Underground Railroad

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2021-06-20 08:00:03

The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada.[1] The scheme was assisted by abolitionists and others sympathetic to the cause of the escapees.[2] The enslaved who risked escape and those who aided them are also collectively referred to as the "Underground Railroad".[3] Various other routes led to Mexico,[4] where slavery had been abolished, and to islands in the Caribbean that were not part of the slave trade.[5] An earlier escape route running south toward Florida, then a Spanish possession (except 1763–83), existed from the late 17th century until approximately 1790.[6][7] However, the network now generally known as the Underground Railroad was formed in the late 18th century. It ran north and grew steadily until the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln.[8] One estimate suggests that, by 1850, 100,000 enslaved people had escaped via the network.[8]

At its peak, nearly 1,000 enslaved people per year escaped from slave-holding states using the Underground Railroad – more than 5000 court cases for escaped enslaved were recorded – many fewer than the natural increase of the enslaved population. The resulting economic impact was minuscule, but the psychological influence on slaveholders was immense. Under the original Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, officials from free states were required to assist slaveholders or their agents who recaptured fugitives, but citizens and governments of many free states ignored the law, and the Underground Railroad thrived.