Slave Escape on the Underground Railroad
Thursday January 3, 2008
Curious about how slaves escaped? At one point, the Underground Railroad was the most successful way for a slave to escape. Find out how the organization was formed, who helped, and why it was so successful.
Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
Comments
Um not very helpful. I was looking to find out how slaves escaped. I already know what the underground railroad is.
yeah…..i want to know the details about how ppl escaped…..i already know wat is this….just want to know HOW….
I wanted to kno how many slaves escaped not what the underground railroad was
Dummys!!
Free blacks would sometimes send a field agent — often a traveling minister or doctor posing as salesperson or census-taker — to make contact with a slave who wanted to escape. This took some time because the agent had to gain the potential runaway’s trust. The agent arranged for the slave’s initial escape from the plantation and would then hand him off to a conductor for the first leg of the journey.
The conductor guided the fugitive to the first station, usually a house along the route (slave quarters were also often used). Stations were typically spaced a day’s journey apart. The head of the household, known as the stationmaster, usually had the responsibility of keeping the slave safe. These homes often had secret passages and secret compartments for hiding multiple fugitives.
At the station, the fugitive would be fed, sheltered and possibly given a disguise. A disguise could be as simple as a rake (so the escaped could pose as a traveling worker) — but it wasn’t uncommon to dress a runaway as a member of the opposite sex. In Wilbur H. Siebert’s definitive work, “The Underground Railroad,” he tells of a fugitive, disguised as an upper-class white woman, being lent a white baby as part of her disguise [source: Siebert]. All of these activities were funded by people known as stockholders, who often gave the money for bribes and any other expenses.
Runaways usually didn’t travel alone — conductors typically guided them to the stations. Sometimes, though, because of lack of personnel or trip length, the escaped slave wouldn’t have company. So he would have to move at night, following the North Star, and hide during the day. According to Siebert, “When clouds obscured the stars they had recourse, perhaps, to such bits of homely knowledge as, that in forests the trunks of trees are commonly moss-grown on their north sides” [source: Siebert].
The branches or “lines” of the Underground Railroad were purposely convoluted and zigzagged to confuse slave hunters, but this also sometimes hindered the fugitives.There are numerous stories of runaways getting lost and going weeks out of their way or heading further south by accident. And while clear nights were best for traveling, rainy days were also helpful because fewer people were out.in the mid 19 century over 50,000 escaped with d help of the underground railroad.
the slaves main goal was to reach canada
if this info was helpful plz comment
but how did the slaves escape from plantations to get to the railroad??????