Which Of The Following Best Describes Douglass’s Attitude About The Underground Railroad? (Correct answer)

What is Douglass talking about when he talks about the railroad?

• Douglass is talking about preventing slaves from using existing routes “by which a brother slave might clear himself of the chains and fetters of slavery”. This referred to the idea of saving the slaves from getting caught. Explain Frederick Douglass’ feeling regarding the “Underground Railroad.”

How does Douglass feel about the Underground Railroad?

Douglass adds that the underground railroad (an organized system of cooperation among abolitionists helping fugitive slaves escape to the North or Canada) should be called the “upperground railroad,” and he honors ” those good men and women for their noble daring, and applauds them for willingly subjecting themselves to

What did Frederick Douglass do for the Underground Railroad?

He also helped slaves escape to the North while working with the Underground Railroad. He established the abolitionist paper The North Star on December 3, 1847, in Rochester, NY, and developed it into the most influential black antislavery paper published during the antebellum era.

What was Frederick Douglass’s attitude?

In the narrative, Frederick Douglas reveals his deep hatred of slavery. To Douglas, slavery was both dehumanizing and degrading in nature. He confesses that, after learning to read, he came to see his pitiful position in its true light. It was then that he began to despise all slave owners.

When did Frederick Douglass help with the Underground Railroad?

After moving to Rochester, New York, in 1843, he and his wife Anna Murray-Douglass began facilitating the movement of enslaved fugitives to Canada via the Underground Railroad. Frederick Douglass, pictured here in 1876, was the most photographed man in nineteenth century America.

Why does Douglass call the underground railroad the Upperground railroad?

“Upperground Railroad” is a term coined by Frederick Douglass in his 1845 autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and was designed to criticize those who personally emphasized their work at helping escaped slaves. They stimulate him to greater watchfulness, and enhance his power to capture his slave.

Who did Douglass marry?

Frederick Douglass and Helen Pitts Douglass remained married until his death in 1895. After his will was contested by his children, Helen secured loans in order to buy Cedar Hill and preserve it as a memorial to her late husband.

Was Frederick Douglass a conductor of the Underground Railroad?

Anna and Frederick Douglass came back to the U.S., and settled in Rochester, New York. There he began to publish an abolitionist newspaper called The North Star. Douglass also served as a “conductor” on one of the last stops on the Underground Railroad before slaves found freedom in Canada.

Did Frederick Douglass travel on the Underground Railroad?

Frederick Douglass was another fugitive slave who escaped slavery. He escaped not on the Underground Railroad, but on a real train. He disguised himself as a sailor, but this was not enough. Henry “Box” Brown, another fugitive slave, escaped in a rather different way.

Was Underground Railroad an actual railroad?

Nope! Despite its name, the Underground Railroad wasn’t a railroad in the way Amtrak or commuter rail is. It wasn’t even a real railroad. The Underground Railroad of history was simply a loose network of safe houses and top secret routes to states where slavery was banned.

What is Frederick Douglass’s tone toward slaveholders?

He regards slaveholders as “a band of successful robbers” and as “the meanest as well as the most wicked of men.” 6. Douglass’s purpose is to express his thoughts and feelings about being enslaved and about the effects of literacy.

What Frederick Douglass got from Sheridan was a slavery was a bold vindication of slavery and a powerful denunciation of human rights?

What I got from Sheridan was a bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery.

What was Frederick Douglass famous speech?

Frederick Douglass delivered his famous speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? ” in 1852, drawing parallels between the Revolutionary War and the fight to abolish slavery. He implored the Rochester, N.Y., audience to think about the ongoing oppression of Black Americans during a holiday celebrating freedom.

What is Douglass’s conclusion about Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation?

What is Douglass’s conclusion about Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation? Douglass concluded that Lincoln’s attention was shifting from keeping the Union together to end slavery. Douglass wrote about his meeting with Lincoln almost 20 years later.

What is Frederick Douglass known for?

Frederick Douglass, original name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, (born February 1818, Talbot county, Maryland, U.S.—died February 20, 1895, Washington, D.C.), African American abolitionist, orator, newspaper publisher, and author who is famous for his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick

How did Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass differ in their approaches to abolishing slavery?

One of the biggest differences between Douglas’ and Lincoln’s views on slavery is that, unlike Lincoln, Douglas did not consider slavery a moral issue, an agonizing dilemma, nor was it an issue that would tear the Union apart. Lincoln’s stellar performance in these debates enabled his nomination for President in 1860.

Underground Railroad

CINCINNATI — The city of Cincinnati is undergoing a redevelopment project. The Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC) and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (NURFC) will offer COVID-19 immunization clinics, courtesy of TriHealth, in an attempt to protect their communities and battle the virus. On May 22 at the Freedom Center and May 29 at CMC, eligible persons can come in and obtain their immunization for free. At the Freedom Center from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 22 and at CMC from 10 a.m.

on Saturday, May 29, TriHealth will be providing freeJohnsonJohnsonvaccines to the public.

However, anyone who wish to register in advance can do so by phoning (513) 873-7124 or visiting the location.

O’dell Owens, a well-known physician, will participate in both vaccine clinics, addressing questions concerning the vaccine’s efficacy and effectiveness, as well as underlining the necessity of being vaccinated for everyone.

• Owens will be critical in establishing faith in the COVID-19 vaccinations among healthcare providers.
• For the purpose of making the vaccine more available to the general public, tourists will not be needed to pay entry to the museums on the days listed above in order to obtain their vaccination.
• In a statement, Elizabeth Pierce, president and CEO of the Cincinnati Museum Center and CEO of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, said, “We are grateful for TriHealth’s partnership in bringing this deadly pandemic to a close.
• Cincinnati Museum Center is a cultural institution in the city of Cincinnati.
• As part of its commitment to igniting community conversation, insight, and inspiration, the CMC was given the 2009 National Medal for Museum and Library Service by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and in 2012 it was accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
• By the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Union Terminal is the 45th most significant structure in the country.
• Lindner Family OMNIMAX ®Theater, and the Cincinnati History LibraryArchives are just a few of the organizations that make up CMC.
• Please see the website for further details.
• The museum’s permanent and rotating exhibitions and public activities have attracted more than 1.3 million visitors since its founding, motivating everyone to take daring strides forward in the quest for freedom and equality for all.
• Historians Against Slavery, Polaris Project, Free the Slaves, the United States Department of State, and the International Justice Mission are among the organizations that have partnered with the project.

Earlier this year, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center created endslaverynow.org, a new online resource for anyone fighting modern slavery.

Quaker Abolitionists

The Society of Friends (Quakers) is often regarded as the first organized group to actively assist escaped enslaved persons. In 1786, George Washington expressed dissatisfaction with Quakers for attempting to “liberate” one of his enslaved servants. Abolitionist and Quaker Isaac T. Hopper established a network in Philadelphia in the early 1800s to assist enslaved persons who were on the run from slavery. Abolitionist organisations founded by Quakers in North Carolina lay the basis for escape routes and safe havens for fugitive slaves during the same time period.

What Was the Underground Railroad?

The Underground Railroad was first mentioned in 1831, when an enslaved man named Tice Davids managed to escape from Kentucky into Ohio and his master blamed a “underground railroad” for assisting Davids in his liberation. When a fugitive slave called Jim was apprehended in 1839 in Washington, the press said that the guy confessed his plan to travel north along a “underground railroad to Boston” while under torture. The Vigilance Committees, which were established in New York in 1835 and Philadelphia in 1838 to safeguard escaped enslaved persons from bounty hunters, rapidly expanded their duties to include guiding enslaved individuals on the run.

MORE INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND AT: Harriet Tubman and her fellow fugitives used the following strategies to escape through the Underground Railroad:

How the Underground Railroad Worked

The majority of enslaved persons aided by the Underground Railroad were able to flee to neighboring states like as Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 made catching fugitive enslaved persons a lucrative industry in the deep South, and there were fewer hiding places for them as a result of the Act. The majority of fugitive enslaved people were on their own until they reached specific places farther north. The escaping enslaved people were escorted by individuals known as “conductors.” Private residences, churches, and schools were also used as hiding places throughout the war.

The personnel in charge of running them were referred to as “stationmasters.” There were several well-traveled roads that ran west through Ohio and into Indiana and Iowa.

The Little-Known Underground Railroad That Ran South to Mexico.

Fugitive Slave Acts

The Fugitive Slave Acts were a major cause for many fugitive slaves to flee to Canada. This legislation, which was passed in 1793, authorized local governments to catch and extradite fugitive enslaved individuals from inside the borders of free states back to their places of origin, as well as to penalize anybody who assisted the fleeing enslaved people. Personal Liberty Laws were introduced in certain northern states to fight this, but they were overturned by the Supreme Court in 1842. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was intended to reinforce the preceding legislation, which was perceived by southern states to be insufficiently enforced at the time of passage.

The northern states were still considered a danger zone for fugitives who had managed to flee.

Some Underground Railroad operators chose to station themselves in Canada and sought to assist fugitives who were arriving to settle in the country.

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman was the most well-known conductor of the Underground Railroad during its heyday. When she and two of her brothers fled from a farm in Maryland in 1849, she was given the name Harriet (her married name was Tubman). She was born Araminta Ross, and she was raised as Harriet Tubman. They returned a couple of weeks later, but Tubman fled on her own again shortly after, this time making her way to the state of Pennsylvania. In following years, Tubman returned to the plantation on a number of occasions to rescue family members and other individuals.

Tubman was distraught until she had a vision of God, which led her to join the Underground Railroad and begin escorting other fugitive slaves to the Maryland state capital.

Frederick Douglass

In his house in Rochester, New York, former enslaved person and celebrated author Frederick Douglasshid fugitives who were assisting 400 escapees in their journey to freedom in Canada. Reverend Jermain Loguen, a former fugitive who lived in the adjacent city of Syracuse, assisted 1,500 escapees on their journey north. The Vigilance Committee was established in Philadelphia in 1838 by Robert Purvis, an escaped enslaved person who later became a trader. Josiah Henson, a former enslaved person and railroad operator, founded the Dawn Institute in Ontario in 1842 to assist fugitive slaves who made their way to Canada in learning the necessary skills to find work.

Agent,” according to the document.

John Parker was a free Black man living in Ohio who worked as a foundry owner and who used his rowboat to ferry fugitives over the Ohio River.

William Still was a notable Philadelphia citizen who was born in New Jersey to runaway slaves parents who fled to Philadelphia as children.

Who Ran the Underground Railroad?

The vast majority of Underground Railroad operators were regular individuals, including farmers and business owners, as well as preachers and religious leaders. Some affluent individuals were active, including Gerrit Smith, a billionaire who stood for president on two separate occasions. Smith acquired a full family of enslaved people from Kentucky in 1841 and freed them from their captivity. Levi Coffin, a Quaker from North Carolina, is credited with being one of the first recorded individuals to assist escaped enslaved persons.

Coffin stated that he had discovered their hiding spots and had sought them out in order to assist them in moving forward.

Finally, they were able to make their way closer to him. Coffin eventually relocated to Indiana and then Ohio, where he continued to assist fugitive enslaved individuals no matter where he was.

John Brown

Abolitionist John Brown worked as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, and it was at this time that he founded the League of Gileadites, which was dedicated to assisting fleeing enslaved individuals in their journey to Canada. Abolitionist John Brown would go on to play a variety of roles during his life. His most well-known duty was conducting an assault on Harper’s Ferry in order to raise an armed army that would march into the deep south and free enslaved people at gunpoint. Ultimately, Brown’s forces were beaten, and he was executed for treason in 1859.

• The year 1844, he formed a partnership with Vermont schoolteacher Delia Webster, and the two were jailed for assisting an escaped enslaved lady and her young daughter.
• Charles Torrey was sentenced to six years in jail in Maryland for assisting an enslaved family in their attempt to flee through Virginia.
• After being apprehended in 1844 while transporting a boatload of freed slaves from the Caribbean to the United States, Massachusetts sea captain Jonathan Walker was sentenced to prison for life.
• John Fairfield of Virginia turned down the opportunity to assist in the rescue of enslaved individuals who had been left behind by their families as they made their way north.
• He managed to elude capture twice.

End of the Line

Operation of the Underground Railroad came to an end in 1863, during the American Civil War. In actuality, its work was shifted aboveground as part of the Union’s overall campaign against the Confederate States of America. Once again, Harriet Tubman made a crucial contribution by organizing intelligence operations and serving as a commanding officer in Union Army efforts to rescue the liberated enslaved people who had been freed. MORE INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND AT: Harriet Tubman led a daring Civil War raid after the Underground Railroad was shut down.

Sources

Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad is a book about the Underground Railroad. Fergus Bordewich is a Scottish actor. A Biography of Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom Catherine Clinton is the first lady of the United States. Who Exactly Was in Charge of the Underground Railroad?

‘Henry Louis Gates’ is a pseudonym for Henry Louis Gates. The Underground Railroad’s History in New York is a little known fact. The Smithsonian Institution’s magazine. The Underground Railroad’s Dangerous Allure is well documented. The New Yorker is a publication dedicated to journalism.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave

Summary Douglass manages to flee to the north in this chapter, but he is coy about the means by which he accomplished this achievement. He reveals that his technique of emancipation is still in use by other slaves, and as a result, he does not wish to make it public. Douglass goes on to say that the underground railroad (an organized system of cooperation among abolitionists who assisted fugitive slaves in escaping to the North or Canada) should be renamed the “upperground railroad,” and he commends “those good men and women for their noble daring, and applauds them for willingly subjecting themselves to bloody persecution,” but he is adamantly opposed to anyone disclosing the methods by which slaves were able to fle Apparently, Douglass was in desperate need of money to go away, and so he offered to Hugh Auld that he “lease his time.” For a specific sum every week, Douglass was given the freedom to pursue work on his own terms; anything he earned in excess of the amount he had committed to Auld was his to retain.

• “Rain or shine, work or no job, at the end of each week, the money must be forthcoming, or I will be forced to give up my privilege,” the narrator states.
• For Douglass, this employment scenario entailed not only suffering under slavery, but also experiencing the worry that comes with being a free man (who must fend for him or herself in the job market).
• At some point, he was able to save up enough money to travel to New York City on September 3, 1838.
• In the North, there are a plethora of “man-hunters,” who are willing to return fugitive slaves to their masters in exchange for a monetary reward.
• This is the first time that Douglass describes his wife, Anna Murray (a liberated lady whom he had met in Maryland) and how she came to live with him in New York City with him.
• They were instantly wedded and moved to the city.
• Douglass provides the following explanation: “I granted Mr.

That is something I must hold onto in order to maintain a sense of my own identity.” Sir Walter Scott’s epic love poem The Lady of the Lake was the inspiration for Johnson’s choice for “Douglass” to take the place of “Bailey.” Surprisingly, in the poem, the name of the exiled lord, James of Douglas, is spelt incorrectly with a singleton.

1. Instead, he discovered a cultured and rich society that was devoid of traces of great poverty in the North.
2. Douglass was resourceful, and he quickly found employment loading ships and handling a variety of other odd jobs.
3. During this period, another watershed moment occurred.
4. On August 11, 1841, while attending an anti-slavery conference, he delivered his first speech to an assembly of white people, at the request of William Coffin, an abolitionist leader who had invited him to speak.
5. Analysis Douglass, now a free man, saw that his initial name was inextricably linked to his identity and decided to keep it.
6. In The Lady of the Lake, we follow the narrative of James of Douglas, a fugitive who comes to terms with himself; it is a story that is faintly paralleled by Douglass’ own fugitive existence.
7. First and foremost, he asserts, slavery is a robber, and the rewards of slave work are exclusively enjoyed by slaveholders and their families.

Greed is unquestionably one of the primary components of slavery – along with power and authority.

Certainly, a free market in which an individual must fend for himself or herself is a challenging environment to live in, but Douglass would have preferred it over a slave economy any day.

Douglass is far less critical and forthright about racism in the North than he is in the South (at least in this first version of his autobiography).

First and foremost, he was still high on the high of freedom in the North, and whatever prejudice he encountered there would have been insignificant in comparison to what he faced in the South.

For many years, the power of slave hunters in the free states was a sensitive topic of discussion.

Money became an essential key to freedom, a key that was equally important as knowledge, because Douglass need money in order to purchase his journey to New York.

They had better health, were happier, and were more affluent than their counterparts in the Southern United States (South).

Because northern living circumstances were superior and the free market was a more efficient process, the northern hemisphere dominated. Slave labor had been supplanted by machinery. Having witnessed the type of capitalism that exists in the North, Douglass enthusiastically welcomes it.

Sojourner Truth (Educational Materials: African American Odyssey)

Introduction|Overview|Object List|Educational Materials for the African American Odyssey

• The abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Turth was one of the few African American women to take part in both the anti-slavery and women’s rights movements
• Sojourner Truth, who was born a slave and hence unschooled, was a powerful orator, preacher, activist, and abolitionist who inspired a generation. Truth and other African American women performed vital roles in the Civil War, assisting the Union forces to a significant degree.

Advocate for abolition of slavery as well as women’s rights Sojourner Truth was enslaved in New York from the time she was a child until she was an adult. Isabella Baumfree was born around the beginning of the nineteenth century and grew up speaking Dutch as her first language. She had been owned by a number of masters until being released in 1827 by the New York Gradual Abolition Act and going on to work as a housekeeper. During her journey in the United States in 1843, she thought she had been summoned by God to travel across the country and proclaim the truth of his word.

1. Selling these calling cards was one of the ways she was able to sustain herself and her profession.
2. Sojourner Truth was born in Hurley, New York, in the year 1797, and was given the name Isabella at the time of her birth.
3. Isabella was sold for $100 and a few sheep when she was eleven years old since she was considered “property” of multiple slave owners.
4. Truth was well-versed in sections of the Bible, despite the fact that she was unable to read.

Her name was changed to Sojourner Truth shortly after her conversion to Christianity, for the reasons that she explained: “Sojourner because I was to go across the country revealing people their faults and serving as a sign to them, and Truth because I was to tell the truth to the people.” This new name represented a new goal to disseminate the word of God and to speak out against slavery, which had been established earlier.

As a women’s rights fighter, Truth was burdened with additional responsibilities that white women were not subjected to, as well as the problem of battling a suffrage movement that did not want to be associated with anti-slavery activities for fear that it would harm their own cause.

Truth made the following statement at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851: “If the first woman God ever created was strong enough to flip the world upside down all by herself, these women united ought to be able to turn it back and get it right-side up again.” It was also here that Truth delivered her most famous speech, “Ain’t I a Woman,” which was broadcast worldwide.

1. Similarly to her sermon, the speech exudes passion and eloquence.
2. Later, when she was accused by a newspaper of being a “witch” who poisoned a religious leader in a religious organization that she had been a part of, she filed a defamation suit against the media and was awarded $125 in compensation.
3. “Sojourner Truth stands preeminently as the only African lady who achieved a national name on the lecture platform in the days before the War,” according to an obituary published in The New York Globe shortly after her death in December of 1883.
4. In her early years, Harriet Tubman resided on the Broadas Plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland, where she was the granddaughter and daughter of slaves.
5. She was taken away from her parents and rented out when she was just six years old.
6. During an effort to interfere in the beating of another slave, the then thirteen-year-old Tubman had her skull shattered by a 2-pound weight, which she carried on her back.
7. Her escape from slavery occurred during the summer of 1849, a year before Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which freed Harriet Tubman from slavery.
8. Following the North Star, Tubman finally arrived in Philadelphia, where she discovered refuge and companions, as well as information about the hidden network that comprised the Underground Railroad.
9. Tubman’s biography was written by Frederick Douglass, a prominent abolitionist and orator “.
10. [.] You, on the other hand, have worked in your own time and space.
11. After the war, Tubman concentrated her efforts on education, and she became a vocal advocate for the funding of black educational institutions.

Her facility for the aged and indigent blacks, known as the Harriet Tubman Home, was established in Auburn, New York, in 1908. She passed away on March 10, 1913, in Auburn.

1. Sojourner Truth was a tireless advocate for the abolition of slavery as well as for the advancement of women’s rights. What actions and statements did suffragists, such as Susan B. Anthony, make in support of abolitionists
2. In addition to working for abolition and women’s rights, Sojourner Truth sang and preached to raise money for black troops serving in the Union army during the American Civil War. Investigate the contributions of other African American women, such as Harriet Tubman and Charlotte Forten, to the abolition of slavery and the assistance of the Union army during the American Civil War. When Union soldiers pushed into the South during the Civil War, blacks flocked to the front lines to enlist for service. Because slaves were told that this was a “white man’s” war, they were not permitted to fight as soldiers and instead became contrabands of war. Contrabands Coming into Camp, a drawing by Alfred Waud, should be studied carefully. What do you believe the term “contrabands” signifies after looking at the sketch?

The African-American Experience An introduction, an overview, an object list, and educational materials are provided. Exhibitions Home Page|Home Page of the Library of Congress The Library of Congress is a federal government institution that collects and organizes information. Help Desk at the Library of Congress (12/09/98)

fugitive slave

The term “fugitive slave” refers to any individual who managed to flee slavery in the time leading up to and including the American Civil War. In general, they sought sanctuary in Canada or in free states in the North, while Florida (which had been under Spanish authority for a time) was also a popular destination. (See also the Black Seminoles.) Enslaved persons in America have wished to escape from their masters and seek refuge in other countries since the beginning of the slave trade. “An insatiable thirst for freedom,” said S.J.

1. The majority of slaves were uneducated and had little or no money, as well as few, if any, goods.
2. In order to reach safety in a free state or in Canada, many runaways had to traverse considerable miles on foot, which they did in many cases.
3. The majority of those who were returned to their owners were subjected to severe punishment in an effort to discourage others from attempting to flee.
4. Because of the tremendous physical difficulty of the voyage to freedom, the majority of slaves who managed to escape were young males, rather than women.
5. After the development of the Underground Railroad, a network of persons and safe houses that had developed over many years to assist runaway slaves on their treks north, fugitive slaves’ escape became simpler for a period of time.
6. According to some estimates, the “railroad” assisted as many as 70,000 people (but estimates range from 40,000 to 100,000) in their efforts to emancipate themselves from slavery between 1800 and 1865.
7. The runaways would travel in small groups during the night, sometimes covering a distance of 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 km) between train stations, constantly running the danger of being apprehended.
8. The majority of the time, their new lives in the so-called free states were not significantly better than their previous lives on the plantation.

The passage of the Fugitive Slave Actof 1850, which allowed for heavy fines to be levied against anyone who interfered with a slaveowner in the process of recapturing fugitive slaves and forced law-enforcement officials to assist in the recapture of runaways, exacerbated the situation in the North even further.

• Some of those who managed to flee penned memoirs on their ordeals and the obstacles they encountered on their trip to safety in the north.
• An further work, Slave Life in Virginia and Kentucky; or, Fifty Years of Slavery in the Southern States of America(1863), relates the story of a slave called Francis Fedric (sometimes spelt Fredric or Frederick), who was subjected to horrific violence at the hands of his master.
• The Resurrection of Henry “Box” Brown at the Pennsylvania Convention Center It is depicted in an undated broadside issued in Boston as the Resurrection of Henry “Box” Brown, which took place in Philadelphia.
• The Library of Congress is located in Washington, D.C.
• He is first filled with excitement at the realization that he has landed at a free condition.
• Bowie’s Frederick Douglass is a biography.
• Bowie’s portrait of Frederick Douglass as a fugitive slave was published as the cover artwork for a piece of sheet music, The Fugitive’s Song, that was written for and dedicated to Douglass in 1845.

This alone was enough to dampen the ardor of my enthusiasm.

However, I was overcome with loneliness.

Runaway slaves’ experiences are represented in a number of famous works of American literature, including Harriet Beecher Stowe’s The Scarlet Letter.

Eliza Harris is a fugitive slave who In a similar vein, Jim in Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(1884) is an escaped slave who befriends and defends Huck.

In Toni Morrison’s powerfulPulitzer Prize-winning novelBeloved, a third, more modern depiction of the experiences of a fugitive is told from the perspective of an African American woman (1987).

It is based on true events and portrays the narrative of Sethe, a fugitive who chooses to kill her young kid rather than allow herself to be captured and imprisoned by her captors. Naomi Blumberg was the author of the most recent revision and update to this article.

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman is perhaps the most well-known of all the Underground Railroad’s “conductors.” During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. And, as she once proudly pointed out to Frederick Douglass, in all of her journeys she “never lost a single passenger.” Tubman was born a slave in Maryland’s Dorchester County around 1820. At age five or six, she began to work as a house servant. Seven years later she was sent to work in the fields.

1. Always ready to stand up for someone else, Tubman blocked a doorway to protect another field hand from an angry overseer.
2. It fell short, striking Tubman on the head.
3. (She was born Araminta Ross; she later changed her first name to Harriet, after her mother.) In 1849, in fear that she, along with the other slaves on the plantation, was to be sold, Tubman resolved to run away.
4. With some assistance from a friendly white woman, Tubman was on her way.
5. The following year she returned to Maryland and escorted her sister and her sister’s two children to freedom.
6. On her third return, she went after her husband, only to find he had taken another wife.

She devised clever techniques that helped make her “forays” successful, including using the master’s horse and buggy for the first leg of the journey; leaving on a Saturday night, since runaway notices couldn’t be placed in newspapers until Monday morning; turning about and heading south if she encountered possible slave hunters; and carrying a drug to use on a baby if its crying might put the fugitives in danger.

Tubman even carried a gun which she used to threaten the fugitives if they became too tired or decided to turn back, telling them, “You’ll be free or die.”By 1856, Tubman’s capture would have brought a $40,000 reward from the South.

She promptly pulled out a book and feigned reading it.

Of the famed heroine, who became known as “Moses,” Frederick Douglass said, “Excepting John Brown – of sacred memory – I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than.” And John Brown, who conferred with “General Tubman” about his plans to raid Harpers Ferry, once said that she was “one of the bravest persons on this continent.”Becoming friends with the leading abolitionists of the day, Tubman took part in antislavery meetings.

On the way to such a meeting in Boston in 1860, in an incident in Troy, New York, she helped a fugitive slave who had been captured.During the Civil War Harriet Tubman worked for the Union as a cook, a nurse, and even a spy.

After the war she settled in Auburn, New York, where she would spend the rest of her long life. She died in 1913.Image Credit: Moorland-Spingarn Research Center