Why Did The Underground Railroad? (Professionals recommend)

The Underground Railroad was a secret system developed to aid fugitive slaves on their escape to freedom. Involvement with the Underground Railroad was not only dangerous, but it was also illegal. So, to help protect themselves and their mission secret codes were created.

• The Underground Railroad was established to aid enslaved people in their escape to freedom. The railroad was comprised of dozens of secret routes and safe houses originating in the slaveholding states and extending all the way to the Canadian border, the only area where fugitives could be assured of their freedom.

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.

Why did Harriet Tubman make the Underground Railroad?

Tubman first encountered the Underground Railroad when she used it to escape slavery herself in 1849. Following a bout of illness and the death of her owner, Tubman decided to escape slavery in Maryland for Philadelphia. Making use of the Underground Railroad, Tubman traveled nearly 90 miles to Philadelphia.

Were there tunnels in the Underground Railroad?

Contrary to popular belief, the Underground Railroad was not a series of underground tunnels. While some people did have secret rooms in their houses or carriages, the vast majority of the Underground Railroad involved people secretly helping people running away from slavery however they could.

How many slaves died trying to escape?

At least 2 million Africans –10 to 15 percent–died during the infamous “Middle Passage” across the Atlantic. Another 15 to 30 percent died during the march to or confinement along the coast. Altogether, for every 100 slaves who reached the New World, another 40 had died in Africa or during the Middle Passage.

Is Gertie Davis died?

By age five, Tubman’s owners rented her out to neighbors as a domestic servant. Early signs of her resistance to slavery and its abuses came at age twelve when she intervened to keep her master from beating an enslaved man who tried to escape.

What state ended slavery first?

In 1780, Pennsylvania became the first state to abolish slavery when it adopted a statute that provided for the freedom of every slave born after its enactment (once that individual reached the age of majority). Massachusetts was the first to abolish slavery outright, doing so by judicial decree in 1783.

What ended the Underground Railroad?

On January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation liberating slaves in Confederate states. After the war ended, the 13^th 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.

Were quilts used in the Underground Railroad?

Two historians say African American slaves may have used a quilt code to navigate the Underground Railroad. Quilts with patterns named “wagon wheel,” “tumbling blocks,” and “bear’s paw” appear to have contained secret messages that helped direct slaves to freedom, the pair claim.

What did slaves do after they escaped?

Most large plantations in the South, however, had slaves who escaped. Slaves’ resistance to captivity took many forms, such as performing careless work, destroying property, or faking illness. Many enslaved persons who were able chose escape, however. Some tried to rejoin family members living on a nearby properties.

The Underground Railroad

At the time of slavery, the Underground Railroad was a network of routes, locations, and individuals that assisted enslaved persons in the American South in their attempts to flee to freedom in the northern states. Subjects History of the United States, Social StudiesImage

Home of Levi Coffin

Levi Coffin’s residence in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he lived as an American Quaker and abolitionist. This was a station on the Underground Railroad, a network of routes, locations, and individuals that assisted enslaved persons in escaping to the North during the Civil War. Cincinnati Museum Center provided the photography. “> During the age of slavery, the Underground Railroad was a network of routes, locations, and individuals that assisted enslaved persons in the American South in escaping to the North, according to the Underground Railroad Museum.

Although it was not a real railroad, it fulfilled the same function as one: it carried passengers across large distances.

The people who worked for the Underground Railroad were driven by a passion for justice and a desire to see slavery abolished—a drive that was so strong that they risked their lives and jeopardized their own freedom in order to assist enslaved people in escaping from bondage and staying safe while traveling the Underground Railroad.

1. As the network expanded, the railroad metaphor became more prevalent.
2. In recent years, academic research has revealed that the vast majority of persons who engaged in the Underground Railroad did it on their own, rather than as part of a larger organization.
3. According to historical tales of the railroad, conductors frequently pretended to be enslaved persons in order to smuggle runaways out of plantation prisons and train stations.
4. Often, the conductors and passengers traveled 16–19 kilometers (10–20 miles) between each safehouse stop, which was a long distance in this day and age.
5. Patrols on the lookout for enslaved persons were usually on their tails, chasing them down.
6. Historians who study the railroad, on the other hand, find it difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction.
7. Eric Foner is one of the historians that belongs to this group.
8. Despite this, the Underground Railroad was at the center of the abolitionist struggle during the nineteenth century.
9. Levi Coffin’s residence in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he lived as an American Quaker and abolitionist.
10. Cincinnati Museum Center provided the photography.
11. Person who is owned by another person or group of people is referred to as an enslaved person.

Slavery is a noun that refers to the act of owning another human being or being owned by another human being (also known as servitude). Abolitionists utilized this nounsystem between 1800 and 1865 to aid enslaved African Americans in their attempts to flee to free states.

Media Credits

With the exception of promotional graphics, which normally link to another page that carries the media credit, all audio, artwork, photos, and videos are attributed beneath the media asset they are associated with. In the case of media, the Rights Holder is the individual or group that gets credited.

Director

Tyson Brown is a member of the National Geographic Society.

Author

The National Geographic Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to the exploration of the world’s natural wonders.

Production Managers

Gina Borgia is a member of the National Geographic Society. Jeanna Sullivan is a member of the National Geographic Society.

Program Specialists

According to National Geographic Society’s Sarah Appleton, Margot Willis is a National Geographic Society photographer.

Last Updated

• User Permissions are set to expire on June 21, 2019. Users’ permissions are detailed in our Terms of Service, which you can see by clicking here. Alternatively, if you have any issues regarding how to reference something from our website in your project or classroom presentation, please speak with your instructor. They will be the most knowledgeable about the selected format. When you contact them, you will need to provide them with the page title, URL, and the date on which you visited the item.

Media

If a media asset is available for download, a download button will show in the lower right corner of the media viewer window. If no download or save button displays, you will be unable to download or save the material.

Text

The text on this page is printable and may be used in accordance with our Terms of Service agreement.

Interactives

• Any interactives on this page can only be accessed and used while you are currently browsing our site. You will not be able to download interactives.

Underground Railroad

Underground Railroad was a network of people, both black and white, who helped escaped enslaved persons from the southern United States by providing them with refuge and assistance. It came forth as a result of the convergence of numerous separate covert initiatives. Although the exact dates of its inception are unknown, it was active from the late 18th century until the Civil War, after which its attempts to weaken the Confederacy were carried out in a less-secretive manner until the Civil War ended.

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.

By the 1840s, the phrase “Underground Railroad” had become part of the common lexicon in the United States. 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.

Tubman transported groups of fugitives to Canada on a regular basis, believing that the United States would not treat them favorably.

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.

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.

1. 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.
2. Charles Torrey was sentenced to six years in jail in Maryland for assisting an enslaved family in their attempt to flee through Virginia.
3. 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.
4. 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.

Fairfield’s strategy was to go around the southern United States appearing as a slave broker. He managed to elude capture twice. He died in 1860 in Tennessee, during the American Reconstruction Era.

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.

Underground Railroad

See how abolitionists in the United States, like as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Thomas Garrett, assisted enslaved people in their attempts to escape to freedom. Learn about the abolitionist movement in the United States, as well as the importance of the Underground Railroad in this historical period. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. is a publishing company that publishes encyclopedias. View all of the videos related to this topic. When escaped slaves from the South were secretly assisted by sympathetic Northerners, in defiance of the Fugitive Slave Acts, to reach safe havens in the North or Canada, this was referred to as the Underground Railroad in the United States.

Even though it was neither underground nor a railroad, it was given this name because its actions had to be carried out in secret, either via the use of darkness or disguise, and because railroad words were employed in relation to the system’s operation.

In all directions, the network of channels stretched over 14 northern states and into “the promised land” of Canada, where fugitive-slave hunters were unable to track them down or capture them.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, best known for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, obtained firsthand experience of escaped slaves via her association with the Underground Railroad in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she lived for a time during the Civil War.

The existence of the Underground Railroad, despite the fact that it was only a small minority of Northerners who took part in it, did much to arouse Northern sympathy for the plight of slaves during the antebellum period, while also convincing many Southerners that the North as a whole would never peacefully allow the institution of slavery to remain unchallenged.

When was the first time a sitting president of the United States appeared on television? Return to the past for the really American responses. Amy Tikkanen has made the most current revisions and updates to this page.

Review

“The Underground Railroad,” directed by Barry Jenkins, explores two historical legacies. One is unsightly and horrifying, a ringing echo of an organization that stripped human people of their culture and identity and enslaved them for the sake of profiting from their labor. The other is beautiful and thrilling, and it is defined by strength and determination. Even while these two legacies have been entwined for 400 years, there have been few few films that have examined their unsettling intersection as carefully and cohesively as Jenkins’s adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

• Following Cora (Thuso Mbedu) and a protecting fellow slave named Caesar (Aaron Pierre) as they flee from a Georgia farm under the threat of a vengeful slave catcher, the narrative is told in flashback.
• The Amazon Prime series, which premieres on Friday and will be available for streaming thereafter, comes at a time when there is rising discussion over shows and films that concentrate on Black agony.
• I used the stop button a lot, both to collect my thoughts and to brace myself for what was about to happen.
• Cora suffers a series of setbacks as she makes her way to freedom, and her anguish is exacerbated by the death of her mother, Mabel (Sheila Atim), who emigrated from the plantation when Cora was a youngster and died there.
• Unlike any other drama on television, this one is unique in how it displays the resilience and tenacity of Black people who have withstood years of maltreatment in a society established on contradictory concepts of freedom.
• There, she becomes a part of the growing Black society there.
• In this community, however, there is also conflict between some of the once enslaved Black people who built the agricultural community and Cora, who is deemed to be a fugitive by the authorities.

The series takes on a nostalgically patriotic tone since it is set against the backdrop of the American heartland.

This is when Jenkins’s hallmark shot, in which actors maintain a lingering focus on the camera, is at its most impactful.

The urgent and scary horn of a train is skillfully incorporated into composerNicholas Britell’s eerie and at times comical soundtrack.

Even after finding safety in the West, Cora is still wary of Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton), the slave hunter who is determined to track her down.

Despite the fact that “The Underground Railroad” delves into Ridgeway’s fears and personal shortcomings that drove him to his murderous vocation, it does not offer any excuses for his heinous behavior.

Dillon, who plays an outstanding part), a little Black child who is officially free but who acts as the slave catcher’s constant companion while being formally in his possession.

For a few precious minutes, the youngster pretends to be the child he once was by holding the weapon and playing with it.

After Amazon commissioned a focus group in which they questioned Black Atlanta residents if they thought Whitehead’s novel should be adapted for the screen, the director informed the press that he made the decision to proceed.

It was like, ‘Tell it, but you have to demonstrate everything,'” says the author.

‘It has to be nasty,’ says the author “Jenkins spoke with the New York Times.

Over the course of the week that I spent viewing “The Underground Railroad,” I found myself becoming increasingly interested in the amateur genealogical research I’d done on my own family, which is descended in part from African American slaves.

However, some of my ancestors’ stories have made their way to me, including those of my great-great-great-grandmother, who returned to her family in Virginia after years of being sold to a plantation owner in Mississippi; and the male relatives in her line who defiantly changed their surnames so that their children wouldn’t bear the name of a man who owned people for profit.

Pain is abundant, and the series invites us to express our sorrow.

Wait, but don’t take your eyes off the prize. There’s a lot more to Cora’s tale than meets the eye. The Underground Railroad (ten episodes) will be available for streaming on Amazon Prime starting Friday. (Full disclosure: The Washington Post is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.)

The Secret History of the Underground Railroad

Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race was the title of a series published by De Bow’s Review, a leading Southern periodical, a decade before the Civil War. The series was deemed necessary by the editors because it had “direct and practical bearing” on 3 million people whose worth as property totaled approximately $2 billion. When it comes to African Americans’ supposed laziness (“deficiency of red blood in the pulmonary and arterial systems”), love of dancing (“profuse distribution of nervous matter to the stomach, liver, and genital organs”), and extreme aversion to being whipped (“skin.

1. However, it was Cartwright’s discovery of a previously undiscovered medical illness, which he coined “Drapetomania, or the sickness that causes Negroes to flee,” that grabbed the most attention from readers.
2. Despite the fact that only a few thousand individuals, at most, fled slavery each year—nearly all of them from states bordering the free North—their migration was seen by many Southern whites as a portent of a greater calamity.
3. How long do you think it will take until the entire cloth begins to unravel?
4. Rather, it was intentionally supported and helped by a well-organized network that was both large and diabolical in scope.
5. The word “Underground Railroad” brings up pictures of trapdoors, flickering lamps, and moonlit routes through the woods in the minds of most people today, just as it did in the minds of most Americans in the 1840s and 1850s.
6. At least until recently, scholars paid relatively little attention to the story, which is remarkable considering how prominent it is in the national consciousness.
7. The Underground Railroad was widely believed to be a statewide conspiracy with “conductors,” “agents,” and “depots,” but was it really a fiction of popular imagination conjured up from a succession of isolated, unconnected escapes?
8. Which historians you trust in will determine the solutions.

One historian (white) questioned surviving abolitionists (most of whom were also white) a decade after the Civil War and documented a “great and complicated network” of agents, 3,211 of whom he identified by name, as well as a “great and intricate network” of agents (nearly all of them white).

1. “I escaped without the assistance.
2. C.
3. “I have freed myself in the manner of a man.” In many cases, the Underground Railroad was not concealed at all.
4. The journal of a white New Yorker who assisted hundreds of runaway slaves in the 1850s was found by an undergraduate student in Foner’s department at Columbia University while working on her final thesis some years ago, and this discovery served as the inspiration for his current book.
5. One of the book’s most surprising revelations is that, according to the book’s subtitle, the Underground Railroad was not always secret at all.
6. The New York State Vigilance Committee, established in 1850, the year of the infamous Fugitive Slave Act, officially declared its objective to “welcome, with open arms, the panting fugitive.” Local newspapers published stories about Jermain W.

Bazaars with the slogan “Buy for the sake of the slave” provided donated luxury items and handcrafted knickknacks just before the winter holidays, and bake sales in support of the Underground Railroad, no matter how unlikely it may seem, became popular fund-raisers in Northern towns and cities.

• Political leaders, especially those who had taken vows to protect the Constitution — including the section ordering the return of runaways to their proper masters — blatantly failed to carry out their obligations.
• Judge William Jay, a son of the first chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, made the decision to disregard fugitive slave laws and contributed money to aid runaway slaves who managed to flee.
• One overlooked historical irony is that, up until the eve of Southern secession in 1860, states’ rights were cited as frequently by Northern abolitionists as they were by Southern slaveholders, a fact that is worth noting.
• It was not recognized for its abolitionist passion, in contrast to places like as Boston and Philadelphia, which had deep-rooted reformer traditions—­as well as communities in upstate New York such as Buffalo and Syracuse.

Even before the city’s final bondsmen were released, in 1827, its economy had become deeply intertwined with that of the South, as evidenced by a gloating editorial in the De Bow newspaper, published shortly before the Civil War, claiming the city was “nearly as reliant on Southern slavery as Charleston.” New York banks lent money to plantation owners to acquire slaves, while New York merchants made their fortunes off the sale of slave-grown cotton and sugar.

• Besides properly recapturing escapees, slave catchers prowled the streets of Manhattan, and they frequently illegally kidnapped free blacks—particularly children—in order to sell them into Southern bondage.
• The story begins in 1846, when a man called George Kirk slipped away aboard a ship sailing from Savannah to New York, only to be discovered by the captain and shackled while awaiting return to his owner.
• The successful fugitive was escorted out of court by a phalanx of local African Americans who were on the lookout for him.
• In this case, the same court found other legal grounds on which to free Kirk, who rolled out triumphantly in a carriage and made his way to the safety of Boston in short order this time.
• In addition to being descended from prominent Puritans, Sydney Howard Gay married a wealthy (and radical) Quaker heiress.
• Co-conspirator Louis Napoleon, who is thought to be the freeborn son of a Jewish New Yorker and an African American slave, was employed as an office porter in Gay’s office.
• Gay was the one who, between 1855 and 1856, maintained the “Record of Fugitives,” which the undergraduate discovered in the Columbia University archives and which chronicled more than 200 escapes.

Dr.

One first-person narrative starts, “I ate one meal a day for eight years.” “It has been sold three times, and it is expected to be sold a fourth time.

Undoubtedly, a countrywide network existed, with its actions sometimes shrouded in secrecy.

Its routes and timetables were continually changing as well.

As with Gay and Napoleon’s collaboration, its operations frequently brought together people from all walks of life, including the affluent and the poor, black and white.

Among others who decamped to Savannah were a light-skinned guy who set himself up in a first-class hotel, went around town in a magnificent new suit of clothes, and insouciantly purchased a steamship ticket to New York from Savannah.

At the height of the Civil War, the number of such fugitives was still a small proportion of the overall population.

It not only played a role in precipitating the political crisis of the 1850s, but it also galvanized millions of sympathetic white Northerners to join a noble fight against Southern slave­holders, whether they had personally assisted fugitive slaves, shopped at abolitionist bake sales, or simply enjoyed reading about slave escapes in books and newspapers.

• More than anything else, it trained millions of enslaved Americans to gain their freedom at a moment’s notice if necessary.
• Within a few months, a large number of Union soldiers and sailors successfully transformed themselves into Underground Railroad operatives in the heart of the South, sheltering fugitives who rushed in large numbers to the Yankees’ encampments to escape capture.
• Cartwright’s most horrific nightmares.
• On one of the Union’s railway lines, an abolitionist discovered that the volume of wartime traffic was at an all-time high—­except on one of them.
• The number of solo travelers is quite limited.” And it’s possible that New Yorkers were surprised to open their eyes in early 1864.

The accompanying essay, on the other hand, soon put their worries at ease. It proposed a plan to construct Manhattan’s first subway line, which would travel northward up Broadway from the Battery to Central Park. It was never built.

Fact and fiction in ‘The Underground Railroad’

In preparation for Colson Whitehead’s visit to campus, three Lesley professors convened a symposium in Washburn Lounge to debate the intersection of reality, fiction, and imagination in the author’s famous work, “The Underground Railroad.” The discussion was open to the public. A total of 40 students, instructors, and staff members took part in the event. Please see below for a brief overview if you haven’t already done so. A young lady named Cora is captured in Georgia and sold into slavery, with her only hope of escaping through the Underground Railroad.

His description of the train, in instance, is that of a real, subterranean form of transit that transports Cora from one condition to another.

Despite the fact that Whitehead uses artistic license to great advantage, Assistant Professor Tatiana Cruz believes that it might also lead to some misunderstanding.

Cruz described the true underground railroad, which was primarily run by “everyday black folks,” not white abolitionists, and which was primarily operated in states bordering free states, because it was too dangerous to run such an operation in more southern states, as outlined in the book Underground Railroad: A History.

A significant number of slaves were illiterate, and their inability to comprehend maps and road signs added an additional element of risk to an already perilous journey.

The narrative of Cora, on the other hand, depicts a lady who is on a trip.

It is the path of a man toward self-knowledge that defines his journey.” Dockray-Miller stated that “The Underground Railroad” draws on literary influences such as Frederick Douglass’ autobiography and “Gulliver’s Travels,” but added that “he’s remixing it and making it his own.” In her opinion, Whitehead has established a literary trope for which there is no existing label.

While many have referred to the work as magical realism, Ronderos disagreed, claiming that it was too realistic to fall into that category.

As a result, even in the novel’s fantasy components, the heart of the narrative — from the brutality inflicted on enslaved people to the vicious chase of escaped slaves — is represented accurately.

Moreover, according to Dockray-Miller, while the work is primarily concerned with the past, it also contains a message for readers today and in the future.

“I believe Colson Whitehead is bright in a variety of ways,” she stated. “He’s an artist who understands the beauty of the English language and knows how to utilize it to great advantage,” says the author.

Making a TV show about slavery is enough to undo you. Ask Barry Jenkins

Barry Jenkins clearly recalls the moment he learned about the Underground Railroad for the very first time. The first time he heard such words, he was probably 5 or 6, and he recalls how it was “unimaginable” to him: “IsawBlack people riding trains that were underground.” He worked as a longshoreman and would always arrive at the port with his hard hat and tool belt on his back. Someone like him, I believed, was responsible for the construction of the Underground Railroad. “It was a great sensation since it was only about Black people and the concept of constructing things.” It would later become clear to the child that the name “Underground Railroad” was actually a slang word for a network of safe homes and passageways that slaves used to flee their tyrannical owners in the antebellum South.

This year’s highly anticipated “The Underground Railroad,” an Amazon limited series based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning historical novel about a runway slave named Cora (Thuso Mbedu) and her desperate, often hellish quest for freedom as she flees the shackles of bondage, will bring Jenkins’ childhood vision of the railroad full circle.

1. The author serves as an executive producer on the adaptation, which will debut on the streaming service on Friday, April 12.
2. He was nominated for an Academy Award for best director for his work on the 2016 homosexual coming-of-age film, which went on to win the award for best picture.
3. However, while Jenkins is clearly pleased with his accomplishment, he is also aware that “The Underground Railroad” represents the greatest risk of his professional life.
4. Specifically, the filmmaker predicts that Black viewers, in particular, would have a more intense emotional response to the distressing content than other audiences.
5. “That’s not what it’s about,” he remarked in an interview done through video conference from his home, during which he was both animated and softly reflective.
6. For the past 41 and a half years, this has been my life’s work.
7. I’m not sure how to digest what I’ve just heard.

This is not the case in this instance.

‘That duty, that weight, it’s still on my shoulders.’ (Image courtesy of Atsushi Nishijima/Amazon Prime Video) Jenkins considers the project to be his destiny on the one hand.

Then I realized that I had to do it.” In addition, he was able to witness the practical manifestation of his early idea with the construction of an underground set at the Georgia State Railroad Museum in Savannah, Georgia.

“It needs to be authentic.

In order for the players to walk into the tunnel and touch the rails, they must be able to get down on their knees and touch the walls.

It would have been a mind-boggling experience.

The series is the latest in a long line of notable ventures that have combined America’s horrendous history of racial relations with elements of popular culture to great effect.

Black viewers have condemned the films “Them” and “Two Distant Strangers” in particular, labeling the painful imagery as “Black trauma porn” (trauma for black people).

There is a good chance that the premiere episode of “The Underground Railroad” will add additional gasoline to the fire.

Jenkins claims that black viewers had already expressed their opinions many weeks before the broadcast.

“Do we require any further photographs of this?” the query posed.

(Image courtesy of Kyle Kaplan/Amazon Studios) From the beginning, he was warned that he was about to walk into a minefield.

“However, I do not believe that the country will ever be prepared to look at photos from this period.” Despite this, all you’ve heard for the past four years has been the slogan ‘Make America Great Again.’ At least some of what America has done, particularly when it comes to individuals who look like me, has to be a result of wilful ignorance or erasure on their side.

To discover Jenkins’ genuine goal, audiences are encouraged to look past the scenes of brutality and recognize his underlying motivation: to shine a light on the victory of slaves rather than on their traumatic experiences.

“It’s the only reason someone like me is here today, and nothing else.” “If I am able to take these photographs and put them back into their original context, it makes the portrayal of the images worthwhile.” He mentioned the prominent role played by children in Whitehead’s work, and he stated that he intended to replicate that presence in the series.

• However, there is a great deal that has to do with parenting as well.
• As a result, youngsters are constantly present in our presentation.
• The NAACP and the journal were founded by W.E.B.
• “I came to the realization that this was one of the most amazing acts of collective parenting the world has ever witnessed.” They were there to safeguard the youngsters.
• We hear that Black families have always been divided and that Black dads have always been gone from their children’s lives, and this is true.
• (Image courtesy of Amazon Studios’ Atsushi Nishijima) Kim Whyte, a mental health counselor located in Georgia, was brought on board to help him create a safe and open setting for dealing with the challenging and often visceral subject matter.

According to Jenkins, Whyte’s involvement was not intentional: “I didn’t want these pictures to unravel us, even while we were unpacking them.” Whyte expressed gratitude to Jenkins for the confidence he placed in her, saying, “I couldn’t find a model before me in terms of being a mental health counselor on a set.” I was able to engage with everyone on the set because to Barry’s generosity.

1. His permission to connect with them after takes and in between takes was very appreciated.” ‘It was eye-opening,’ she described her experience.
2. However, they all had lives of their own.
3. The material, on the other hand, was causing people to respond.
4. “It’s a stain on humanity that we all share,” Whyte explained.
5. ‘This character does not sit well with me.’ It was necessary for them to unravel the emotions that they were required to express at times.
6. As we went through it, I told her, ‘Yes, you have every right to be unhappy about this,’ she said.
7. ‘And you are a human being.’ They needed to realize that it wasn’t their own rage.

Underground Railroad Bibliography

Herbert Aptheker is the author of this work. Ideology of Abolitionism, Revolutionary Political Movement G.K. Hall & Company, Boston, 1989. Lerone Bennett is a fictional character created by author Lerone Bennett. Before the Mayflower: A Brief History of Black America is a collection of essays about the history of black people in America before the Mayflower. Johnson Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1982. Ira Berlin is a fictional character created by author Ira Berlin. Hundreds of Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America.

• The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press published the book in 1998 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• The Hippocrene Guide to the Underground Railroad is a guide to the Underground Railroad written by Hippocrene.
• Charles Blockson is the author of this work.
• Prentice Hall Publishing Company, New York, 1987.
• The Underground Railroad: Dramatic First-Hand Accounts of Daring Escapes to Freedom is a collection of dramatic first-person accounts of daring escapes to freedom.
• 1987.
• Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, California, 1971.

Harriet Tubman, “The Moses of Her People,” was published in 1869.

Frederick Douglass was a famous American author.

Knopf Publishing Group, New York, 1994.

Frederick Douglass’s Thoughts and Feelings are explored in this book.

Cromwell & Company, New York, 1968.

Slavery as Seen from the North Side.

Ericson, David F., “The Debate Over Slavery: Antislavery and Proslavery Liberalism in Antebellum America,” in The Debate Over Slavery: Antislavery and Proslavery Liberalism in Antebellum America, edited by David F.

The New York University Press published a book in 2000 titled Paul Finkelman, ed., Slavery and the Law.

Madison, WI: Madison House Publishers, 1997.

Larry Gara is the author of this work.

The University Press of Kentucky published this book in 1996.

Between Slavery and Freedom: The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 Vintage Books, a division of Random House, published the book in 1976 in New York.

1831-1861: The Abolitionists and the Southern Confederacy The University Press of Kentucky published this book in 1995.

is a member of the Hornsby family.

From 1619 until the present, significant events and people have occurred.

Harriet Jacobs is a writer who lives in New York City.

Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987.

In the United States, there are several underground railroad resources.

The National Park Service is a federal agency.

The United States Department of the Interior published this publication in 1998 in Washington, D.C.

The Department of the Interior of the United States of America published this publication in 1995.

The Department of the Interior of the United States of America published this book in 1996 in Washington, D.C.

His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P.

Parker, a former slave and conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Norton & Company, New York, 1996.

Facts about the Underground Railroad, as well as authentic narratives, letters, and other materials PorterCoates Publishing Company, Philadelphia, 1872.

“Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the UGRR,” by Jacqueline Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard, is available online. Doubleday Publishing Company, New York, 1999.

Indiana Resources

Ronald Baker is the author of this work. Homeless, friendless, and penniless: The WPA conducts interviews with former slaves who are now residents of Indiana. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 2000. Maxine Brown is the author of this work. A Study of Free Blacks’ Participation in the Underground Railroad Activities of Central Indiana The DNR-DHPA published a report in 2001 titled COL. WILLIAM Cockrum’s obituary. The Anti-Slavery League’s investigation into the Underground Railroad’s history was published in the book The History of the Underground Railroad.

• Levi Coffin is a fictional character created by author Levi Coffin.
• Mark Coomer is the author of this work.
• Indianapolis.
• The DNR-DHPA published a report in 2001 titled Xenia, you have a cord.
• The Indiana Historical Society published this book in 1993.
• Bury me in a Free Land: The Abolitionist Movement in Indiana, 1816-1865, is a book on the Abolitionist Movement in Indiana, 1816-1865.
• Slavery and the Law, edited by Paul Finkelman, is available online.

Madison, WI: Madison House Publishers, 1997.

Associated with the Underground Railroad in the Indianapolis Area: Interpretive Narratives The DNR-DHPA published a report in 2001 titled Furlong, Patrick J., ed., The South Bed Fugitive Slave Case (The South Bed Fugitive Slave Case).

Goodall, Hurley C.

Goodall Publishing Company, Muncie, Indiana, 2000.

Underground Railroad: The Invisible Road to Freedom Through Indiana is a project of the Works Progress Administration’s Writers Project.

The Anti-Slavery Movement in Henry County, Indiana: A Study of the Local Abolitionists is a study of the anti-slavery movement in Henry County, Indiana.

Marlene Lu is the author of this article.

The DNR-DHPA published a report in 2001 titled George Olshausen is a writer who lives in New York City.

Pamela R.

Originally published by McFarlandCompany, Inc.

The Underground Railroad and the Antislavery Movement in Fort Wayne and Allen County, Indiana, by Angela M.

Fort Wayne, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2000.

The Indiana Negro Registers, 1852-1865 are available online.

Emma Lou Thornbrough’s Indiana in the Civil War Era 1850-1880 is available online.

Emma Lou Thornbrough is a fictional character created by author Emma Lou Thornbrough. Before 1900, there were a lot of black people in Indiana. The Indiana Historical Bureau published this book in 1957 in Indianapolis.

Websites

In their entirety, the original slave tales docsouth.unc.edu This project, Documenting the American South (DAS), brings together historical, literary, and cultural materials on the Southern United States from the colonial period through the early decades of the twentieth century. Throughout the nineteenth, twentieth, and early twentieth centuries, DAS chronicles the individual and communal stories of African Americans who fought for freedom and human rights in the United States. Slave Narratives: Excerpts from the Book It includes passages from early European voyage accounts to Africa, as well as passages from slave narratives.

• Those who survived slavery share their experiences in the documentary Remembering Slavery.
• Many of the interviews were recorded on paper, but other interviewers were able to capture the voices of the former slaves on tape.
• Interactive for PBS Online entitled “Africans in America: America’s Journey through Slavery.” The history of slavery in America is given in four sections, each of which includes a historical narrative, a resource book, and a teacher’s guide.
• Provide a history of the home, an overview of Coffin’s work, as well as a comprehensive connections page.
• With a range of presentation techniques and depths of coverage, the site is unique in its capacity to make the experience of the Underground Railroad accessible to students in elementary, middle, and early high school.
• Students in the upper grades can study “Routes to Freedom,” which includes a map that can be magnified, and “Timeline,” which provides accurate facts.
• In the “For Kids” section, young detectives may investigate some of the greatest and most imaginative hiding places utilized by tourists.
• The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting freedom from slavery and other forms of oppression.
• Among the resources available are an introduction, a map of the routes, a list of railroad sites organized by state, and a links page with a comprehensive bibliography.
• These pages provide a brief history of the home, farm, or church that is being featured, as well as a photo and information about whether or not the property is accessible to the general public.

It is concerned with more than simply the history of the Underground Railroad. Frederick Douglass was an American civil rights leader. Douglass, his life, and his mansion are all covered in detail. His abolitionist activities are described in detail.

Youth

Patricia Beatty is a writer who lives in the United Kingdom. Who is it that is bringing the cannons? Originally published in 1992 by Morrow Junior Books in New York. Judith Bentley is a writer and editor who lives in New York City. The Underground Railroad was a collaboration between Thomas Garrett and William Still, who were friends for years. Cobblehill Books published the book in 1997 in New York. Raymond Bial is a writer who lives in New York City. Life in the Slave Quarters is a testament to the strength of these arms.

• Raymond Bial is a writer who lives in New York City.
• Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1997.
• Allen Jay and the Underground Railroad are two of the most well-known characters in American history.
• Sylviane A.
• Growing up in Slavery is a difficult experience.
• Brookfield, Conn.: Brookfield Publishing Company, 2001.
• I’m going to make something out of this Nettle.

Fradin, Dennis Brindell, and others.

Peter Still’s Biography is a fictionalized account of his life.

New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2001.

Get aboard the bus.

Harriet Jacob is a fictional character created by author Harriet Jacob.

1987.

A Slave Family is defined as follows: Crabtree Publishing Company, New York, 2002.

True North: A Novel of the UGRR is a novel about the Underground Railroad of the Great Plains.

Frank Latham is a writer who lives in New York City.

Franklin Watts, Inc.

Ellen Levine is a writer who lives in New York City.

Scholastic Publishing Company, 1988.

The Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, published this book in 1975.

Harriet Tubman: The Runaway Slave is a biography of Harriet Tubman.

Meyer, Linda D., et al.

The Parenting Press published this book in 1988.

The Last Days of Slavery, written by Frederick Douglass.

“The Drinking Gourd,” says Monjo in his book F.N.

Kay Moore is the author of this work.

Scholastic Publishing Company, 1994.

Freedom River is a river in the United States of America.

Anita Riggio is a writer living in New York City.

Boyds Mills Press published this book in 1997.

Athenaeum Books for Young Readers published the book in 1997 in New York.

Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman is a fictionalized account of Harriet Tubman’s childhood.

R.

The Underground Railroad: A Historical Account The Children’s Press of Chicago published this book in 1981.

North to Liberty: The Story of the Underground Railroad is a book on the Underground Railroad.

The World Book Encyclopedia is a collection of books published by the World Book Company.

“The Underground Railroad,” as it is known. The World Book Encyclopedia was published in 1997. Sharon Dennis Wyeth is the author of this work. Freedom’s Wings: A Diary of Corey’s Adventures. Scholastic, Inc. (New York, 2001) published the book.

For Teachers

Linda Jacobs and Altman, Linda Slavery and Abolition in the History of the United States Enslow Publishers, Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, 1999. Judith Bentley is a writer and editor who lives in New York City. Harriet Tubman is a historical figure. Franklin Watts Publishing Company, New York, 1990. Charles Charlers and Blockson “The Underground Railroad,” as they say in the United States. National Geographic magazine published an article in July 1984 titled Budda Records is a record label based in New York City.

1. Buddha Records released the album in 2001.
2. Fiery Vision: The Life and Death of John Brown is a book about the life and death of John Brown.
3. Dennis B.
4. Clarion Books, New York, published in 2000.
5. North Star to Freedom: The Story of the Underground Railroad is a book on the Underground Railroad.
6. It is a partnership between Kim and Reggie Harris.
7. Ascension Records released the album in 1984 in Philadelphia.

The Underground Railroad was a dangerous place to be.

Patricia McKissack and Frederick McKissack are the authors of this work.

Scholastic Books, New York, 1996.

Roots.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher.

Video

According to ABC News. Taking a Journey to Africa: A Return to the Slave Pens of Ghana Films for the Humanities and Sciences, a division of Films for the Humanities and Sciences, was founded in 2002 in Princeton, New Jersey. Orlando Bagwell is a fictional character created by the author of the novel The Hunger Games. Roots of Resistance: A Story of the Underground Railroad is a book on the Underground Railroad. Raja Productions is a production company based in India. In 1990, a film on the American experience was made.

Africans in America: America’s Journey Into the Heart of Africa Boston, Massachusetts, 1998.

Roots.

Susan Michaels is the author of this work.

Triage, Inc.

A E Network/The History Channel published a book in New York in 1999. Scott Paddor is the author of this work. Frederick Douglass was an American civil rights leader. Greystone Communications, Inc. is a communications company based in the United States. A E Home Video, New York, New York, 1999.