The Underground Railroad

“Chattel back to its rightful owner.”  Laws were passed forbidding slaves to learn to read, play the drums (a signal in many cases that there were people nearby to assist them in escape), become ministers and, of course, travel freely” (Solomon 2003, 2).  Could you imagine living in a time where the mere color of your skin determined your ability to learn basic knowledge?  Living a life that revolved around being someone else’s property, only dreaming but to one day escape and be freed of this every day torture.  What hope do these people even have when all odds stack up against them?  And the government is doing everything in their will to ensure that the law keeps them in this world.  The only glimpse of a better future was known as the Underground Railroad. 

The Underground Railroad was a movement during a time when finding freedom was suicidal.  As the runaways would escape to such places as Canada, and towards the eastern states “Fugitives were hidden by friendly folks everywhere imaginable:  stables, attics, storerooms, under feather beds in secret passages.  They were disguised in many different masks; they moved from station to station by boat, wagon and train; routes of travel were changed at a moment’s notice if danger anticipated” (Solomon 2003, 4).  Everything was by word of mouth and the slightest mistake would lead you to the nearest cemetery. One of the most famous “conductors” was a woman known as Moses- Harriet Tubman. 

Harriet Tubman was one of the most influential key figures in the Abolitionist Movement.  As a free slave Tubman made it a goal of hers to free all of her friends and family.  Going back down to the south she was able to go against all odds and freed hundreds of slaves.  Her will and drive for a better future earned her the name of “Moses,” a biblical reference referring to the story of Moses who freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, to freedom in Israel.   Her effort through the Underground Railroad was one of the largest threats towards the slavery plantation system at the time. 

 The amount of runaways do to the success of the Underground Railroad did not settle well with the federal government.  In 1850 they passed the Fugitive Slave Act that made federal assistance available to slave owners who reclaimed their slaves as well as the right to capture free Blacks and claim them as their own.  “Negros is so inferior that they have no rights which a white man (was) bound to respect” (Solomon 2003, 5). 

Before this course I knew very little on the Underground Railroad.  As a grade school student I learned about how the Underground Railroad wasn’t a real railroad and that Harriet Tubman freed tons of slaves, but I never knew much about the history of how this became a movement, how influential Harriet Tubman truly was in the Abolitionist Movement, and how the government reacted to the amount of runaways from the Underground Railroad. I was also led to believe that Lincoln was the reason Slavery had ended, instead I found that he was essentially a racist himself.   It is difficult to see how uneducated we all are on such an influential movement in our history.  I bet there are only a handful of people who could tell you what the Underground Railroad truly was.  We need to remember this time to give respects to those who chose to be the disturbance.  Individuals such as Harriet Tubman who weren’t afraid to stand up for what she believed in to better the lives of others.  We need to be that initial voice that stands out and makes a difference.  We need to be the change.

IT'S UP TO YOU.