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The Underground Railroad
Colson whitehead.
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The Underground Railroad: Introduction
The underground railroad: plot summary, the underground railroad: detailed summary & analysis, the underground railroad: themes, the underground railroad: quotes, the underground railroad: characters, the underground railroad: symbols, the underground railroad: literary devices, the underground railroad: theme wheel, brief biography of colson whitehead.
Historical Context of The Underground Railroad
Other books related to the underground railroad.
- Full Title: The Underground Railroad
- When Written: 2011-2016
- Where Written: New York, USA
- When Published: 2016
- Literary Period: 21st century African-American historical fiction
- Genre: Neo-slave narrative
- Setting: Several states in America in the year 1850, including Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Indiana
- Climax: When Elijah Lander delivers his speech and it is interrupted by a white gang who destroy Valentine farm
- Antagonist: Arnold Ridgeway
- Point of View: Third-person narrator
Extra Credit for The Underground Railroad
Coming to the small screen. In March 2017 Amazon announced the production of a mini-series based on The Underground Railroad , directed by Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins.
Real pieces of history. The first four runaway slave ads featured in the novel are taken word-for-word from real 19th century newspapers. The only one that Whitehead wrote himself is the last one, Cora’s.
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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Literary Criticism — The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead: Physical and Linguistic Violence
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead: Physical and Linguistic Violence
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Published: Mar 19, 2020
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The Underground Railroad
By colson whitehead, the underground railroad essay questions.
In your opinion, why does Colson Whitehead make the Underground Railroad a literal railroad? What function does this play in the novel?
The physical reality of a literal railroad amplifies the colossal effort of those who used the real Underground Railroad. Cora dwells on the immensity of the labor it must have took to build the railroad. Thousands of former slaves undertook back-breaking work, carving tunnels out of mountains, digging holes in the ground underneath all of America. The labor of others, she thinks, is redemptive; with it, they have been transformed, and without it, she would never be free. Thus the transformation of the Railroad into a literal engine gives Whitehead the opportunity to directly commemorate the courage of the real men and women in history who operated the network and used it to flee.
How do different characters regard the American Dream in the novel?
For Ridgeway, both the founding principle and the driving engine of America are comprised of a simple principle: if you steal property and keep it, it is yours. This brutal, stable reality is the American Dream. In contrast, Elijah Lander describes the American Dream is a shifting uncertainty, in fact a grand “delusion.” These are perhaps the two opposite poles of belief in the central myths of America. Perhaps Whitehead's point is made by the protagonist, Cora, who oscillates somewhere in the middle. Sometimes she she thinks America is just “a ghost in the darkness,” nothing real at all. At other times, she is unsure, “stirred” by the idea of expansion and progress. In the end, she is aligned with those Americans seeking to cash in on the American Dream, moving out west to reap the rewards of the frontier.
What effect does the structure of the novel's chapters have on the development of the plot?
While being transported in chains through Tennessee, Cora reflects on how the peculiar institution has made her a keeper of lists. In a column in her head, she logs everyone who has impacted her journey, honoring them even as she must move on without them. The novel's structure functions in much the same way. Whitehead alternates between chapters depicting Cora's story, and chapters telling the stories of secondary characters. The first such chapter, giving context for Ajarry's life, functions as an exposition and mood-setting for the entire novel. Later, several characters are featured after their deaths—for example, Ethel, Caesar, and Mabel—and so their chapters function as memorials. Other characters—Ridgeway and Stevens, for instance—provide ideological counterpoints to Cora's story, juxtaposing her struggle with the ideas of white supremacist America. In total, these chapters form a list of characters who have impacted Cora, mimicking the list she keeps in her head.
What role does the character of Mabel have on Cora's story?
In some ways, Mabel is the driving force behind Cora's story. When Mabel escapes the Randall plantation, she leaves behind a vegetable garden that reminds Cora of the promise of freedom. Cora grows to resent her mother for leaving her behind to suffer. Throughout the novel, as she makes her way through a hellish landscape in search of the freedom she believes her mother attained, she pictures Mabel in freedom, perhaps in Canada. Cora's struggle is shaped by Mabel in another way too: Ridgeway, the slave catcher, takes it as a personal insult that he never found and recaptured Mabel. This old grievance drives him to capture Cora at all costs. More than just his job, his pursuit of Cora is a personal and thus much more dangerous vendetta.
In an ironic twist at the end of the novel, however, the narrator reveals that Mabel never made it to freedom. She died on her way back to Cora, in the swamp just outside the Randall plantation. Thus the driving impetus of Cora's story falls apart, and it turns out Cora made her escape all on her own.
How does Ridgeway's character develop over the course of the book?
In the third chapter, Ridgeway's back story describes him as a formidable opponent. Tall, cold-hearted, and extremely violent, he makes the perfect antagonist. As time goes on, however, cracks begin to show in his steely persona. Cora learns the odd story of how he recognized a kindred spirit in a young black slave, Homer, whom he freed and befriended. The relationship between the ten-year-old boy and Ridgeway remains an enigma throughout the novel, but there seems to be clear affection there. Thus the slave catcher is not as hard-hearted as he initially seemed. Ridgeway is then severely diminished by the confrontation with Royal and Red in Tennessee. From that point on, his pursuit of Cora borders on the obsession of a mentally unstable man. When he finally catches up to her for the last time in Indiana, he seems unkempt and disheveled. Thus over the course of the novel, Ridgeway's relentless pursuit of Cora appears to weaken him. He eventually unravels while Cora continues on to freedom.
The Underground Railroad Questions and Answers
The Question and Answer section for The Underground Railroad is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Colorism is expressed through the differences in the way that those with lighter skin were treated differently than those with darker skin. Black people with lighter skin were afforded more opportunities, and they were often able to "pass" as...
What are the three cities a former slave escaping from Nashville might pass through to get to Canada?
Though I cannot give you the names of the exact cities, slaves escaping by route of the Underground Railroad from Nashville went through the states of Kentucky and Ohio.
What does fugitive mean?
A fugitive is "a person who has escaped from a place or is in hiding, especially to avoid arrest or persecution."
Study Guide for The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad study guide contains a biography of Colson Whitehead, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.
- About The Underground Railroad
- The Underground Railroad Summary
- Character List
Essays for The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.
- Delusion and Reality in The Underground Railroad
- Past and Future Blues: A Comparison of Historical Themes in 'Sonny's Blues' and 'The Underground Railroad'
- Rewriting the Past
- Underground Railroad: The Railroad To The North As A Metaphor For Freedom
Lesson Plan for The Underground Railroad
- About the Author
- Study Objectives
- Common Core Standards
- Introduction to The Underground Railroad
- Relationship to Other Books
- Bringing in Technology
- Notes to the Teacher
- Related Links
- The Underground Railroad Bibliography
Wikipedia Entries for The Underground Railroad
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Underground Railroad
By: History.com Editors
Updated: March 29, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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Racism in Rankine’s “Citizen” and Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad” Essay
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Apart from high levels of tolerance, racism is under vehement discussion in the modern world. Many authors address this problem in their works, and Rankine and Whitehead are not exceptions. In her book, Citizen , Rankine presented a poetic story by using metaphors, examples of racism from her life, and narration in the second person to attract even more attention to racial segregation. Meanwhile, Whitehead told a story of two slaves, Cora and Caesar, and their way to freedom through the Underground Railroad with the help of a traditional genre-based approach.
Both of them focused on similar problems but used entirely different methods to deliver their ideas while having clear benefits and disadvantages of their choices. *One the one hand, novels like Citizen help build an emotional bond with readers by making them experience the struggles of being black, but on the other side, a strong position of defendant and a distinction between “you” and “I” may create misunderstandings, and, as a consequence, despite the lack of persuasive tone, relying on traditional approach as in The Underground Railroad may deem as the most appropriate one to address the modern issues of racism.*
As it was mentioned previously, Rankine discovered racism from an entirely different perspective and attempted to connect poetics with the tragedy of the real world. She used pronoun “you” to make readers feel the problems of racism and discover them from the viewpoint of discriminated individuals. For example, “Do you feel hurt because it’s ‘all the black people look the same’ moment, or because you are being confused with another after being so close to other?” clearly demonstrated author’s intentions while drawing attention to reader’s emotions (Rankine 12).
At the same time, to find a link with poetics, she referred to describing trees, joy, and rain and blended it with the everyday cases of racism such as Hennessy’s suggestions of being a successful tennis player (“be ambiguous, be white”), cheating, rude conversation on the phone, and a disturbing situation with a police officer (Rankine 31).
A combination of these expressive tools complied with the author’s desire to bring the attention of the society to the problem of racism, as its main features were being transferred from the past. Using this lyric approach could be considered as beneficial since it showed the presence of racism in pop-culture (tennis) and attempted to change readers’ attitudes while being more tolerant to people from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Apart from relying on a traditional genre, Whitehead was able to tell a story of Cora and her desire to escape and pursue her “dream of white sea” (Whitehead 21).
With the help of figurative language, the author described Cora’s life and challenges that she had to face when being a slave. For example, “soon after her long march to the plantation, the plot was a rumble of dirt and scrub behind her cabin, at the line of slave quarters” presented a profound and detailed image of the slavery of the past (Whitehead 21). At the same time, with the assistance of the examples of advertisements described in the book, it was possible to recreate attitudes towards slaves.
For instance, “30 Dollar Reward will be given to any person who will deliver me…a likely yellow NEGRO GIRL 18 years of age” showed that black people were mostly viewed as goods for sale rather than people with recognized freedoms, and their high monetary value was reflected by capitalization (Whitehead 105). In this case, the primary advantage of this narration style was the ability of the author to deliver the problems before the Civil War and write a story that would be interesting to read and follow.
Nonetheless, on the other side, Whitehead’s novel tended to be more historical while clearly lacking connection with reality and current problems. At the same time, its intentions to persuade readers were not as strong as in Citizen , and it explained its neutral tone and traditional genre.
In turn, Rankine’s book entirely filled these gaps by its emotionality and its emphasis on current problems. Nonetheless, apart from its positive intentions, the means of figurative language might be found controversial due to a well-defined distinction between races and people (black and white; You and I). It might seem that the author played the role of defendant by asking “Why do you feel comfortable saying this to me?” (Rankine 14). The statements like these could be discovered as triggers of conflicts and create even more tensions in the society than before.
In the end, the selected novels addressed the issues of racism, but they used entirely different approaches to express their opinions. Nonetheless, apart from the similar goals, their choices deemed rational. Rankine in her book Citizen relied on poetics to have an emotional influence of readers and help them see a connection between the racial segregation of the past and acts of discrimination reflected in the modern society and pop-culture. Nonetheless, some people might find this tone more aggressive rather than convincing, as the author strongly defended her position by clearly claiming a difference between “you” and “I”.
This aspect might be considered as a trigger for misunderstandings. As for The Underground Railroad , the authors used a traditional approach since it helped him tell the story of the past and attract the attention of readers to the problem by having a clear historical reference. Apart from the lack of emotionality, using unbiased tone could be viewed as more appropriate in this case, as it could help avoid conflicts and clearly deliver the idea to the audience.
Works Cited
Rankine, Claudia. Citizen: An American Lyric. Graywolf Press, 2014.
Whitehead, Colson. The Underground Railroad. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016.
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IvyPanda. (2020, November 18). Racism in Rankine’s “Citizen” and Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad”. https://ivypanda.com/essays/racism-in-rankines-citizen-and-whiteheads-the-underground-railroad/
"Racism in Rankine’s “Citizen” and Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad”." IvyPanda , 18 Nov. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/racism-in-rankines-citizen-and-whiteheads-the-underground-railroad/.
IvyPanda . (2020) 'Racism in Rankine’s “Citizen” and Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad”'. 18 November.
IvyPanda . 2020. "Racism in Rankine’s “Citizen” and Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad”." November 18, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/racism-in-rankines-citizen-and-whiteheads-the-underground-railroad/.
1. IvyPanda . "Racism in Rankine’s “Citizen” and Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad”." November 18, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/racism-in-rankines-citizen-and-whiteheads-the-underground-railroad/.
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The Underground Railroad
145 pages • 4 hours read
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Discussion Questions
What is the symbolic significance of depicting the Underground Railroad as an actual rail line? Use specific quotes to support your analysis.
Choose one of the book’s major settings (the Randall plantation in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, the Valentine farm in Indiana). Use and cite primary and secondary historical sources to compare the book’s depictions with historical record.
What is the book’s central message about the character and origins of the American nation? Use direct quotes and analysis to support your position.
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The Eerie Truth of the Underground Railroad
How it works
Most times when we acknowledge the Underground Railroad it brings up very controversial points of view all around the world. The Underground Railroad was a secret system that was put together to help fugitive slaves on their escape to be free; when you are involved with the Underground Railroad it was super risky, and also highly illegal (Eiu.edu). It lasted from 1861 to 1865 and was very loosely organized despite the massive quantities of people it helped (Underground Railroad ).
Even though the Southerners believed the Underground Railroad was illegal and disobeyed the federal law, Harriet Tubman and many northerners disagreed with the southerners and still used their code words and safe houses to help transport slaves to safety.
When people started to hear about the Underground Railroad some felt pleased and tried to help along with it, but some thought it was immoral and amiss. Most of those negative arguments focused on how the Underground Railroad brutally striped the Southerners of hundreds of thousands of dollars each year (Underground Railroad).
Slaves would be used in the lives of most white men and they would force their slaves to do extensive exhausting labor. Worst of all, when the idea of slaves to be counted as people was rejected by almost all Southerners, a man names Samuel Chase also commented and argued that old and young slaves were ‘a burthen to their owners’ (Finkelman 116). This all connects back to why Southerners did not like the Underground Railroad because when their slaves ran away, they also lost lots of money- the slaves do all the work and all of the farming and the slave owners pay to own a slave (Underground Railroad).
The money situation got worse when the slave owners wanted to get their runaway slaves back. One of the most famous conductors of the Underground Railroad is to be Harriet Tubman; her slave owner puts up a $40,000 dollar cash prize award to get her to return and back then that was a ginormous sum of money. The main reason her master wanted her back was because Tubman was a ginormous part of the recent decline in slaves from working with the railroad (Harriet Tubman ).
Another reason as to why Southerners did not enjoy the Underground Railroad would be that since slavery was legal in the United States Southerners believed that slaves were legally their property, which in some cases they were (Underground Railroad ). This all ties back to the Dred Scott Decision. The Dred Scott Decision made the rule that enslaved African Americans were not considered people and could never be true united states citizens (Urofsky).
In 1857 the United States officially put the Dred Scott case into play, which would affirm the right of slave owners to take their slaves wherever whenever they please (Urofsky). Dred Scott (the person the case was named after) was a slave who was taken to Illinois which was a free state and then the Wisconsin territory. Scott was a strong-willed person so he tried to buy his family that was still enslaved out of slavery. The master refused, but Scott wasn’t going down without a fight so he sued the master, but he lost because he wasn’t a legal citizen of the United States (Urofsky).
Furthermore this demonstrated how slaves were still declared as property and how the Southerners got upset if they were treated as people. Even though the Southerners did not enjoy the Underground Railroad it still happened and there were many secret things that were done in order to keep the Underground Railroad hidden. They used code names to get around and transport their slaves safely. Some of the main code names that were used for the Underground Railroad was a Station or Depot, which was a safe house where fugitive slaves could find food and shelter (this one was the most crucial because without it they couldn’t survive), the Conductors were people like Harriet Tubman who were willing to slip deep into slave territory in order to lead runaways to freedom, and Parcels or Passengers were the runaway slaves themselves (Altman).
Another main part of the Underground Railroad would be the risky escape above land because you can’t stay underground forever. When slaves were travelling above ground they called safe back roads and safe trails- Tracks (Altman). It was so important for people to understand the important code words because without them their lives were at stake. One of the other things they used to communicate in secret was songs. The first song they used to communicate was called “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, coming for to carry me home” and this meant that a conductor of the Underground Railroad was in the area and that an escape was due soon (Altman). This was a crucial code because without it they wouldn’t know the proper time to leave, and they could get caught in the act.
The spiritual “Wade in the Water” was a code that instructed slaves to walk in rivers and streams so that the dogs tracking them will not be able to pick up any scent. This was also very important, so they could get different places without leaving any footprints or trace (Altman). Some other code words that were used, but were not as important as the others would be, Tickets; this indicated that slaves were traveling on the Railroad, Stockholders; financial supporters who donated to the Railroad, Heaven or Promised Land; Canada and the northern free states, and the Drinking Gourd; the Big Dipper constellation—a constellation pointed to the North Star.
While the different codes and words did help people along the Underground Railroad the people are the main helpers (Walls). Most likely the first name that comes to mind when the Underground Railroad is mentioned is Harriet Tubman. Tubman is easily the most important person involved with the Underground Railroad and this is because she is an independent traveler who ends up changing the world. To start off Harriet Tubman did not know anything about geography except for the fact that she knew how to identify the big dipper; she knew nothing about using a compass correctly or even reading a simple map right (Paulson).
The Big Dipper was known as the Drinking Gourd to the traveling slaves and the gourds handle led Tubman right to the North star or in other words Harriet Tubman’s freedom (Paulson)! One of the biggest details to Harriet Tubman’s quest is that she went on her journey completely solo. Tubman soon became known as the “Hero of their time” and her name was now General Tubman (Paulson). Our next significant figure would be known by the name of Frederick Douglass. Douglass escaped from slavery in Maryland and later went on to become a huge abolitionist movement leader which also sometimes contributed to the Underground Railroad; After that he continued to push for equality and human rights until his death in 1895 (History.com). Out final important figure in the Underground Railroad would be John Fairfield. Fairfield started on the Underground Railroad when he helped a slave friend escape to Canada and after that he had people pay him to help them escape and he is now known to have helped over 1,000 slaves escape slavery through the Underground Railroad; many other names for him would be a famous slaveholder, a slave trader and maybe even a peddler (History.com).
From examining the Underground Railroad very thoroughly it can confidently be said that it was one of the most amazing things to ever happen to African American history and it will stay that way for years to come. While conductors along with Harriet Tubman aided in the escape of tens of thousands of slaves, southerners at the time were not in favor of anything that involved the Underground Railroad. They gave the people who worked with it lots of complications as conductors used all the different tactics to help free the enslaved. The next time the Underground Railroad is mentioned, think about all of the trouble the enslaved people went through just to be free and maybe teach someone else this marvelous story and pass it on for generations to come.
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Underground Railroad - Free Essay Examples and Topic Ideas
The Underground Railroad was a secret network of people and safe houses that helped enslaved African Americans escape to freedom in the North or Canada before the Civil War. It was risky, dangerous, and illegal, but it played a significant role in the fight against slavery and racial injustice in the United States. The Underground Railroad was not an actual railroad, but rather a metaphorical term for a network of routes, paths, and tunnels that connected sympathetic people who were committed to helping enslaved people reach freedom. The history of the Underground Railroad is a testament to the resilience, bravery, and determination of those who fought for freedom and justice under difficult and oppressive circumstances.
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Home / Essay Samples / Government / Underground / The Underground Railroad – An Act Of Resistance
The Underground Railroad – An Act Of Resistance
- Category: History , Government
- Topic: Slavery in The World , Underground
Pages: 2 (998 words)
Views: 1226
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Works Cited
- “Fugitive Slave Act 1850.” Avalon Project - Fugitive Slave Act 1850, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ 19th_century/fugitive.asp.
- National Endowment for the Humanities. “The Nashville Daily Union. [Volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, February 17, 1863, Image 3.” News about Chronicling America RSS, Published by an Association of Printers, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/ sn83025718/1863-02-17/ed-1/seq-3/.
- Still, William. “Preserving American Freedom.” Journal C of Station No. 2 of the Underground Railroad, Agent William Still (Excerpt), June 2-29, 1855 | Exhibits.hsp.org, http://we b.archive.org/web/20160102082306/http://digitalhistory.hsp.org/pafrm/doc/journalc.
- Tate, Gayle T. “Free Black Resistance in the Antebellum Era, 1830 to 1860.” Journal of Black Studies, Rutgers University, vol. 28, no. No. 6, July 1998, pp. 764–782.
- UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, http://crab.rutgers.edu/~glasker/UNDERGRAIL.htm.
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