On January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation liberating slaves in Confederate states. After the war ended, the 13th amendment to the Constitution was approved in 1865 which abolished slavery in the entire United States and therefore was the end of the Underground Railroad.
- How does The Underground Railroad End? The finale essentially serves as an epilogue of sorts, with Cora and Molly surviving the Valentine tragedy and heading back on the run again. Before they do, Cora plants some seeds and buries them in the dirt, covering them up and preparing to head out on the road.
What was the last stop on the Underground Railroad?
Most people know that Jersey City has a rich history. Tons of events and famous players in U.S. and world history have passed through this Hudson County city for different reasons. One piece of history in particular, however, stands out — the Underground Railroad.
Did the Underground Railroad start and end?
However, the network now generally known as the Underground Railroad began in the late 18th century. It ran north and grew steadily until the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln. One estimate suggests that by 1850, 100,000 enslaved people had escaped via the network.
Did Harriet Tubman live in Canada?
Tubman had been living in North Street in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada West since 1851; that was her home and her base of operation. She had brought her parents and her entire family to St. Catharines where they lived safe from slave catchers.
What happened to Cesar in the Underground Railroad?
While the show doesn’t show us what happens after their encounter, Caesar comes to Cora in a dream later, confirming to viewers that he was killed. In the novel, Caesar faces a similar fate of being killed following his capture, though instead of Ridgeway and Homer, he is killed by an angry mob.
When did the Underground Railroad end?
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.
What happened to runaway slaves when they were caught?
If they were caught, any number of terrible things could happen to them. Many captured fugitive slaves were flogged, branded, jailed, sold back into slavery, or even killed. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 also outlawed the abetting of fugitive slaves.
Does the Underground Railroad still exist?
It includes four buildings, two of which were used by Harriet Tubman. Ashtabula County had over thirty known Underground Railroad stations, or safehouses, and many more conductors. Nearly two-thirds of those sites still stand today.
Where is Harriet buried?
The historian Marcel Trudel catalogued the existence of about 4,200 slaves in Canada between 1671 and 1834, the year slavery was abolished in the British Empire. About two-thirds of these were Native and one-third were Blacks. The use of slaves varied a great deal throughout the course of this period.
What kind of life did Harriet Tubman have as a child?
Tubman’s Early Years and Escape from Slavery. Harriet Tubman’s name at birth was Araminta Ross. She was one of 11 children of Harriet and Benjamin Ross born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland. As a child, Ross was “hired out” by her master as a nursemaid for a small baby, much like the nursemaid in the picture
Where did Cora end up in the Underground Railroad?
During their escape, a white boy tries to capture Cora, and she hits him repeatedly on the head with a rock, causing his death and making her wanted for murder. Cora and Caesar travel the underground railroad to South Carolina, where Cora is given forged papers identifying her as a freewoman named Bessie Carpenter.
‘The Underground Railroad’ Book Ends With One Final Twist
“How can I construct a psychologically plausible plantation?” Whitehead is said to have pondered himself while writing the novel. As he explained to theGuardian, rather of portraying “a pop culture plantation where there’s one Uncle Tom and everyone is just incredibly nice to each other,” the author preferred to think “about individuals who’ve been traumatized, brutalized, and dehumanized their whole lives.” “Everyone is going to be battling for that one additional mouthful of breakfast in the morning, fighting for that one extra piece of land,” Whitehead continued.
If you bring a group of individuals together who have been raped and tortured, that’s what you’re going to get, in my opinion.
She now lives in the Hob, a derelict building reserved for outcasts—”those who had been crippled by the overseers’ punishments,.
As Cora’s female enslavers on the Randall plantation, Zsane Jhe, left, and Aubriana Davis, right, take on the roles of Zsane and Aubriana.
- “Under the pitiless branches of the whipping tree,” the guy whips her with his silver cane the next morning, and the plantation’s supervisor gives her a lashing the next day.
- It “truly offers a sense of the type of control that the enslavers have over individuals who are enslaved and the forms of resistance that the slaves attempt to condition,” says Crew of the Underground Railroad.
- By making Cora the central character of his novel, Whitehead addresses themes that uniquely afflict enslaved women, such as the fear of rape and the agony of carrying a child just to have the infant sold into captivity elsewhere.
- The author “writes about it pretty effectively, with a little amount of words, but truly capturing the agony of life as an enslaved lady,” adds Sinha.
- Amazon Studios / Atsushi Nishijima / He claims that the novelist’s depiction of the Underground Railroad “gets to the core of how this undertaking was both tremendously brave and terribly perilous,” as Sinha puts it.
- Escapees’ liminal state is succinctly described by Cora in her own words.
that turns a living jail into your sole shelter,” she muses after being imprisoned in an abolitionist’s attic for months on end: ” How long had she been in bondage, and how long had she been out of it.” “Being free has nothing to do with being chained or having a lot of room,” Cora says further.
- Despite its diminutive size, the space seemed spacious and welcoming.
- Crew believes the new Amazon adaption will stress the psychological toll of slavery rather than merely presenting the physical torture faced by enslaved folks like it did in the first film.
- view of it is that it feels a little needless to have it here.
- In his words, “I recognized that my job was going to be coupling the brutality with its psychological effects—not shying away from the visual representation of these things, but focusing on what it meant to the people.” “Can you tell me how they’re fighting it?
History of the United States of America True Story was used to inspire this film. Books Fiction about the Civil War Racism SlaveryTelevision Videos that should be watched
For Thuso Mbedu, The Ending Of “The Underground Railroad” Is A Story Of Promise
Featured image courtesy of Amazon Studios. There will be spoilers ahead. After entering an alternate universe in which the aforementioned train isn’t just a metaphor but an actual network of running cars, viewers are whisked away through secret tunnels to their liberation in Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad, a film directed by Barry Jenkins. TheAmazon Prime originalmostly keeps faithful to theeponymous Colson Whitehead novel from which it was adapted, but Jenkins adds some significant modifications throughout to bring the tale to life, and the film is available on Amazon Prime.
The heroine in Whitehead’s work finds herself alone at the end of the journey, while Jenkins’ conclusion builds an universe in which she is able to be a part of something far larger.head’s work Beginning in the Antebellum South, The Underground Railroad recounts the tortuous, heart-pounding journey of a young Black woman named Cora (Thuso Mbedu) as she travels from one end of the country to the other through the United States via the physical railroad.
- Sometimes her journey is breathtaking, interrupted by the soft exhilaration of first love and the innocent flutterings that accompany the beginning of a new relationship.
- Cora is being pursued by slave catcher Arnold Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton) throughout the film, but in the final two chapters, she is compelled to meet him head-on.
- Meanwhile, Ridgeway orders Cora to show him the route to the local station of the Underground Railroad as the occupants of Valentine Farm are being slaughtered in cold blood — including her new love interest Royal (William Jackson Harper).
- She finds out about all of the nefarious actions that he has undertaken while on his warpath against her.
- In an instant, she drags him to the earth, where they both fall several feet to their deaths.
- There, she shoots him three times, thereby ending their cursed relationship for good, before returning to Valentine Farm to see whether anybody was still alive after the carnage.
- Cora had spent her whole life believing that her mother abandoned her without a second thought, yet this was far from the reality.
Not only does Mabel have a difficult mental condition due to her mother’s history as one of the last of the enslaved population to be born in West Africa, but she also has wounds from her daily exposure to abuse and violence, which has taken a toll on her already precarious mental state.
Mabel is in a stupor and goes ahead as if she is possessed before returning to her senses; she can’t bear the thought of abandoning her daughter.
In the present day, Cora has temporarily returned to Valentine Farm, only to discover that the siege has not been lifted.
Cora saves Molly, who serves as a devastating contrast to her mother’s unwillingness to save her, and the two of them run to the next nearby railroad station, where they are apprehended and executed.
He’s on his way west and invites Cora and Molly to accompany him, and the three of them jump at the chance to embark on yet another adventure.
However, for the actress who portrays Cora, our protagonist’s final moments on film serve as a source of inspiration rather than sorrow.
While Mbedu pondered in a Zoom interview with Refinery29, “Even as she is traveling west, I believe Cora understands that she owes it to herself and to everyone she has lost along the road to finally make it up north, to go as far north as she possibly can.” “Because she recognizes that a large number of individuals have assisted her in reaching this point in her journey.
Despite the fact that she is not the kind to sit around and plan to assist others, Cora has a strong protective instinct.
But even knowing that slavery would continue for another century before anti-Blackness would manifest itself in the Jim Crow era and institutional racism that we face today, her optimism about Cora’s uncertain future is heartening because it is completely in line with the ever-present resilience and communal spirit of Black America, which can be found in every generation since the Civil War.
All ten episodes of The Underground Railroad are now available for streaming on Amazon Prime, and can be found nowhere else.
‘The Underground Railroad’ Ending, Explained – Did Cora kill Ridgeway?
The Underground Railroad, a television series based on the fictitious novel of the same name by Colson Whitehead, is a powerful depiction of slavery. The tale, which takes place in the 1800s, depicts the atrocities and difficulties that were inflicted on enslaved African-Americans by white people. The plot revolves around a little girl named Cora from the southern United States who escapes from a Georgia farm by way of an underground railroad, which was built by abolitionists to transport slaves from the southern United States to northern America.
Barry Jenkins has produced and directed the ten-part series for Amazon Prime Video, which is available now.
We’ll do our best to resolve them to the best of our abilities.
Is ‘The Underground Railroad’ based’ a True Story?
The Underground Railroad, a television series created by Barry Jenkins, is based on a historical novel written by Colson Whitehead, which is a work of fiction. Taking place in an alternate world, the series has taken its historical foundation as the basis for its fictitious narrative of slaves, which has been developed around it. The Underground Railroad, on the other hand, was established by abolitionists during the mid-19th century. It served as a hidden conduit and a safe haven for enslaved African Americans during the Civil War.
Why was Cora Randall being hunted?
Cora’s mother, Mabel, abandoned her and fled the scene. Cora’s white master, Terrance Randall, retaliated against her for her actions. It happened when she was approached by a fellow slave Caesar, with whom Cora was fleeing from the Georgia farm at the time of the incident. During their escape, however, a party of slave catchers attempts to assault them, and in order to defend herself and Caesar, she reluctantly murders a white child, committing a serious crime. In fact, Cora herself admitted the occurrence when staying at the Valentine farm, where she had temporarily relocated.
Ridgeway had just one slave who managed to get away from him during his entire life’s work.
What happened to Caesar?
She was separated from Cora by her mother Mabel. The punishment Cora received came from her white master, Terrance Randall. It happened when she was accosted by a fellow slave named Caesar, with whom Cora was fleeing from the Georgia farm at the time of the incident. During their escape, however, a party of slave catchers attempts to assault them, and in order to defend herself and Caesar, she reluctantly murders a white kid, committing a serious crime against humanity. In fact, Cora herself revealed the occurrence when staying at the Valentine property, where she had briefly resided.) Ridgeway, a dedicated slave catcher, has vowed to get her back no matter what the cost is.
Ridgeway had just one slave who managed to get away from him during his entire life’s career. Given that it was Cora’s mother, the chase takes on an all new level of significance for him.
What happened to Cora’s mother, Mabel?
Cora’s mother, Mabel, left the house without her. Cora was chastised by her white master, Terrance Randall, for her actions. It happened when she was contacted by a fellow slave Caesar, with whom Cora was fleeing from the Georgia farm at the time of the encounter. When a party of slave catchers attempts to attack them during their escape, she murders a white kid, committing a serious crime in the process. In fact, Cora herself revealed the occurrence when staying at the Valentine property, where she had briefly resided.
Ridgeway had just one slave that managed to escape over his entire career.
The Symbolism of Okra seeds
Cora’s mother, Mabel, took off without her. Cora’s white master, Terrance Randall, chastised her for her actions. It happened when she was contacted by Caesar, a fellow slave with whom Cora was fleeing from the Georgia farm. However, during their escape, a party of slave hunters attempts to assault them, and in order to defend herself and Caesar, she reluctantly murders a white child, committing a serious charge. (The incident was admitted by Cora herself on the Valentine farm, where she had briefly resided.) Ridgeway, a dedicated slave catcher, has vowed to bring her back at any cost.
It was Cora’s mother, and as a result, the chase becomes incredibly personal for him.
Did Cora kill Ridgeway and his assistant Homer?
It was discovered that the Valentine plantation had been invaded by white Hoosiers who were fearful of the freedom of emancipated slaves. Royal, Cora’s love interest, died as a result of the attack on him. Ridgeway, on the other hand, caught up with Cora just as she was about to flee the burning farm. He coerced her into participating in the Underground Railroad, which he has grown obsessed with. When Cora is about to drop down to the abandoned railroad station, she pushes Ridgeway off the lowering ladder.
- There is a visual connection between this picture and the series’ opening sequence.
- After having the opportunity to murder Ridgeway twice, Cora is stopped by a vision of Caesar and Royal, who convince her that she would be unable to live with the consequences of her actions.
- Ridgeway and Homer are spared by Cora.
- The image and quiet imply that Ridgeway died at the end of the story, and Homer is reduced to the status of a slave without a boss.
Ending Explained
Cora emerges from the network of underground train tunnels. She plants the okra seeds her mother had given her as a symbol of her readiness to go on with her life.
A black guy named Ollie, who is moving to the west in his wagon, is discovered by her when she is out on the road. He provides Cora and the other girls with a safe haven. They are on their way to an unknown future.
What’s left?
When on a voyage, a traveler is on his or her own. He or she, on the other hand, is never alone. A large number of individuals she encountered along the way, from Georgia to the West, supported Cora on her emotional journey. More than anything else, The Underground Railroadis a depiction of her physical and emotional journey along the Underground Railroad. The original story, as well as Barry Jenkins, makes political statements about White Supremacy. The American Imperative concept, which the slave catcher Ridgeway adheres to, is unpleasant and awful to contemplate.
- At times, a viewer will try to keep their emotions under check by convincing themselves that this is a “alternative world,” a work of fiction.
- The likeness sends shivers down the spines of all who see it.
- For a while, I tried to convince myself that it was a work of fiction, but it isn’t true.
- If you’ve made it this far, I hope you’ll go even further and fully comprehend the message that the Underground Railroad is delivering to you.
- Nonetheless, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact us or leave a comment in the box below.
- The story is delivered in ten installments, each of which lasts more than an hour (except episode 7).
- Do not forget to check out Digital Mafia Talkies |
- Hikhar Agrawal is an Onstage Dramatist as well as a Screenwriter who lives in New York City.
On Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad
Cora’s life is divided into five distinct phases, which are shown in the Underground Railroad: 1. The way of life in Georgia When Cora’s mother, Mabel, abandons her, Cora is placed as a juvenile misfit among the slaves of the Randall farm, which she eventually escapes. When other slaves attempt to take over the small plot of land she has inherited from her mother (who in turn got it from Cora’s grandmother, Ajarry), she protects it tenaciously, even demolishing a doghouse that someone has built on it.
- Her fellow slave Caesar, who recognizes her strong sense of independence, invites her to accompany him on his escape.
- The two escape away in the middle of the night and are suddenly joined by a young girl named Lovey, who becomes their companion.
- Cora and Caesar finally make it to the home of Mr.
- Fletcher transports them to the home of Lumbly, the station agent, on his cart, which is wrapped with a blanket.
- 2.
- In order for them to be able to live quietly in South Carolina until another train arrives to transport them farther north, they are given counterfeit documents with phony names.
- She and Caesar let three trains to come and depart without getting on board them.
Cora is a young black woman who lives in a dormitory with other young black ladies.
Ridgeway, a slave catcher who has been on the trail of Cora and Caesar, comes to the dormitory where Cora is now residing.
Cora remains at the location, but neither Sam nor Caesar accompany her.
3.
In North Carolina, the conductor informs her that he is not authorized to transport passengers and abandons her at what looks to be an abandoned train station.
In Martin’s opinion, Cora shouldn’t have come since the state of North Carolina is becoming increasingly unfriendly toward fugitive slaves and those who shelter them.
In order to protect herself, Cora hides in an attic for months, observing through a window each Friday while the town organizes a celebration to execute captured fugitives.
Ethel, who had a childhood desire of becoming a missionary in Africa, takes advantage of the chance to read from the Bible to Cora.
In the background, Cora witnesses Martin and Ethel being stoned to death by Ridgeway as she is being taken away by Ridgeway.
Take a trip across Tennessee.
It is important to note that many of the places they pass through have been devastated by natural calamities.
Lovey (who was executed by Terrance Randall) and Caesar (who was executed by Terrance Randall) are two characters with whom Ridgeway likes conversing, especially when he can tell her their grisly deaths (who was ripped to pieces by an angry South Carolina mob).
The following night, Boseman removes Cora’s chains in order to rape her a second time.
The Royals and two of his colleagues rescue Cora when the two fighters are engaged in combat and away from their weapons.
They accompany Cora to an underground railroad station where she will continue her journey to Indiana.
Indiana and Beyond: A Look at the Present and the Future Cora begins a new life on the Valentine farm, which is a community of free black people and former slaves who have come together to work together.
She falls in love with Royal, who offers to take her to Canada, but she refuses to respond to his offer until she has a chance to think about it.
He has no idea where the track will take him.
Mingo, a legally freed slave, believes that sheltering fugitives puts them all in risk by inflaming white people’s hostility toward them.
Ridgeway and Homer are successful in apprehending Cora.
She continues on the path till it comes to an end at a cave. A passing wagon offers her a ride: the driver is headed to Missouri and then to California, and she accepts the offer. Cora agrees to go on a ride.
What was the Underground Railroad? : Harriet Tubman
The Underground Railroad was established in the early nineteenth century and reached its zenith between 1850 and 1860, when it was at its most active. It’s possible that reliable numbers on fleeing slaves who used the Underground Railroad may never be discovered because so much of what we know now comes from narratives written after the Civil War. Between 1810 and 1860, it is estimated that over 100,000 slaves managed to escape using the network. In the upper south, the bulk of slaves were transported from slave states that bordered free states such as Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland; very few slaves were transported from the Deep South.
Various Underground Railroad routes were discovered.
Why was it called Underground Railroad?
The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad; it was a network of people and ideas. Due to the network’s clandestine actions being secret and illegal, it was necessary for them to remain “underground” in order to aid fleeing slaves in their efforts to remain hidden from the authorities. Historically, the word “railroad” was used to describe a developing transportation system whose proponents communicated in secret through the usage of railroad code (also known as railroad code).
The homes where fugitives would rest and dine were referred to as “stations” or “depots,” and the owner of the property was referred to as the “station master,” while the “conductor” was the person in charge of transporting slaves from one station to the next, among other things.
Secret codes and phrases are included in this exhaustive collection.
Organization
With no clearly defined routes, the Underground Railway was a loosely structured network of linkages rather than a well-organized network of connections. They assisted slaves in their journey to freedom by providing them with housing and transportation. Small groups of supporters were formed independently; the majority of them were familiar with a few connecting stations but were unfamiliar with the complete trip. This technique maintained the confidentiality of those participating while also reducing the likelihood of infiltration.
There was no one path, and there were most likely a number of them.
These locations are listed on the website of the National Park Service.
The majority of them traveled on foot and hid in barns or other out-of-the-way locations such as basements and cupboards.
In major cities such as Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, committees were created to address the issue. These committees generated cash to assist fugitives in resettling by providing them with temporary lodging and employment referrals.
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
Until 1850, fugitives had a minimal probability of being apprehended while residing in free states. Following the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Actas part of the Compromise of 1850, the Underground Railroad was diverted to Canada as its final objective, with the United States being the final destination. In newly constructed settlements in Southern Ontario, tens of thousands of slaves were resettled. In an instant, their work became more difficult and perhaps dangerous. A $1000 fine or six months in jail was imposed on anybody who assisted slaves.
Slave catchers were lavishly compensated, and even free African Americans were subjected to re-education through the destruction of their free documents.
The end of the Underground Railroad
On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in the Confederate states of the United States of America. Following the war’s conclusion, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1865, thereby ending slavery in the whole United States and putting an end to the Underground Railroad’s operations throughout the country.
Supporters of the Underground Railroad
Black and white abolitionists, free blacks, Native Americans, and religious organizations such as the Religious Society of Friends, often known as Quakers and Congregationalists, were among those who sympathized with the network’s goals and objectives. It was the Quakers in Pennsylvania that issued the first demand for the abolition of slavery in the United States in 1688. Levi Coffin, William Still, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Garrett, Samuel Burris, William Lloyd Garrison, Sojourner Truth, Joh Brown, Anderson Ruffin Abbott, Henry Brown, Obadiah Bush, Asa Drury, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Samuel Green, Gerrit Smith, Lucretia Coffin Mott, and Jermain Loguen are just a few of the most well-known supporters of the Underground Railroad: Levi Coffin, William Still, Frederick More information on the history of the Underground Railroad may be found at the following websites.
From the National Park Service’s Freedom Sites Network The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is located in Washington, D.C.
Under the categories of “popular” and “underground railroad,”
Pathways to Freedom
The Underground Railroad was a route from slavery to freedom in the north. It is possible that travellers will be halted when they reach a free state such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or Ohio, although this is rare. After 1850, the majority of enslaved individuals who managed to flee made it all the way to Canada. They needed to travel to Canada in order to ensure their own safety. The reason for this was because in 1850, the United States Congress approved a statute known as the Fugitive Slave Act, which prohibited the sale of slaves abroad.
Church in Philadelphia served as a vital station on the Underground Railroad as the “passengers” made their way north to freedom during the American Revolution.
The Fugitive Slave Act was passed as part of the agreement.
Most persons who want to flee the United States walked all the way to Canada after 1850 since it was unsafe to remain in free states such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, and even Massachusetts.
Consequently, one may claim that the Underground Railroad stretched from the American South to Canada. What routes did the Underground Railroad take across Maryland, and how did they differ from one another? «return to the home page»
The Underground Railroad (novel) – Wikipedia
| Author | Colson Whitehead |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Slavery |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
| Publication date | August 2, 2016 |
| Pages | 320 |
| ISBN | 978-0-385-54236-4 |
American authorColson Whitehead’s historical fiction work The Underground Railroadwas released by Doubleday in 2016 and is set during the Civil War. As told through the eyes of two slaves from Georgia during the antebellum period of the nineteenth century, Cora and Caesar make a desperate bid for freedom from their Georgia plantation by following the Underground Railroad, which is depicted in the novel as an underground transportation system with safe houses and secret routes. The novel was a critical and commercial success, debuting on the New York Times bestseller list and garnering numerous literary honors, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Award for Fiction, the Arthur C.
The miniseries adaption for ATV, written and directed by Barry Jenkins, will premiere in May 2021 on the network.
Plot
The tale is recounted in the third person, with the most of the attention being drawn to Cora. Throughout the book, the chapters shift between Cora’s past and the backgrounds of the featured people. Ajarry, Cora’s grandmother; Ridgeway, a slave catcher; Stevens, a South Carolina doctor conducting a social experiment; Ethel, the wife of a North Carolina station agent; Caesar, a fellow slave who escapes the plantation with Cora; and Mabel, Cora’s mother are among the characters who appear in the novel.
- Cora is a slave on a farm in Georgia, and she has become an outcast since her mother Mabel abandoned her and fled the country.
- Cora is approached by Caesar about a possible escape strategy.
- During their escape, they come across a bunch of slave hunters, who abduct Cora’s young buddy Lovey and take her away with them.
- Cora and Caesar, with the assistance of a novice abolitionist, track down the Subterranean Railroad, which is represented as a true underground railroad system that runs throughout the southern United States, delivering runaways northward.
- When Ridgeway learns of their escape, he immediately initiates a manhunt for them, primarily as a form of retaliation for Mabel, who is the only escapee he has ever failed to apprehend.
- According to the state of South Carolina, the government owns former slaves but employs them, provides medical care for them, and provides them with community housing.
- Ridgeway comes before the two can depart, and Cora is forced to return to the Railroad on her own for the remainder of the day.
Cora finally ends up in a decommissioned railroad station in North Carolina.
Slavery in North Carolina has been abolished, with indentured servants being used in its place.
Martin, fearful of what the North Carolinians would do to an abolitionist, takes Cora into his attic and keeps her there for a number of months.
While Cora is descending from the attic, a raid is carried out on the home, and she is recaptured by Ridgeway, while Martin and Ethel are executed by the crowd in their absence.
Ridgeway’s traveling group is assaulted by runaway slaves when stopped in Tennessee, and Cora is freed as a result of the attack.
The farm is home to a diverse group of freedmen and fugitives who coexist peacefully and cooperatively in their daily activities.
However, Royal, an operator on the railroad, encourages Cora to do so.
Eventually, the farm is destroyed, and several people, including Royal, are slain during a raid by white Hoosiers on the property.
Ridgeway apprehends Cora and compels her to accompany him to a neighboring railroad station that has been shuttered.
Homer is listening in on his views on the “American imperative” as he whispers them to him in his diary when he is last seen.
Cora then bolts down the railroad rails. She eventually emerges from the underworld to find herself in the midst of a caravan headed west. She is offered a ride by one of the wagons’ black drivers, who is dressed in black.
Literary influences and parallels
As part of the “Acknowledgements,” Whitehead brings up the names of two well-known escaped slaves: “Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, clearly.” While visiting Jacobs’s home state of North Carolina, Cora is forced to take refuge in an attic where, like Jacobs, she is unable to stand but can watch the outside world through a hole that “had been cut from the inside, the work of a former tenant.” This parallel was noticed by Martin Ebel, who wrote about it in a review for the SwissTages-Anzeiger.
He also points out that the “Freedom Trail,” where the victims of North Carolina lynchings are hanged from trees, has a historical precedent in Roman crosses erected along the Appian Way to execute slave revolters who had joinedSpartacus’ slave rebellion, which was written about by Arthur Koestler in his novelThe Gladiators.
Ridgeway has been compared to both Captain Ahab of Moby-Dick and the slave catcher August Pullman of the television seriesUnderground, according to Kathryn Schulz in The New Yorker: “Both Ridgeway and August Pullman, in “Underground,” are Ahab-like characters, privately and demonically obsessed with tracking down specific fugitives.” Neither Ahab nor Ridgeway have a warm place for a black boy: Ahab has a soft heart for the cabin-boy Pip, and Ridgeway has a soft spot for 10-year-old Homer, whom he acquired as a slave and freed the next day.
Whitehead’s North Carolina is a place where all black people have been “abolished.” Martin Ebel draws attention to the parallels between Cora’s hiding and the Nazi genocide of Jews, as well as the parallels between Cora’s concealment and Anne Frank’s.
He had three gallows made for Cora and her two companion fugitives so that they might be put to a merciless death as soon as they were apprehended and returned.
Reception
| External video |
|---|
| Presentation by Whitehead at the Miami Book Fair onThe Underground Railroad, November 20, 2016,C-SPAN |
Critical reception
During the “Acknowledgements,” Whitehead makes reference of two well-known escaped slaves: “Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, of course.” In Jacobs’s native North Carolina, Cora is forced to take refuge in an attic where, like her friend Jacobs, she is unable to stand but can watch the outside world through a hole that “had been dug from the inside, the work of a former inhabitant,” according to the novel.
According to Martin Ebel, who noted this parallel in a review for the SwissTages-Anzeiger, the “Freedom Trail,” where the victims of North Carolina lynchings are hung from trees, has a historical precedent in the Roman crosses erected along the Appian Way to execute slaves who had joined Spartacus’ slave rebellion, which were written about by Arthur Koestler in his novelThe Gladiators.
Ridgeway has been compared to both Captain Ahab of Moby-Dick and the slave catcher August Pullman of the television seriesUnderground, according to Kathryn Schulz of The New Yorker: “Both Ridgeway and August Pullman, in “Underground,” are Ahab-like characters, privately and demonically obsessed with tracking down specific fugitives.” As for a black child, both Ahab and Ridgeway have soft spots for him: Ahab for cabin-boy Pip, and Ridgeway for 10-year-old Homer, whom he purchased as a slave and freed the next day.
All black people have been “abolished” in Whitehead’s North Carolina.
It is the installation of three gallows by Cora’s plantation master that serves as an additional comparison to literature on Nazi Germany.
In Anna Seghers’ novelThe Seventh Cross, which was written in exile between 1938 and 1942, seven prisoners escape from a concentration camp, and the camp commander has a cross erected for each of them, so that they can be tortured there when they are recaptured and brought back to their respective camps.
Honors and awards
The novel has garnered a variety of honors, including the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction for fiction writing in general. It was E. Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News, published in 1993, that was the first novel to win both the Pulitzer and the National Book Awards. When awarding the Pulitzer Prize, the jury cited this novel’s “smart mixing of reality and allegory that mixes the savagery of slavery with the drama of escape in a myth that relates to modern America” as the reason for its selection.
Clarke Award for science fiction literature and the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, The Underground Railroad was a finalist for the 2017 Man Booker Prize and was named to the Man Booker Prize longlist.
The International Astronomical Union’s Working Group forPlanetary System Nomenclature named acrateronPluto’smoonCharonCora on August 5, 2020, after the fictional character Cora from the novel.
Television adaptation
In March 2017, it was revealed that Amazon was developing a limited drama series based on The Underground Railroad, which will be written and directed by Barry Jenkins. In 2021, the series will be made available on Amazon Prime Video on May 14, 2021.
References
- A limited drama series based on the novel The Underground Railroad, written and directed by Barry Jenkins, was announced in March 2017 for Amazon Prime Video. May 14, 2021 marked the day when the series was made available on Amazon Prime Video.
The Underground Railroad
The system even used terms used in railroading: the homes and businesses where fugitives would rest and eat were called “stations” and “depots” and were run by “stationmasters,” those who contributed money or goods were “stockholders,” and the “conductor” was responsible for moving fugitives from one station to the next.For the slave, running away to the North was anything but easy.
For many slaves, this meant relying on his or her own resources.
The fugitives would move at night.
While they waited, a message would be sent to the next station to alert its stationmaster.The fugitives would also travel by train and boat – conveyances that sometimes had to be paid for.
This money was donated by individuals and also raised by various groups, including vigilance committees.Vigilance committees sprang up in the larger towns and cities of the North, most prominently in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston.