When I was a kid learning about the Underground Railroad, I was like Bess. I thought it was an actual railroad. My history books didn’t include a lot of information about it or slavery, so I was pretty confused. I wrote this book because I wanted to learn more about it, and help others who might be confused about it too. And while researching it, I was amazed at the courage of everyone involved — from the people escaping slavery to the people helping them do it. These courageous people helped change the laws of the United States.
Slavery is a hard subject to talk about because we can’t imagine it now. Simply put, people used to own people. They forced them to work in their fields and in their houses. Slaves were often treated terribly. Sometimes, they were beaten and killed. They were sold and loaned out like property. Families were split apart. And the only difference between the slave and the person who owned the slave was usually the color of the person’s skin. These are all concepts that are hard to understand now, and they should be. But it’s still important to talk about what happened, and honor the people who helped to change it.
Slavery in the United States lasted until 1865, and this story takes place toward the end of it in 1849. No one is really sure when people along the Underground Railroad started referring to themselves in railroad terms, but the Underground Railroad is just what they called it when escaping slaves received help on their route to freedom. They usually escaped by foot (not on a train, or even along a railroad track, which was what I thought when I was a kid) and these people hid out in houses along the way. They went from the South (where slavery existed) to the North (where it did not). Once slaves made it to the North, they had immediate freedom there because the laws protected them. The “railroad” was called “underground” because it was a secret. It wasn’t really under ground. When people say something is “underground,” sometimes that just means it’s hidden. Everyone on the Underground Railroad was going against the law, so they had to keep things a secret. That’s why records weren’t kept as well as with other things. It’s why we don’t know very much about the people along the Underground Railroad.
What Do These Railroad Terms Mean, Anyway?
Because we don’t ride on trains as much as we used to, these railroad terms are kind of confusing to us now. Here’s what they mean.
Conductor: A conductor on a railroad is a person who runs the train. Harriet Tubman was a conductor on the Underground Railroad because she went down to the South, gathered a group of slaves who wanted to escape, and led them (usually by foot but not always) to the safe houses along the way to freedom.
Stations: Stations along a railroad are the stops a train makes. The stations along the Underground Railroad were usually just the houses and stores that escaping slaves could stay at along the route. They received food, warmth, shelter, and supplies.
Station Master: A station master on a real railroad is the person who runs the station. In the Underground Railroad, station masters were the owners of the houses and stores that the escaping slaves relied on to help them gain their freedom. Both white people and free black people helped escaping slaves gain their freedom by housing them along the Underground Railroad. Thomas Garrett was a station master.
Passengers: Escaping slaves were the “passengers” on the Underground Railroad.
Codes: Because things had to be kept secret, codes were used a lot of the time. Slaves used code words, usually sung in songs and hymns to communicate with each other about escaping. Conductors used codes when approaching a station, saying things like “It’s a friend with friends.”
Bounty hunters: When slaves escaped, the people who “owned” them would offer a reward for their return. Bounty hunters made their living looking for escaping slaves and other people escaping the law.
What’s True in this Story?
Harriet Tubman and Thomas Garrett really were friends who helped each other out on the Underground Railroad as a conductor and a station master. Thomas Garrett really did give shoes, food, money, and shelter to as many escaping slaves as he could.
In this story, though, bounty hunters chased Bess and Hazel, nearly catching up to Harriet Tubman and her gang, but in reality, bounty hunters never got that close. Harriet was very good at what she did. She was a clever, resourceful conductor who knew her routes well and how to travel the woods safely. She never lost a passenger, which just means no one who went with her ever got caught or died along the way.
But that doesn’t mean it was an easy passage to make. Often times they were cold, hungry, tired, and yes, even scared. Most times, they had to travel at night so they wouldn’t get caught and didn’t always have a place to sleep, so sometimes they had to sleep outside. Harriet became a free woman when she made it to Pennsylvania the first time. She didn’t need to make the journey back to the South, but she did it many, many times just to help as many people as she could. When she wasn’t helping on the Underground Railroad, Harriet worked in Pennsylvania (a free state) just to make enough money to go out and do it all over again. She gave her time, her money, and risked her life to help others on the Underground Railroad.
Imagine how hard it must have been to communicate a secret like this before there were phones and internet. But thousands of slaves were freed using the Underground Railroad. All the people who helped along the way risked their lives and their livelihoods (they could’ve been arrested, fined, jailed, or killed) because they were going against the law. But by doing so, they helped to change things.
Slavery was a huge issue at the time in the United States and caused the country to split into two distinct sections, the North and the South. This division led to the Civil War. After the war ended in 1865, slavery in the United States was officially abolished.