Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was not an actual railroad but rather a network of clandestine routes, often informal and impromptu, by which slaves were able to escape the United States and reach freedom either in states that protected fugitive slaves, or in Canada. The Underground Railroad consisted of secret safe houses and other facilities owned by anti-slavery sympathizers, and operated much like any other large-scale widespread resistance movement with independent cells that only knew of a few of their neighbours. Escaped slaves would pass from one way station to another, making their way north step by step. The main operators of the Railroad were free blacks and Quakers, who had a strong religious objection to slavery.
The Underground railroad was a major cause of friction between the North and South in the United States. Many northerners sympathized with those who helped bring slaves to safety. Southerners for many years pushed for strong laws that would force the reacpture of escaped slaves, and in 1850 Congress passed a law mandating the capture of fugitive slaves. This prevented slaves from settling in free states and forced them to escape to Canada.
The main destination of the escapees was southern Ontario around the Niagara peninsula and Windsor, Ontario. About 30 000 individuals successfully escaped to Canada. This was an important population increase to the still underpopulated Canadian colonies and these settlers formed the basis of the Black population throughout Ontario.
See also: Harriet Tubman, Levi Coffin, List of African-American abolitionists, Slavery in Canada
For underground railroads and railways in transportation (subways, metros), see metro.
Referenced By
10 March | 10th March | 1913 | Abolitionism | Abolitionist | African Canadian | African slaves | American Civil Rights Movement | American civil rights | American slavery | Amherstburg, Ontario | Arthur Tappan | B. T. Roberts | Black Canadian | Buffalo, New York | Camile Paglia | Camille Paglia | Civil rights era | Clark Kent | Elijah Abel | Enslavement | Flashman | Flashman Papers | Flatlands | Fort Erie | Free Methodist | Harriet Tubman | Harry Flashman | Harry Paget Flashman | Henry Box Brown | Involuntary servitude | List of Inventors | March 10 | March 10th | Methodism | Methodist | Methodist Church | Methodists | National Millennium Trail | Newton, Massachusetts | Resistance movement | Resistance movements | Robert Purvis | Rochester, Monroe County, New York | Saint Charles, Illinois | Second Baptist Church of Detroit, Michigan | Silas Soule | Slavery | Slavery in Canada | Slaves | St. Charles, Illinois | The Canadian Experience | Theodore S. Wright | Thomas Garret | Timeline of inventors | U.S. Civil Rights Movement | US civil rights movement | Underground resistance | William Harvey Carney | William Still | Windsor, Ontario
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