The Underground Railroad: Why Did Americans Move To Freedom?

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The Underground Railroad was a system of roads that helped lead slaves to freedom. It had routes with houses, buildings and safe places where slaves stayed on their way to freedom. The Underground Railroad was a secret network. The Railroad was made up of many members, both black and white who wanted to help slaves. Quakers also helped, they were a religious group of friends who helped enslaved people get to the Underground Railroad.

Many of them were beaten and tortured. Because of the slave trading, their family members are sold to different owners. Most of them did not have enough to eat, warm clothes or a good place to live. Almost everyone scared to be sold to the south, because the way of treating to the slaves in south was so harder than other places. Based on these facts their mind automatically generated the word “escape or run away”.

The Underground Railroad was a network of safe houses owned by people who hated the slavery and despited the Fugitive Slave Act. This gave a route to help slaves escape from the South and travel to Northern states and Canada. On Document A it illustrates the route she took to help people escape from slavery. According to Document B it discusses, “Imagine being led by a five-foot tall, 38-year old woman, on a dark December night, wading across a river waist deep. Light snow falling, there seven fugitives including babies in arms.

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“ The Underground Railroad” This woman has helped many african americans escape from slavery. She is very unique in her own way. She was a bondwoman who escaped from her owners. She became a leading abolitionist before the american civil war.

Harsh treatment on individuals that do not have the right to their freedom is far from happiness. The fact that anyone believes that slaves were happy in any shape or form is sad to hear. A lot of people would disagree with the teacher that said slaves were happy to be treated as so. The slaves were punished and handled like wild animals when they should have been given the same right as white individuals. Many songs were sung amongst the Africans in code, therefore, their owners would not know of their plans to escape.

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The Underground Railroad was an extraordinary protest against slavery. Slaves were fighting for survival and many died in the process. These people gambled their lives to escape the barbaric realities of slavery into freedom. Of course they were not able to escape without the help of others. Slaves did not know the paths to freedom and turned to the guidance of conductors to usher them into freedom.

Just as the resistance movement in France, Belgium and Poland in World War offered a safe harbor for fugitive Jews, the Underground Railroad offered safety for fugitive slaves. Both of these movements were to protect those who needed safety from being oppressed by their captors; for the Jews the government, for the slaves all those who where pro-slavery. The resistance movement for the Jews offered a chance to get to a place where the Germans had not yet occupied and thus get to safety from the Nazi’s. For the slaves the Underground Railroad offered the slaves an opportunity to get to Northern Lands were the people were against slavery. Both the Under Ground Railroad and the resistance movement of the Jews where begun by those who opposed

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When the underground railroad was formed, it gave a lot of the slaves hope and they began to fight for something that they all believed in. There was resistance on the plantation on which they worked as well. We saw that slaves were sabotaging fields by destroying the plants, breaking tools, and slowing down the speed at which they worked. Slaves were refusing to have children, so that their children wouldn’t be forced to live the life that they do currently. And lastly, we saw slaves beginning to form together and stand together as one to fight for equal

Even though escaping the South to go the North for freedom was illegal, surprisingly thousands of slaves ran away by using the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad is not a train station but the name fits with how they have used it in that time. Just like a train station, the Underground Railroad had “stations” but they were houses or places that could keep the slaves safe for the time being when they were running away. The people who lived in those houses would take care of them for how ever many hours they stayed and then the slaves would start to take off to the North once again. These runners are very brave because if they get caught, they could have either been sent back or even killed.

Conductors went about their work regardless of these threats because they felt so strongly about freeing slaves. Slaves received word of when the Underground Railroad would be stopping by through “what was known as the grapevine telegraph. They also used song lyrics as a means of providing instruction” (Altman). The work of Harriet Tubman and Levi Coffin made it possible for the Underground Railroad to help thousands of slaves reach freedom.