ran due to fear of being separated or sold from friends and family. For the slaves, running away to the North was a very difficult process. Before, the slaves escaped from their masters by themselves or by the assistance from their family. Now, they had the support from the Underground Railroad system. The Underground Railroad consisted of many secret routes, transportation, meeting points, house, caves, hidden rooms, and empty barns and any place a fugitive slave could safely reside. However, the first step was to escape from the slaveholder. This step was mostly depended on the effort of the slave's effort. Escaped slaves would pass from one way station to the next. Thus, slaves needed to be clever. Sometimes a "conductor," the one, who guided slaves to escape, would enter a plantation and then guide the runaways northward. Usually, the blacks ran away at night, on weekends, holidays, or harvest season when their masters care least about them. They escaped out the back roads, waterways, mountains, swamps, forests, and fields.... They had to travel between 10 and 20 miles to the resting spot, or the "station" where they would rest and eat in the safe houses which provided by the "stationmasters". The further the slave reached north, the shorter the distance it was to reach the next station. While they waited there, a message would be sent to the next station to alert its station-holders that the slaves were on their wayÐ'...

The average distance traveled by an escaped slave in one night was about ten to fifteen miles. By the 1840's escape routes were not just confined to the North, but also stretched to western territories, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Abolitionists talked in secrecy to make safe paths for the slaves to run on. To make it secret in communication, they sent letters