The Underground Railroad, which refers to the network that helped enslaved African Americans escape bondage, "speaks of the power of freedom and justice."
| The Underground Railroad is widely considered a crucial aspect of American history, a courageous protest to slavery through which enslaved African Americans gained freedom. Perhaps not as well known is how the Underground Railroad exposed the horrors of slavery and brought together men and women of different races—without regard to race, class, religion, or gender—to fight for freedom and liberty. | |
Harriet Tubman
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"For all Americans in search of a shared past, it proves that brutal systems and laws can be overturned from within," former National Park Service Director Robert Stanton wrote in the agency's Underground Railroad handbook. "It speaks of the power of freedom and justice."
The Underground Railroad refers to a complex network that helped enslaved African Americans escape bondage. Although some freedom seekers finished their journeys without help, each decade of slavery in the United States saw more efforts to assist the escapees. A loosely constructed network developed, extending to the North into Canada as well as to the western territories, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
The road to freedom was full of struggles, such as bad weather, hunger, illness, and fear of capture. The enslaved African Americans first had to elude the slaveholder. They often traveled at night, using the North Star as a compass. Generally, they traveled between ten and 20 miles to the next site. Afraid to trust strangers, they often traveled alone and hid in remote locations.
Because of a lack of records, the number of escapees is unclear, but some say there were tens of thousands. Most enslaved African Americans chose not to flee—refusing to leave loved ones or fearing the consequences of capture.
Harriet Tubman became one of the most revered figures of the era after escaping from slavery in 1848. "There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death," she said. "If I could not have one, I'd have the other." She traveled back to the South about 20 times through the next decade, leading close to 300 African Americans to freedom.
Other personal stories include those of Henry Brown from Virginia, who was sealed in a wooden crate and shipped to Philadelphia, and Ellen and William Craft, who escaped when Ellen, who was light-skinned, posed as a sickly, white slave owner seeking medical care, and William her enslaved attendant.
After the 1850 passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, which required the return of escapees, capturing slaves became lucrative and slave catchers, merciless. Captives faced punishments ranging from branding and whipping to crippling and death. Those who aided escapes risked fines, loss of property, and jail.
The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 freed enslaved African Americans in Union-occupied territories, but it was not until the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865 that slavery officially ended.
With the recent National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act, the Park Service created a formal commemorative program. The Network to Freedom, an evaluated list of sites, programs, and facilities, includes interpretive and educational programs. The network now has 117 listings—80 sites, 14 facilities, and 23 programs—verifiably associated with the Underground Railroad. As it grows, the Network to Freedom will connect sites, programs, and facilities into a network that will one day tell the story of the Underground Railroad collectively. For more information, visit www.cr.nps.gov/ugrr.
