The Role of Washington County, Ohio in the Success of the Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was one of the most remarkable protests against slavery in United States history. It was a fight for personal survival, which many slaves lost in trying to attain their freedom. Slaves fought for their own existence in trying to keep with the traditions of their homeland, their homes in which they were so brutally taken away from. In all of this turmoil however they managed to preserve the customs and traditions of their native land. These slaves fought for their existence and for their cultural heritage with the help of many people and places along the path we now call the Underground Railroad.

The Underground Railroad was a huge success lasting for decades and freed around one hundred thousand slaves by 1850 (History.com). The events of the railroad happened all over the country, each trip different and all routes kept secret, but slaves from the South would escape in small groups of three to five in an attempt to pass the Ohio River to Northern Free states. Slaves mainly traveled by foot in small groups, occasionally a slave would travel by boat or train, but wagon or foot was easiest as the night provided cover and there were set up safe houses (Wikipedia). The underlying causes of the Underground Railroad was as a means of escape from the harsh lives most slaves lived. The events that caused the construction of the Underground Railroad are unknown but is believed to be started by Quakers in the late 1700s (History.com). The Underground Railroad was a huge success bringing thousands of slaves into freedom a year, giving them hope for a better

The Underground Railroad is not like the railroads that we see today, they were not made of box cars and rails. They were routes that the slaves took to get to freedom, these railways were built or used in late 1786 to 1865. They went from as far west as Kansas, and Texas and as far south as Florida, they all were made to go north to Canada, or to Mexico, or the Caribbean Islands where slavery is illegal. This was an impossible task for the slaves to do on their own. There were many factors on how they found their way and the people who helped them on their journey, which I will discuss later throughout this paper. There over 3000 people who helped the runaway slaves to freedom. (The Underground Railroad).

The underground railroad wasn't underground or a railroad, it was a secret way of freeing slaves, people would walk from safe house to safe house or to different hiding places on their way to being free black people. A conductor may have been a white person who was helping the slaves, and the stations were the stops they would make along the way. The freight was another name for the slaves. The lines were a code name

2. What was the Underground Railroad? Your response needs to include and explain the terms conductor, lines,

The fugitive slaves had to go through a long a perilous journey to reach their freedom while traveling along the Underground Railroad. In a very short time, the fugitive slaves had to travel great distances usually on foot, boats or trains were used very infrequently. They had to put their life on a stake while escaping as they had no or very diminutive amount of food and no protection from the slave catchers chasing them. The fugitive slaves were pursued by the slave owners as well as other men. The slave owners used to publish reward posters offering payment for the capture of their property to entice others to assist in the capture of their slaves. The fugitives would get severely punished if they were apprehended. Their punishment for running away was to be branded, flogged, jailed, killed and even sold back into slavery. The Underground Railroad was successful because the slave owners had no clue about the routes and even no one from the system knew the entire routes. Each conductor was responsible for leading the slaves from one station to the following and then the next conductor would lead them to the next station. This would continue until the whole route was traversed. The integrity of the routes as well as the fugitive slaves

The Underground Railroad was an intricate system of households and farmhouses alike that were all connected throughout many towns and villages in the mid 1800s. It was formed by the common goal of people taking a stand against the law and helping thousands of black slaves escape from the south to gain their rightful freedom in the north. This happened because many people began to see slaves as human beings with value, rather than brutes that were valued less than a human. Throughout the mid 1800s, there were many cases of runaway slaves attempting to escape to freedom without anywhere to hide or anyone to help. A lot of people realized that this was a very impactful movement so they began to open up their minds and homes to these fugitive slaves as an attempt to help them make it into the north. Many people helped these runaway slaves because they believed it was morally right, that black oppression was a crime; slaves held value and deserved to keep their family together and lead a life as any other man or woman would, and former slaves shed light on these critical issues.

There were safe houses and the Underground Railroad kept the slaves hidden or prevent them from being captured thats why it was best for them to travel at night. Slaves, activist, and abolitionist would travel through route to escape to free states like Canada with the aid of abolitionist and allies who were sympathetic to the slaves cause.Also the slaves would at least try to move more up North and try and stay away from the South. Because of the underground Railroad Harriet Tubman was able to free over 70 people. Also the Underground Railroad wasn't even a railroad it got its name from the activities it carried out in secret using darkness or disguise and because railway terms were used by those involved with system to describe how it worked.The Network extended through 14 Northern States and ‘the promised land’ of Canada-beyond the reach of fugitive slave

The Transcontinental Railroad was one of the most ambitious engineering projects, economic stimulants, and efficient methods of transportation in the early United States. If completed, the United States would be truly be united from east to west. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Transcontinental Railroad helped develop new opportunities for many aspects of American life.

Railroads became extremely popular in America in the 1800’s. The railroad industry itself began to boom; it was supported by its reputation for speed and efficiency. But, along with the booming industry of railroads came the strong debate that

The Underground Railroad is viewed as simply a series of trails that led slave to freedom. It was more than that. What were the motivations behind the creation of it? Were there political involvements? Was it developed with financial gain in mind? The Underground Railroad is another one of those subjects that gets swept under the proverbial carpet. Slavery happened everywhere, whether people want to admit it or not. The Underground Railroad was a positive and a negative thing. Most people don’t comprehend what it fully entailed or the impact that it had on all people. It is important to review the past, so we can make an attempt to not make the same mistakes. The above questions will be answered in a well rounded account of all parties involved from the abolitionists to the slaves and those who were supporters.

     Not only did the Underground Railroad have a huge impact on history, one of the most questioning characteristics of the Underground Railroad was its lack of formal organization. (Carrasco). When possible, conductors met at border points in Cincinnati Ohio, Wilmington Delaware, lake ports of Detroit, Sandusky Ohio, Erie Pennsylvania, and Buffalo New York. These were all locations for a quick escape to Canada. (Underground).

In order to make it harder for the slave locators to retrieve their slaves, The Underground Railroad network had no set trails or paths that they followed. The conductors who operated each mission chose a path where slaves would be less likely captured or recaptured. According to the article, “The Underground Railroad: Cloaked Getaway to Freedom,” some of these routs consisted of using abandoned mineshafts and walkways, tunnels built by smugglers and/or pirates, covered wagons or carts with false bottoms, and hidden compartments of cupboards, floors and closets. Helping any black was against the law, but because so many people knew and believed that slavery wasn’t right, they unselfishly risked everything in order to help them to freedom. Not only did they risk everything, some whites even created abolition groups.

The Underground Railroad was what many slaves used to escape slavery. It was not an actual railroad, although it could easily be compared to one. It was a route, with safe houses and many other hiding spots for the slaves to use. The paths had conductors telling you where to go and people who would drive you to the next safe house. You had to be quick, you had to be strong, and you had to be very courageous. The Underground Railroad led all the way to Canada. There were many people helping the slaves, and even more people that were opposing them. It was no easy task. Many slaves died of sickness or natural causes, gave up and returned back to the plantation, or were caught and either killed or brought back. It was a rough journey but a

The routes of the Underground Railroad were complicated and often zigzagged to confuse slave hunters. The one problem with this was it often confused the runaway slaves also. Due to this there are obviously plenty of stories about slaves getting lost and sometimes instead of going north they would accidentally head south.