The dusty road to Cincinnati seemed endless. Josiah Henson led the way, carrying his youngest two children in a pack on his back. His wife followed with the two older children. Each day they walked more slowly, fatigue and hunger stealing their strength.
Finally, after 12 days on the road, the family ran out of food. They had to ask for help or starve to death. Josiah knocked on the door of a house. He had 25 cents to buy a bit of meat and bread.
This food carried the family to Cincinnati, where they were fed and sheltered by conductors on the Underground Railroad. After a short rest, helpers drove the Henson family 30 miles north and dropped them off. On their own again, the family resumed marching. That night, the family bedded down in the woods. Josiah hardly slept, startling awake at every rustle.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
What obstacles did fugitive slaves face in making their way to freedom and how did they overcome these obstacles?
fatigue: being very tired.
The next morning, the family continued through the dense forest. Charlotte Henson fainted from exhaustion. Josiah’s back was rubbed raw from where the pack dug into his skin. Just when they could not take another step, a group of Native Americans appeared on the trail. The two groups stared at each other for a long, tense moment. Then, recognizing that the family posed no threat, the Indians led the Hensons to a small village. They fed and sheltered the family, and the next day led the family to a lake and pointed north. Canada and freedom were still miles away.
WHICH WAY TO FREEDOM?
The trail to freedom for fugitive slaves wound through cities, over mountains, into forests, and across rivers and lakes. In the more heavily populated Eastern states, fugitives might travel by ship or train, but most often travel was the old fashioned way—in wagons, on horseback, and by foot.
The most heavily traveled lines of the Underground Railroad ran north, toward Canada. However, some fugitives escaped into the Western territories. Others sought freedom by sea and a few thousand Texan slaves fled south across the border into Mexico.
DID YOU KNOW?
Elijah Anderson, who lived north of Madison, Indiana, helped about 1,000 fugitives between 1839 and 1847. The Miller family from Medina County, Ohio, aided about 1,000 people during the course of 30 years working on the Underground Railroad.
The tracks of the Underground Railroad were always changing. As new lines opened, old ones closed. Sometimes, routes shut down because they became too dangerous. Other times, people who ran a line died or moved. Some paths were busy, while others saw very little activity.
The most traveled road to freedom lay north. In the first decades of the nineteenth century, runaways found some freedom living in the Northern states, but, this freedom was fragile. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 allowed slave owners to pursue escaped slaves into free states and retrieve them. However, many free states passed personal liberty laws that made it easy for escaped slaves to keep from getting captured. Then, in 1850, a tougher fugitive slave law was passed, and no place in America was safe.
Canada, a British colony, became the best option for freedom. In 1791, John Graves Simcoe was appointed lieutenant governor of the colony. A fierce abolitionist, Simcoe vowed never to support a law that treated African Americans differently than whites. His declaration was followed by a series of court cases that gradually ended slavery in Canada. Then, in 1833, the British Empire abolished slavery in all its colonies, including Canada.
Word spread among American slaves that permanent freedom could be found in the neighbor to the North.
free soilers: people who opposed the spread of slavery into Western territories because they did not want small farmers to have to compete with richer farmers who could afford the free labor of slaves.
cutlass: a short sword with a curved blade.
arsenal: a place where weapons and military equipment are stored.
The busiest gateway to Canada was through Detroit, Michigan. By 1837, there were 42 regularly scheduled steamboats that used the city’s port. Black abolitionist William Lambert (1817–1890) led the city’s Underground Railroad stop, aided by William Munroe, the minister of the Second Baptist Church. The church sheltered fugitives.
When night fell, a conductor led the runaways a few blocks to the waterfront. Across the Detroit River lay Canada, only a mile away. After a 10-minute ferry ride, runaway slaves became free.
THE WEST
In 1854, settlers organized the territory of Kansas. In order to gain statehood, territory leaders had to write a constitution. The people living in the territory had a huge debate about whether slavery should be legal in Kansas.
Missouri was next door to Kansas. In 1854, about 50,000 slaves lived there. Missourians did not want a free state so close, because it would make it too easy for Missouri slaves to escape. Northerners watched the debate with interest.
Many Northerners opposed any spread of slavery to the Western territories. Thousands of abolitionists and free soilers from the Northeast packed up their belongings and moved west. Their goal was to elect anti-slavery leaders who would write a constitution making Kansas a free state. Once they arrived in Kansas, some of these immigrants organized a western branch of the Underground Railroad.
A free soiler named James Lane (1814–1866) blazed a trail through Kansas. His goal was to lead immigrants from the East away from the pro-slavery settlements. Rock piles called “Lane’s chimneys” marked the trail from Iowa into Kansas and Nebraska. After 1856, this trail was mostly abandoned by white immigrants, but during the next four years, runaway slaves might have used it to escape into the West.
Among the free soilers who moved to Kansas was a radical abolitionist named John Brown (1800–1859) and five of his sons. After the anti-slavery town of Lawrence was damaged by pro-slavers in December 1855, Brown led a raiding party to get revenge. On May 23, 1856, Brown and his men attacked a pro-slavery settlement, hacking five men to death with cutlasses.
Brown escaped a manhunt that pursued his gang, remaining free to carry out his next plan—to start a war to end slavery.
On October 17, 1859, Brown and 16 followers, white and black men, launched a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Their goal was to seize the weapons stored in the federal arsenal there, arm local slaves, and begin a war to end slavery.
treason: the crime of betraying one’s country.
sparse: few and scattered thinly over a wide area.
cede: to give up power over a territory to another country.
migrate: to move from one area to another.
The raid was a failure. No local slaves rose up to join the rebellion. The U.S. Marines quickly surrounded the arsenal, and after a shootout, Brown was captured.
Convicted of treason, Brown went willingly to the hangman’s noose, insisting to the end that, “If it is … necessary that I should forfeit my life for … justice, I say let it be done.” Even though it was a failure, John Brown’s raid put another wedge between the free North and slave South, and brought the United States one step closer to the Civil War.
THE SOUTH
Florida was the first promised land for American slaves. In colonial times, Florida was controlled by Spain and the Seminole Indians. Although slavery was legal in Spanish lands, in 1693, the Spanish government proclaimed that all American slaves who reached Florida and converted to the Catholic religion could live there as free people.
Adios, Master!
Canada is a long way from Texas, so Texan slaves ran south instead of north. Mexico abolished slavery in 1829 and refused to return any American slaves who sought refuge within its borders. There was no organized Underground Railroad along the southern border of the United States. This was a sparsely populated, wild frontier. Slaves had to rely on individual acts of kindness from people they encountered. Historians do not know for certain how many American slaves escaped into Mexico, but estimates suggest at least 4,000.
Fugitives from the Carolinas and Georgia took up the invitation. Spanish control of Florida did not last long, however. Spain ceded the territory to the United States, and thereafter, many blacks migrated from Florida to Cuba, another Spanish colony.
Even after the Spanish ceded Florida, fugitives found refuge among the 5,000 Seminole Indians who controlled the interior of the state. Although these Native Americans technically considered the runaways their slaves, life was better under the Seminoles than it had been with white owners. Fugitives lived in separate communities alongside the Seminoles, and they were allowed to develop their own community governments, carry weapons, and control their own labor as long as they paid a portion of their crops each year as tribute.
DID YOU KNOW?
Another word for Black Seminoles is “Maroon,” and possibly comes from the Spanish word, cimarron, meaning “untamed.”
Some Seminole Indians and blacks married. Children of these couples became known as Black Seminoles.
haven: a place where a person is protected from danger.
hijack: to steal or kidnap.
technology: tools, methods, and systems used to solve a problem or do work.
Determined to gain solid control of all of Florida, the United States battled the Seminoles in a series of wars in the early 1800s. The Seminoles lost and were relocated to territory in the west. Florida was no longer a safe haven, but runaways still tried to sail to freedom along what was called the Saltwater Railroad.
WATER ROUTES
In 1859, William Peel had himself wrapped in straw, packaged in a crate, and shipped north by steamship. He was one of many fugitives who escaped via a waterway. Virginia records from the eighteenth century reveal that 14 percent of runaways were people with jobs either on the water or near it. Oyster fishermen stole skiffs and rowed to safety. Laundresses for crews delivered clean laundry to ships and then stowed away rather than disembarking.
DID YOU KNOW?
Explore the Underground Railroad with this interactive map. Which direction do most of the paths go? Why?
Eduplace Underground Railroad map 
Ship pilots hijacked vessels and sailed them into Northern waters.
Free blacks were able to help runaways. The largest cities of the South were ports that shipped agricultural products to Europe and the Northern states. Blacks worked as ship caulkers, carpenters, fishermen, sailmakers, and dockworkers. Some vessels had all-black crews. These men hid fugitives onboard among bales of cotton and sacks of rice.
Imagine that you didn’t travel and you didn’t have access to books, television, the Internet, or any other communication. Would you know what states bordered yours and what mountains, deserts, or rivers were located near you?
Many enslaved people were completely isolated. They never went to school and were forbidden by law to learn to read. Many never set foot off the plantations where they were born. Slaves who wanted to escape did not have access to our modern technology, such as cell phones or GPS. They did not even have maps to guide them or anyone to ask for directions. Enslaved people and their allies on the Underground Railroad developed a series of verbal and written codes to help them navigate the journey to freedom.
Technology shapes the way we talk. In the last decade, new phrases have been added to our language, including “google it,” “LOL,” and “hashtag.” These words come from social media. The technological breakthrough of the early nineteenth century was the railroad. The nation’s first railroad began on a 1-mile track near Baltimore in 1830, with five train cars pulled by a horse. By 1840, 3,000 miles of track had been laid.
When to Run
Most slaves plotted their escape very carefully. Many ran during the Christmas season because they were often given passes to travel to nearby plantations to visit family members. An absence might not be noticed for several days. Late fall was another common time for escape because farmers had stored their harvest and runaways could survive on stolen crops.
metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word is used to symbolize another word.
imposter: a person pretending to be someone else.
documentation: a written record of something.
Soon, a not-so-secret code sprang up, rooted in railroad metaphors. Safe houses were called “depots” or “stations,” and the people who ran them were “stationmasters.” Guides were called “conductors.” Wagons used to transport fugitives were labeled “train cars” and the runaways were “passengers.” People who donated money to help fugitives were “stockholders.” Escape routes were called “tracks” or “lines.”
Slave catchers sometimes hired free blacks to pose as runaways in order to trap railroad agents. To safeguard against this, agents on some lines gave fugitives a coin with a hole drilled in it. They handed this coin to the agent at their next stop, proving that they were not imposters.
Some agents marked the route when the terrain was hard to navigate. Abolitionists in rural North Carolina developed a system to guide the fugitives through the dense woods. When runaways arrived at a fork in the road, they were instructed to wrap their arms around the trees on each side of the fork and rub down slowly.
They would find a nail driven into the trunk of a tree on the correct path. If there were no trees at a fork, agents drove nails into fence posts—the second rail from the top—or used a large stone to identify the correct road. Why was this a better method than printing maps?
The natural world was another tool that fugitives used to point themselves north. In the summer, migrating birds flew north. In some areas, moss grew on the north side of dead trees.
The North Star was a beacon in the night sky, visible on all but the cloudiest of nights.
The North Star, also known as Polaris, is fixed—its position in the sky never changes. One way to find the North Star is to find the constellation known as the Big Dipper or Ursa Major. These stars outline the shape of a bowl with a handle. The two bright stars in the front of the bowl point to Polaris. Some slaves were able to find this star and follow its lead to the Northern states.
The North Star led Thomas Cole out of slavery in Alabama when he was only 16. Life had been tolerable for many years. Thomas’s owner never whipped his slaves and he did not break apart families. But one summer, Thomas’s owner died. Thomas was left to work on the plantation under a cruel overseer.
Myth Buster: Slave Quilts
In 1994, a journalist named Jacqueline Tobin bought a quilt from a woman who said that her family told of ancestors who used patterns in quilts to communicate messages to runaways. Tobin wrote a book about this family, and the media latched onto the idea. Soon, elementary school children were being taught about codes in slave quilts as a proven fact. That is not the case.
Historians require documentation from many sources to develop a convincing argument about the past. So far, no evidence about quilts has been found. Messages in slave quilts remain part of the myth of the Underground Railroad, not part of its history.
abruptly: all of a sudden.
patrol: people who systematically checked different areas in search of runaway slaves.
By this time, the Civil War had begun, and times were hard. Food was in short supply. One day, the overseer sent Thomas and some other slaves to hunt for deer in nearby woods. Thomas seized his chance. “I crosses de river and goes north … I travels all dat day and night up de river and follows de north star.”
Thomas ran into two Union soldiers. He joined the Union Army and fought at the Battle of Chickamauga in Tennessee. After the Union won the war, Thomas married, had two children, and moved to Texas, where he farmed a small plot of land.
DID YOU KNOW?
Go outside on a clear night and look up. How many stars can you see? Scientists have calculated the naked eye can see 9,096 stars. Can you find Polaris?
Like Thomas, many slaves decided to run abruptly. They might find out they were going to be sold or loved ones were going to be sold. They might be facing a whipping or they might suddenly decide to take their chances in the hope of freedom. Many slaves heard about opportunities for fleeing and realized they had to make a move.
It was always a dangerous decision, though. Danger lurked around every bend for escaping slaves. Night patrols, slave catchers, and bloodhounds pursued fugitives and their allies. The next chapter explores the hazards fugitives faced and how runaways and Underground Railroad operators developed strategies for outwitting their hunters.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
Now it’s time to consider and discuss the Essential Question: What obstacles did fugitive slaves face in making their way to freedom and how did they overcome these obstacles?
WRITE A CODED MESSAGE
Harriet Tubman, a famous Underground Railroad conductor, sometimes used code phrases to communicate with her helpers. Use the following phrases that might have been Underground Railroad codes to write a secret message. Pretend that you are an agent writing to a stationmaster in another city.
*agent: someone who coordinates escapes for slaves.
*baggage, boxes, parcels, packages, passengers: fugitive slaves.
*brakeman: someone who helps fugitives find jobs and homes when they reach freedom.
*conductor: a person who guides o escorts slaves.
*Heaven, promised land, Canaan: Canada.
*forward: to move slaves between stations.
*freedom train: Underground Railroad.
*Moses: Harriet Tubman.
*station: a safe place where fugitives are hid and sheltered.
*stationmaster: someone who provides shelter for fugitives.
*stockholder: someone who donates money or goods to the cause.
*“The wind blows from the south today”: runaway slaves are in the area.
*“A friend with friends”: a password used by a conductor arriving with fugitives.
*“Lost a passenger”: a runaway slave has been caught.
Give the message to another person who has read this book and see if they can decipher the message without looking up the definitions to the words.
EXPLORE MORE: In the Underground Railroad, codes were used by people who were resisting the government in order to help fugitive slaves. But government officials have also used codes throughout American history, most often during wars to confound the enemy. Research the role that codes have played in military conflicts, from the spy network of General George Washington in the Revolutionary War to the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II. What impact did secret communications have in these conflicts?
Before a fugitive slave could follow Polaris to freedom, he first had to locate it in the night sky. Polaris has a fixed position. This means its location in the sky does not change with the seasons the way other constellations do. However, the sky is crowded with stars and it takes practice locating Polaris. The key to finding it is to use the constellation called the Big Dipper.
Use this chart to help you locate the North Star. The North Star stays in the same position while the Big and Little Dippers rotate around it as the seasons pass.
Go outside on a clear night. Locate the two constellations called the Big Dipper and Little Dipper.
Follow the lower right corner of the Big Dipper and trace it with your eye to the top of the handle of the Little Dipper. That is Polaris.
Try walking toward Polaris. Is it easy to keep the star in sight as you walk? Does the star appear closer as you move?
Look elsewhere in the sky and walk in a different direction. Now try to locate Polaris again. How easy is it for you to find the star. Imagine you can hear the baying of hounds in the distance and you know slave catchers are hunting you. How might fear of recapture impact your ability to navigate by the night sky?
According to legend, Peg Leg Joe, a black man with one leg, worked as a traveling handyman. He moved from plantation to plantation teaching slaves a song called “Follow the Drinking Gourd.” Stories about this song claim it was a coded message used to guide slaves north. However, there is very little evidence that this is true. It can be difficult to separate fact from myth when discussing the Underground Railroad, since so little of the history was written down. We might never know what role, if any, “Follow the Drinking Gourd” played in history. However, the exercise of decoding the song requires you to break apart the lyrics and apply what you know about the way the Underground Railroad worked, and it is fun!
Go to this link and listen to the song while reading the accompanying lyrics. |
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follow the drinking gourd |
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*Why do you think the myth that this song was part of the Underground Railroad has persisted?
*How would this message help slaves preparing to escape?
*What geographical clues are woven into the lyrics?
EXPLORE MORE: Write your own coded song. Choose a popular tune and rewrite the lyrics to guide people to a well-known place. Sing this song for a friend and see if he or she can figure out what location you are guiding them to.
WORDS TO KNOW
gourd: a plant with a hard shell that is related to cucumbers and melons, but is not edible.
