Harriet Tubman
The Underground Railroad was not a real railroad with tracks and trains. It was just a series of routes and hiding places that slaves from the American South used in order to reach places of freedom in the North.
It is said that slavery began in America in early 17th century. Black Africans were simply kidnapped from their homes, put in ships and brought to America. Once in America, they were auctioned and sold as slaves. Slaves (whole families) were put to work on plantations by white owners. They had to work very hard all their lives without any pay and any chance of freedom. This went on for more than two centuries, but over the years several northern states outlawed slavery and it existed mostly in the southern states. Often, slaves tried to escape and travel to places where they could be free. If they were caught, they would be sent back to their owners and punished or put to death. But to many slaves escaping was worth the risk, because freedom was possible.
The Underground Railroad was first organized in the early 1800s, but its busiest period of activity was from 1830 to 1860. The secret network of people and escape routes helped thousands achieve freedom. It was a group of more than 3200 people—blacks, whites, and native Americans. They gave food, shelter, and money to runaways.
Many escapees walked hundreds and hundreds of kilometers. Others traveled by boat. Some were smuggled in a train or wagon. Most traveled at night so as not to be seen and caught.
No one knows how the name Underground Railroad came about. But there were ‘stations’ and ‘conductors’. Stations were the safe houses and conductors were the people who helped guide slaves from house to house as they made their way north.
Different signals such as lighted candles or lanterns were used to mark the stations or houses that were part of the Underground Railroad. White bricks at the top of a chimney meant a house was safe. When a slave arrived at a station, he would identify himself by giving a special knock, hooting like an owl, or using a password given by a conductor.
The runaways could not move by day, since their skin colour made them stand out among white people. In the daytime, a runaway might hide in a barn, a cave, or a wagon filled with hay. He would travel to the next station in the dark of night.
Many conductors were former slaves who had found freedom. They had the commitment and courage to go back to dangerous places to guide slaves along the Underground Railroad.
Harriet Tubman, a slave in Maryland, escaped to Philadelphia, where there was no slavery. She went on to become the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad. She risked her life nineteen times, returning to the South to help other slaves escape to freedom. She led more than three hundred slaves out of the South and said she “never lost a single passenger.”
Tubman carried a gun for protection on her dangerous journeys with runaway slaves. She was also ready to shoot runaway who became scared and wanted to turn back, because that would put the lives of the others at risk. “You go on or die!” she would say, pointing her gun at their heads. By 1856, there was a $40,000 reward offered for her capture.
About her escape, Tubman said, “I had reasoned this out in my mind. There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.”
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States and the Civil War began the very next year. It was between the states that had abolished slavery (the Union) and those states that wanted to continue the practice (Confederacy). In 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves. The Civil War ended in 1865 and in the same year the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution abolished slavery.
Though slavery officially ended in 1865, the blacks continue to be discriminated and oppressed even today. But that is another story.
Afterword: There are many books on the Underground Railroad. I have drawn heavily from The Underground Railroad and Slavery – Through Primary Sources by Carin T. Ford.
Right. The writing indicates how important freedom is to individual human beings. Not only is freedom important to human beings, we can see this in the animal kingdom as well. People dare to confront slavery at the cost of hunger and death. Even today we see how slaves/servants struggle to get out of the clutches of their masters. This is an inherent characteristic of life and needs no examples, practices or lessons to be or become free. It is an inborn instinct. Even if the situation is conducive without struggles, the mind always hovers towards freedom. Physical freedom is one form human instinct. But the greatest freedom comes from reaching the stage of consciousness, which is of course beyond mind and matter. Man is unable to decipher that state and therefore is caught in the midst of god and godliness. Once he is able to discover the tip of that iceberg, I am sure all else is empty and it is the state of an infinite human being.