Читать книгу Freedom Facts and Firsts - Jessie Carney Smith - Страница 109

The Underground Railroad, in the context of American history, refers to the secret, loosely organized network of people and the hiding spaces they used to guide slaves to freedom in the free states or Canada. While its legendary status during the antebellum period has become commonplace in American history, the history of the system actually dates back to the colonial period, when Native Americans aided the escape of African slaves on the frontier of planter society. Even so, the success of the Underground Railroad in securing the freedom of thousands of slaves during the plantation period stands as a testament to the strength of its participants and the enduring nature of its spirit.

The Seminole people of Florida provide the strongest example of furtive Native American and African slave cooperation. Based on religious principles, the Quakers, like the Native Americans, assisted the development of the second phase of early escape networks. As the third and most widely known phase, the secret network during the antebellum period was first given its name in print materials during the 1840s. Soon after, its elements assumed other railroad terminology. Those guiding escapees were dubbed “conductors,” while escapees were called “passengers” and the homes in which they received shelter were called “stations.” The network had numerous routes, called “lines,” in at least 14 states that provided circuitous paths to confuse pursuers.

Escapees traveled mostly as individuals or in small groups and were generally middle-aged male field workers who often used their free status to raise the money to purchase freedom for their families. Supposedly guided by astrological constellations such as the Big Dipper and spirituals such as “Steal Away” and “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” the system became more nuanced in defiance of the Fugitive Slave Acts that were passed to thwart abolitionists and the growing flow of blacks to the North. Among the Underground Railroad’s most successful conductors were the Quakers and Harriet Tubman, who single-handedly guided at least 300 slaves to freedom using the Underground Railroad’s routes. Dubbed the “Father of the Underground Railroad,” William Still helped hundreds of slaves to escape to freedom, too, often hiding them in his Philadelphia home.

The perception that the Underground Railroad was a highly systemized operation of abolitionists, however, does not accurately represent the courageous efforts of random people, both free and slave, black and white, who offered assistance to escaped slaves. The bravery and resourcefulness of escapees is also underestimated in conventional ideas of the Underground Railroad. In fact, fleeing slaves were mostly aided after they had already survived the most dangerous part of their escape. Despite perceptions of its effectiveness and operation in secret, exaggerated accounts of the Underground Railroad’s success were commonly used as propaganda for both anti and proslavery causes in the North and the South. Conductors and fellow abolitionists used the accounts to raise support for anti-slavery causes by illustrating the evils of slavery, while slave owners pointed to the reports as evidence of the North’s disobedience in the face of the Fugitive Slave Act.

An 1893 painting by artist Charles Webber depicts the hardships slaves faced as they fled on the Underground Railroad (Library of Congress).

Crystal A. deGregory