www.history.com Open in urlscan Pro
2a04:4e42:600::680  Public Scan

Form analysis
1 forms found in the DOM

GET /search

<form class="m-off-canvas--search" role="form" action="/search" method="GET"><input class="m-off-canvas--search-input" aria-label="Search" placeholder="Search" name="query"><button class="m-off-canvas--search-button m-icon-button"
    aria-label="Submit Search" type="submit"><phoenix-icon-fallback class="m-svg m-icon-button--icon" icon="ico_search"><phoenix-icon-fallback class="m-svg" icon="ico_search"><svg>
          <use xlink:href="/assets-global/icons/svg-sprite.svg?v=2022-03-18-233313-70122d0-025253#ico_search"></use>
        </svg></phoenix-icon-fallback></phoenix-icon-fallback></button></form>

Text Content

Skip to main content
 * Live TV
 * Shows
 * This Day In History
 * Schedule
 * Topics
 * Stories
 * Videos
 * HISTORY Podcasts
 * History Vault
 * Shop


 * Ad Choices
 * Advertise
 * Closed Captioning
 * Copyright Policy
 * Corporate Information
 * Employment Opportunities
 * FAQ/Contact Us
 * Privacy Notice
 * Terms of Use
 * TV Parental Guidelines
 * RSS Feeds
 * Accessibility Support
 * Privacy Settings

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 


March 20, 2022

 * Shows
 * This Day In History
 * Schedule
 * Topics
 * Stories



 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 


SIGN UP FOR THE INSIDE HISTORY NEWSLETTER

 * Shows
 * This Day In History
 * Schedule
 * Topics
 * Stories





UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

 * Author:
   History.com Editors
 * Updated:
   Jan 25, 2022
   Original:
   Oct 29, 2009

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 




CONTENTS

 1.  Quaker Abolitionists
 2.  What Was the Underground Railroad?
 3.  How the Underground Railroad Worked
 4.  Fugitive Slave Acts
 5.  Harriet Tubman
 6.  Frederick Douglass
 7.  Who Ran the Underground Railroad?
 8.  John Brown
 9.  End of the Line
 10. Sources

The Underground Railroad was a network of people, African American as well as
white, offering shelter and aid to escaped enslaved people from the South. It
developed as a convergence of several different clandestine efforts. The exact
dates of its existence are not known, but it operated from the late 18th century
to the Civil War, at which point its efforts continued to undermine the
Confederacy in a less-secretive fashion.


QUAKER ABOLITIONISTS

The Quakers are considered the first organized group to actively help escaped
enslaved people. George Washington complained in 1786 that Quakers had attempted
to “liberate” one of his enslaved workers.



In the early 1800s, Quaker abolitionist Isaac T. Hopper set up a network in
Philadelphia that helped enslaved people on the run. At the same time, Quakers
in North Carolina established abolitionist groups that laid the groundwork for
routes and shelters for escapees.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, established in 1816, was another
proactive religious group helping fugitive enslaved people.


WHAT WAS THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD?

The earliest mention of the Underground Railroad came in 1831 when enslaved man
Tice Davids escaped from Kentucky into Ohio and his owner blamed an “underground
railroad” for helping Davids to freedom.






In 1839, a Washington newspaper reported an escaped enslaved man named Jim had
revealed, under torture, his plan to go north following an “underground railroad
to Boston.”

Vigilance Committees—created to protect escaped enslaved people from bounty
hunters in New York in 1835 and Philadelphia in 1838—soon expanded their
activities to guide enslaved people on the run. By the 1840s, the term
Underground Railroad was part of the American vernacular.

READ MORE: 6 Strategies Harriet Tubman and Others Used to Escape Along the
Underground Railroad


HOW THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD WORKED



Most of the enslaved people helped by the Underground Railroad escaped border
states such as Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland.

In the deep South, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 made capturing escaped
enslaved people a lucrative business, and there were fewer hiding places for
them. Fugitive enslaved people were typically on their own until they got to
certain points farther north.

People known as “conductors” guided the fugitive enslaved people. Hiding places
included private homes, churches and schoolhouses. These were called “stations,”
“safe houses,” and “depots.” The people operating them were called
“stationmasters.”



There were many well-used routes stretching west through Ohio to Indiana and
Iowa. Others headed north through Pennsylvania and into New England or through
Detroit on their way to Canada.





READ MORE: The Little-Known Underground Railroad That Ran South to Mexico


FUGITIVE SLAVE ACTS



The reason many escapees headed for Canada was the Fugitive Slave Acts. The
first act, passed in 1793, allowed local governments to apprehend and extradite
escaped enslaved people from within the borders of free states back to their
point of origin, and to punish anyone helping the fugitives. Some Northern
states tried to combat this with Personal Liberty Laws, which were struck down
by the Supreme Court in 1842.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was designed to strengthen the previous law,
which was felt by southern states to be inadequately enforced. This update
created harsher penalties and set up a system of commissioners that promoted
favoritism towards owners of enslaved people and led to some formerly enslaved
people being recaptured. For an escaped person, the northern states were still
considered a risk.

Meanwhile, Canada offered Black people the freedom to live where they wanted,
sit on juries, run for public office and more, and efforts at extradition had
largely failed. Some Underground Railroad operators based themselves in Canada
and worked to help the arriving fugitives settle in.




HARRIET TUBMAN



Harriet Tubman was the most famous conductor for the Underground Railroad.

Scroll to Continue


RECOMMENDED FOR YOU


HOW ST. PATRICK'S DAY TOOK ON NEW LIFE IN AMERICA


DID WOMEN FIGHT AS GLADIATORS IN ANCIENT ROME?


WHY MORE AND MORE SHIPWRECKS ARE BEING DISCOVERED

Born an enslaved woman named Araminta Ross, she took the name Harriet (Tubman
was her married name) when, in 1849, she escaped a plantation in Maryland with
two of her brothers. They returned a couple of weeks later, but Tubman left
again on her own shortly after, making her way to Pennsylvania.

Tubman later returned to the plantation on several occasions to rescue family
members and others. On her third trip, she tried to rescue her husband, but he
had remarried and refused to leave.

Distraught, Tubman reported a vision of God, after which she joined the
Underground Railroad and began guiding other escaped slaves to Maryland. Tubman
regularly took groups of escapees to Canada, distrusting the United States to
treat them well.


FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Formerly enslaved person and famed writer Frederick Douglass hid fugitives in
his home in Rochester, New York, helping 400 escapees make their way to Canada.
Former fugitive Reverend Jermain Loguen, who lived in neighboring Syracuse,
helped 1,500 escapees go north.



Robert Purvis, an escaped enslaved person turned Philadelphia merchant, formed
the Vigilance Committee there in 1838. Former enslaved person and railroad
operator Josiah Henson created the Dawn Institute in 1842 in Ontario to help
escapees who made their way to Canada learn needed work skills.





New York City-based escapee Louis Napoleon’s occupation as listed on his death
certificate was “Underground R.R. Agent.” He was a key figure guiding fugitives
he found at the docks and train stations.

John Parker was a free Black man in Ohio, a foundry owner who took a rowboat
across the Ohio River to help fugitives cross. He was also known to make his way
into Kentucky and enter plantations to help enslaved people escape.

William Still was a prominent Philadelphia citizen who had been born to fugitive
enslaved parents in New Jersey. An associate of Tubman’s, Still also kept a
record of his activities in the Underground Railroad and was able to keep it
safely hidden until after the Civil War, when he published them, offering one of
the clearest accounts of Underground Railroad activity at the time.


WHO RAN THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD?

Most Underground Railroad operators were ordinary people, farmers and business
owners, as well as ministers. Some wealthy people were involved, such as Gerrit
Smith, a millionaire who twice ran for president. In 1841, Smith purchased an
entire family of enslaved people from Kentucky and set them free.



One of the earliest known people to help fugitive enslaved people was Levi
Coffin, a Quaker from North Carolina. He started around 1813 when he was 15
years old.

Coffin said that he learned their hiding places and sought them out to help them
move along. Eventually, they began to find their way to him. Coffin later moved
to Indiana and then Ohio, and continued to help escaped enslaved people wherever
he lived.


JOHN BROWN

Abolitionist John Brown was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, during
which time he established the League of Gileadites, devoted to helping fugitive
enslaved people get to Canada.

Brown would play many roles in the abolition movement, most famously leading a
raid on Harper’s Ferry to create an armed force to make its way into the deep
south and free enslaved people by gunpoint. Brown’s men were defeated, and Brown
hanged for treason in 1859.

By 1837 Reverend Calvin Fairbank was helping enslaved people escape from
Kentucky into Ohio. In 1844 he partnered with Vermont schoolteacher Delia
Webster and was arrested for helping an escaped enslaved woman and her child. He
was pardoned in 1849, but was arrested again and spent another 12 years in jail.

Charles Torrey was sent to prison for six years in Maryland for helping an
enslaved family escape through Virginia. He operated out of Washington, D.C.,
and had previously worked as an abolitionist newspaper editor in Albany, New
York.






Massachusetts sea captain Jonathan Walker was arrested in 1844 after he was
caught with a boatload of escaped enslaved people that he was trying to help get
north. Walker was fined and jailed for a year, and branded on his right hand the
letters “SS” for Slave Stealer.

John Fairfield of Virginia rejected his slave-holding family to help rescue the
left-behind families of enslaved people who made it north. Fairfield’s method
was to travel in the south posing as a slave trader. He broke out of jail twice.
He died in 1860 in Tennessee during a rebellion.


END OF THE LINE



The Underground Railroad ceased operations about 1863, during the Civil War. In
reality, its work moved aboveground as part of the Union effort against the
Confederacy.

Harriet Tubman once again played a significant part by leading intelligence
operations and fulfilling a command role in Union Army operations to rescue the
emancipated enslaved people.

READ MORE: After the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman Led a Brazen Civil War
Raid


SOURCES

Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad. Fergus Bordewich.
Harriet Tubman: The Road To Freedom. Catherine Clinton.
Who Really Ran the Underground Railroad? Henry Louis Gates.
The Little Known History of the Underground Railroad in New York. Smithsonian
Magazine.
The Perilous Lure of the Underground Railroad. The New Yorker.





CITATION INFORMATION


ARTICLE TITLE

Underground Railroad


AUTHOR

HISTORY.COM EDITORS


WEBSITE NAME

HISTORY


URL

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/underground-railroad


ACCESS DATE

March 21, 2022


PUBLISHER

A&E Television Networks


LAST UPDATED

January 25, 2022


ORIGINAL PUBLISHED DATE

October 29, 2009

Tags
terms:
Black History
By
History.com Editors
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 




FACT CHECK: WE STRIVE FOR ACCURACY AND FAIRNESS. BUT IF YOU SEE SOMETHING THAT
DOESN'T LOOK RIGHT, CLICK HERE TO CONTACT US!

VIDEOS


UNDERGROUND RAILROAD




GATEWAY TO FREEDOM: THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD




SEATTLE'S GRUNGY UNDERGROUND




TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD

Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.

SIGN UP



RELATED CONTENT


ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT

The abolitionist movement was an organized effort to end the practice of slavery
in the United States. The first leaders of the campaign, which took place from
about 1830 to 1870, mimicked some of the same tactics British abolitionists had
used to end slavery in Great Britain in ...read more


8 KEY CONTRIBUTORS TO THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

1. Isaac Hopper Quakers played a huge role in the formation of the Underground
Railroad, with George Washington complaining as early as 1786 that a “society of
Quakers, formed for such purposes, have attempted to liberate” a neighbor’s
slave. Anti-slavery sentiment was ...read more


AFTER THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, HARRIET TUBMAN LED A BRAZEN CIVIL WAR RAID

They called her “Moses” for leading enslaved people in the South to freedom up
North. But Harriet Tubman fought the institution of slavery well beyond her role
as a conductor for the Underground Railroad. As a soldier and spy for the Union
Army during the Civil War, Tubman became ...read more


6 STRATEGIES HARRIET TUBMAN AND OTHERS USED TO ESCAPE ALONG THE UNDERGROUND
RAILROAD

Despite the horrors of slavery, it was no easy decision to flee. Escaping often
involved leaving behind family and heading into the complete unknown, where
harsh weather and lack of food might await. Then there was the constant threat
of capture. So-called slave catchers and ...read more


HARRIET TUBMAN

Harriet Tubman was an escaped enslaved woman who became a “conductor” on the
Underground Railroad, leading enslaved people to freedom before the Civil War,
all while carrying a bounty on her head. But she was also a nurse, a Union spy
and a women’s suffrage supporter. Tubman is ...read more


6 BLACK HEROES OF THE CIVIL WAR

As America’s Civil War raged, with the enslavement of millions of people hanging
in the balance, African Americans didn’t just sit on the sidelines. Whether
enslaved, escaped or born free, many sought to actively affect the outcome. From
fighting on bloody battlefields to ...read more


HARRIET TUBMAN: 8 FACTS ABOUT THE DARING ABOLITIONIST

Her admirers called her “Moses” or “General Tubman,” but she was born Araminta
Ross. It’s unclear exactly when the woman who would be known as Harriet Tubman
was born, with dates ranging from 1815 to 1822. Historians do know that she was
one of nine children born to Harriet ...read more


BLACK HISTORY IN THE UNITED STATES: A TIMELINE

In August of 1619, a journal entry recorded that “20 and odd” Angolans,
kidnapped by the Portuguese, arrived in the British colony of Virginia and were
then were bought by English colonists. The date and the story of the enslaved
Africans have become symbolic of slavery’s roots, ...read more


WHY FREDERICK DOUGLASS MATTERS

Frederick Douglass sits in the pantheon of Black history figures: Born into
slavery, he made a daring escape north, wrote best-selling autobiographies and
went on to become one of the nation’s most powerful voices against human
bondage. He stands as the most influential civil and ...read more

Loading…
See More

 * Ad Choices
 * Advertise
 * Closed Captioning
 * Copyright Policy
 * Corporate Information
 * Employment Opportunities
 * FAQ/Contact Us
 * Privacy Notice
 * Terms of Use
 * TV Parental Guidelines
 * RSS Feeds
 * Accessibility Support

© 2022 A&E Television Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved.


CLOSE
CLOSE
CLOSE
CLOSE