Over the past two decades or more, America has witnessed a healthy renewal of interest of the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad is a story of suffering, bravery, secret codes, heroic deeds, treachery and lofty ideas. It is a story about the best and the worst of human kind. Disconnected and daring escapees hoped that the North Star would guide them to stations on the burgeoning Underground Railroad; which by the early 1830's still did not have a name. The word spread from plantation to plantation, city to city, town to town; first in whispers and then out right talk, there was a railroad to freedom. Invisible though it may have been, the Underground Railroad had numerous agents, conductors and stations throughout the secret freedom network. Slave owners of course, looked upon the Underground Railroad as organized theft. Under the constitution of the United States slavery was lawful and slaves were property. Although assisting escapees along the freedom network meant breaking the law. Yet, people like Harriet Tubman, the most famous conductor did so eagerly. The Underground Railroad remained active until the end of the Civil war.

First published in 1898, this comprehensive history was the first documented survey of a system that helped fugitive slaves escape from areas in the antebellum South to regions as far north as Canada. Comprising fifty years of research, the text includes interviews and excerpts from diaries, letters, biographies, memoirs, speeches, and a large number of other firsthand accounts. Together, they shed much light on the origins of a system that provided aid to runaway slaves, including the degree of formal organization within the movement, methods of procedure, geographical range, leadership roles, the effectiveness of Canadian settlements, and the attitudes of courts and communities toward former slaves.

Find out about the secret language of the Underground Railroad and the routes that helped slaves escape to freedom.

This book relays the factual details of the Underground Railroad and slavery in the United States. The narrative provides multiple accounts of the events, and readers learn details from the point of view of a slave, a slave owner, and a conductor on the railroad. This book offers opportunities to compare and contrast various perspectives in a text while gathering and analyzing information about an historical event.

Examines the events and key figures behind the formation and operation of the Underground Railroad, the secretive and illegal organization that helped American slaves escape to freedom in the northern United States and Canada.

Read about the Underground Railroad.

Learn about the history and bravery of the Underground Railroad.