Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad actually begun in the late 18th century. In 1786, George Washington said that one of his runaway slaves was helped by a 'society of Quakers formed for such purposes'. The system grew, and it was called the Underground Railroad in 1831 due to the emerging of steam railroads. The homes and businesses where slaves ate and rested were called "stations" and "depots." Those who run these places were called "stationmasters." Those who contributed money or goods were "stockholders," and the "conductor" was responsible for moving fugitives from one station to the next.
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Running away wasn't easy. You would first have to escape from the slaveholder. A conductor, posing as a slave, could enter the plantation and guide the slaves North. The runaways move at night, moving ten to twenty miles per station. The slaves eat and rest in the stations, and word gets out to the next station to alert the stationmaster.
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Vigilance committees sprang up in the larger towns and cities of the North, mostly in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. In addition to seeking money, the committee provided food, lodging and money. They also helped the runaways settle into a community by helping them find jobs and providing letters of recommendation.
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Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman was one of the most well conductors of the Underground Railroad. During a ten-year span, Tubman made nineteen trips to and from the South, escorting over 300 slaves to freedom. In all of her journeys, she never lost a single slave.
Tubman was born in the 1820s as a slave in Maryland. She started off working in a house as a house servant at around 5 or 6 years old. 7 years later, she worked in the fields. When she was still in her teens, she was hit in the head by a two-pound weight. The angry overseer aimed the weight at a field hand, but it fell short and hit Tubman. Due to this incident, she had spells where she falls into deep sleeps.
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"Moses, excepting John Brown -- of sacred memory -- I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than [Harriet Tubman]" |
[Harriet Tubman is] one of the bravest persons on this continent." |
Around 1844, Harriet married John Tubman. In 1849, scared that she and other slaves were going to be sold, Harriet Tubman ran away. Following the North Star at night, she made it to Pennsylvania, and soon after, Philadelphia. There, she found work and earned money. A year later, she returned and helped her sister and her two children escape. On her second trip, she went back to bring her brother and two other men. When she went back the third time, she found out that John had married another woman, so she helped other slaves that wanted freedom. Tubman had many clever techniques of bringing the slave to freedom. She even had a gun to threaten slave hunters. By 1856, Tubman had a $40,000 bounty on her if she was captured.
By 1860, Tubman had been back and forth from the South 19 times, even rescuing her 70-year old parents. Harriet Tubman became known as "Moses" |