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{{Short description|Network for fugitive slaves in 19th-century U.S.}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Cleanup reorganize|date=November 2025}}
{{Too many sections|date=November 2025}}
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{{Use American English|date=October 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox Criminal organization
| name = Underground Railroad
| image = undergroundrailroadsmall2.jpg
| image_size = 300px
| caption = Map of Underground Railroad routes into the [[northern United States]] and to modern-day Canada
| founding location = United States
| years active =
| territory = United States, and routes to [[British North America]], Mexico, [[Spanish Florida]], and the [[Caribbean]]
| ethnic makeup = African Americans and other compatriots
| activities = * [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|Fleeing from slavery]] into the northern United States or Canada
* Aiding freedom seeking slaves
| allies = *[[Religious Society of Friends]]
* [[Congregational church]]
* [[Wesleyan Church]]
* [[Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America]]
* [[Vigilant Association of Philadelphia]]
| rivals = [[Slave catchers]], [[Reverse Underground Railroad]]
}}
{{Slavery}}

The '''Underground Railroad''' was an organized  network of secret routes and safe houses used by [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|freedom seekers]] to escape to the [[slavery in the United States#Abolitionism in the North|abolitionist Northern United States]]{{sfn|Hudson|2015|pp=1, 6, 10}} and [[Eastern Canada]]. Slaves escaped from slavery as early as the 16th century; many of their escapes were unaided.<ref name="auto2">{{cite book |title=Special Resource Study, Management Concepts Underground Railroad |date=1995 |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Denver Service Center |page=19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7m8mTMjMSRYC&q=unaided}}</ref><ref name="NPS What Is">{{cite web |title=What is the Underground Railroad? |url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/undergroundrailroad/what-is-the-underground-railroad.htm |website=[[National Park Service]] |access-date=9 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250208022026/https://www.nps.gov/subjects/undergroundrailroad/what-is-the-underground-railroad.htm |archive-date=2025-02-08 |url-status=unfit }}<!-- The original link may be live but it has been modified by the Trump administration making it unfit. More info: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/07/national-park-website-harriet-tubman-underground-railroad/82971945007/ --></ref><ref name="auto">{{cite web |title=New Jersey's Underground Railroad Heritage |url=https://dspace.njstatelib.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/2d0a25c0-0b00-4c37-a53f-b8888b3e2193/content |website=New Jersey Historical Commission |publisher=New Jersey State Library |access-date=18 September 2024}}</ref> However, a network of safe houses generally known as the Underground Railroad began to organize in the 1780s among [[Abolitionist]] Societies in the [[Northern United States|North]].<ref name="auto5">{{cite web |title=Historic Context for the Underground Railroad |url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/ugrr/exugrr2.htm#:~:text=The%20runaways%20became%20%22contraband%2C%22,the%20Army%20were%20initially%20rebuffed. |website=Researching and Interpreting the Underground Railroad |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Underground Railroad c. 1780–1862 |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html |website=Africans in America |publisher=PBS |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref> It ran north and grew steadily until President [[Abraham Lincoln]]<ref name="afroamhistory">{{Cite web |last=Vox |first=Lisa |date=May 2, 2025 |title=3 Major Ways Enslaved People Showed Resistance to a Life in Bondage |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/ways-slaves-showed-resistance-to-slavery-45401 |access-date=July 1, 2025 |website=[[ThoughtCo]]}}</ref> issued the [[Emancipation Proclamation]] in 1863.  The escapees sought primarily to escape into [[slave states and free states|free states]], and potentially from there to Canada.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cross|first1=L.D.|title=The Underground Railroad: The long journey to freedom in Canada|location=Toronto, ON|publisher=James Lorimer Limited, Publishers|year=2010|isbn=978-1-55277-581-3}}</ref> 

The Underground Railroad started at the place of enslavement. The routes followed natural and man-made modes of transportation: rivers, canals, bays, the Atlantic Coast, ferries and river crossings, roads and trails. Locations close to ports, free territories and international boundaries prompted many escapes. 

The network, primarily the work of [[Free Negro|free]] and enslaved African Americans,<ref>{{cite book|title=To Set the Captives Free. Reverend Jermain Wesley Loguen and the struggle for freedom in central New York 1835–1872|first=Carol|last=Hunter|date=December 20, 2013 |page=139|edition=2nd|publisher=Hyrax Publishing|isbn=978-1494767983}}</ref> was assisted by [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]] and others sympathetic to the cause of the [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|escapees]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|dictionary=dictionary.com|quote={{-'}}A network of houses and other places abolitionists used to help enslaved Africans escape to freedom in the northern states or in Canada ... ' – ''American Heritage Dictionary''|url=https://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Underground%20Railroad|title=Underground Railroad|access-date=July 17, 2011|date=|archive-date=October 3, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151003155223/https://dictionary.reference.com/browse/underground%20railroad|url-status=live}}</ref> The slaves who risked capture and those who aided them were collectively referred to as the passengers and conductors of the Railroad, respectively.<ref name="PBS">{{cite web| url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html| publisher=Public Broadcasting Service| title=The Underground Railroad| access-date=July 25, 2007| archive-date=June 22, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622122605/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html| url-status=live}}</ref> Various other routes led to Mexico,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-03-29/underground-railroad-took-slaves-freedom-mexico|last1=Leanos|first1=Reynaldo Jr.|title=This underground railroad took slaves to freedom in Mexico, PRI's The World, Public Radio International, March 29, 2017|location=Minneapolis, MN|publisher=Public Radio International|year=2017|access-date=September 4, 2019|archive-date=October 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018081421/https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-03-29/underground-railroad-took-slaves-freedom-mexico|url-status=live}}</ref> where slavery had been abolished, and to islands in the [[Caribbean]] that were not part of the slave trade.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/sheoh017_Jones_Leesa_transcript|title=Leesa Jones Interview Transcript, 2020-01-07 [SHE.OH.017]|year=2020}}</ref> An earlier escape route running south toward [[Spanish Florida|Florida]], then a [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]] possession (except 1763–1783), existed from the late 17th century until approximately 1790.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jiODwWs22MG9qBGQ_ZI9U-6W3s9g?docId=b67287f0636841dfbad57fb14222cd97 |title=For a century, Underground Railroad ran south |first=Bruce |last=Smith |agency=Associated Press |date=March 18, 2012 |access-date=March 23, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321073827/https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jiODwWs22MG9qBGQ_ZI9U-6W3s9g?docId=b67287f0636841dfbad57fb14222cd97 |archive-date=March 21, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Fort Moses's Call To Freedom. Florida's Little-known Underground Railroad Was the Escape Route Taken by Slaves Who Fled to the State in the 1700s and Established America's First Black Town|date=February 14, 1993|first=Stuart|last=McIver|newspaper=[[Sun-Sentinel]]|access-date=February 10, 2018|url=https://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1993-02-14/features/9301090665_1_slaves-underground-railroad-francisco-menendez/2|archive-date=February 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180213021610/https://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1993-02-14/features/9301090665_1_slaves-underground-railroad-francisco-menendez/2|url-status=dead}}</ref> During the [[American Civil War]], freedom seekers escaped to Union lines in the South to obtain their freedom. One estimate suggests that by 1850, approximately 100,000 slaves had escaped to freedom via the network.<ref name="afroamhistory" /> According to former professor of [[Pan-Africanism|Pan-African]] studies J. Blaine Hudson, who was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the [[University of Louisville]], by the end of the Civil War, 500,000 or more African Americans had self-emancipated from slavery on the Underground Railroad.{{sfn|Hudson|2015|p=10}}

==Origin of the name==
[[Eric Foner]] wrote that the term "was perhaps first used by a Washington newspaper in 1839, quoting a young slave hoping to escape bondage via a railroad that 'went underground all the way to Boston'".{{sfn|Foner|2015|pp=6–9}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Pettit |first=Eber M. |title=Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad |publisher=Chautauqua Region Press |year=1999 |orig-year=1879 |location=Westfield, NY |url=https://archive.org/details/sketchesinhistor0000pett/page/130/mode/2up |isbn=0-9658955-3-X |ref=pettit1879}}, p. 131</ref> Dr. Robert Clemens Smedley wrote that following slave catchers' failed searches and lost traces of fugitives as far north as [[Columbia, Pennsylvania]], they declared in bewilderment that "there must be an underground railroad somewhere," giving origin to the term.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smedley |first=Robert C. |title=History of the Underground Railroad in Chester and the neighboring counties of Pennsylvania |date=1883 |publisher=[[Stackpole Books]] | location=Mechanicsburg, Pa |pages=34–35}} {{isbn|978-0-8117-3189-8 }}.</ref> [[Scott Shane]] wrote that the first documented use of the term was in an article written by [[Thomas Smallwood]] in the August 10, 1842, edition of ''Tocsin of Liberty'', an abolitionist newspaper published in Albany. He also wrote that the 1879 book ''Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad'' said the phrase was mentioned in an 1839 Washington newspaper article and that the book's author said 40 years later that he had quoted the article from memory as closely as he could.<ref>{{cite news |last=Shane |first=Scott |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/opinion/man-who-named-underground-railroad.html |title=How the Underground Railroad Got Its Name |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=September 11, 2023 |access-date=September 11, 2023}}</ref><ref>Shane, Scott, ''Flee North A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery's Borderland'' (Macmillan, London, 2023), pp. 117–118.</ref>

== Terminology ==
Members of the Underground Railroad often used specific terms, based on the metaphor of the railway. For example:
{{Div col}}
* People who helped fugitive slaves find the railroad were "agents"
* Guides were known as "conductors"
* Hiding places were "stations" or "way stations"
* "Station masters" hid escaping slaves in their homes
* People escaping slavery were referred to as "passengers" or "cargo"
* Fugitive slaves would obtain a "ticket"
* Similar to common [[gospel]] lore, the "wheels would keep on turning"
* Financial benefactors of the Railroad were known as "stockholders"<ref>Blight, David, 2004, p. 98</ref>
* Promised Land – code word for Canada
* River Jordan – code word for Ohio River
* Heaven – code for freedom or Canada<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wade |first1=Phyllis |title=Signal Songs of the Underground Railroad |url=https://discoverytheater.org/forms/guides/2017/feb/Signal%20Songs%20of%20the%20Underground%20Railroad%20Learning%20Guide.pdf |website=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=14 September 2024}}</ref>
{{colend|2}}

The [[Big Dipper#Guidepost|Big Dipper]] (whose "bowl" points to the [[North Star]]) was known as the "drinking gourd". The Railroad was often known as the "freedom train" or "Gospel train", which headed towards "Heaven" or "the Promised Land", i.e., Canada.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://freedomcenter.org/enabling-freedom/history| title=History – National Underground Railroad Freedom Center| website=Freedomcenter.org| access-date=June 7, 2016| archive-date=August 17, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817144323/https://freedomcenter.org/enabling-freedom/history| url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Political background==

[[File:The disappointed abolitionists LCCN2008661783.jpg|right|thumb|[[David Ruggles]] between two men confronting John P. Darg]]

Many of the fugitive slaves who "rode" the Underground Railroad  considered Canada their final destination. An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 of them settled in Canada, half of whom came between 1850 and 1860. Others settled in [[free and slave states|free states]] in the north.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Henry |first1=Natasha |first2=Andrew |last2=McIntosh |date=January 31, 2020 |title=Underground Railroad |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/underground-railroad#:~:text=An%2520estimated%252030%252C000%2520to%252040%252C000,reached%2520the%2520Province%2520of%2520Canada. |access-date=2022-03-02 |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |archive-date=May 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210509210944/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/underground-railroad#:~:text=An%2520estimated%252030%252C000%2520to%252040%252C000,reached%2520the%2520Province%2520of%2520Canada. |url-status=live }}</ref> Thousands of court cases for escaping fugitive slaves were recorded between the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] and the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schweninger |first=Loren |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UyBrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 |title=Appealing for Liberty: Freedom Suits in the South |year=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-066429-9 |page=9 |access-date=March 2, 2022 |archive-date=March 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302225408/https://books.google.com/books?id=UyBrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 |url-status=live }}</ref> Under the original [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1793]], officials from free states were required to assist slaveholders or their agents who recaptured fugitives, but some state legislatures prohibited this. The law made it easier for slaveholders and slave catchers to capture African Americans and return them to slavery, and in some cases allowed them to enslave free blacks. It also created an eagerness among abolitionists to help enslaved people, resulting in the growth of anti-slavery societies and the Underground Railroad.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=C.W.A. |first=David |date=January 1984 |title=The Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 and its Antecedents |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2713433 |journal=The Journal of Negro History |publisher=The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History |volume=9 |number=1 |pages=22–25 |doi=10.2307/2713433 |jstor=2713433 |s2cid=149160543 |access-date=March 2, 2022 |archive-date=March 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302231257/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2713433 |url-status=live }}</ref>

With heavy lobbying by Southern politicians, the [[Compromise of 1850]] was passed by [[United States Congress|Congress]] after the [[Mexican–American War]]. It included a more stringent [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850|Fugitive Slave Law]]; ostensibly, the compromise addressed regional problems by compelling officials of free states to assist slave catchers, granting them immunity to operate in free states.{{sfn|Potter|1976|pp=132–139}} Because the law required sparse documentation to claim a person was a fugitive, slave catchers also kidnapped [[free negro|free blacks]], especially children, and sold them into slavery.<ref>Bordewich, Fergus, 2005, p. 324</ref> Southern politicians often exaggerated the number of escaped slaves and often blamed these escapes on Northerners interfering with Southern property rights.<ref>{{cite book| last1=Gara| first1=Larry| title=Underground Railroad| publisher=National Park Service| page=8}}</ref> The law deprived people suspected of being slaves of the right to defend themselves in court, making it difficult to prove free status.<ref>Douglass, Frederick (July 5, 1852), [https://www.historyisaweapon.org/defcon1/douglassjuly4.html "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704185311/https://www.historyisaweapon.org/defcon1/douglassjuly4.html |date=July 4, 2008 }}, ''History Is a Weapon'', Retrieved July 17, 2011.</ref> Some Northern states enacted [[personal liberty laws]] that made it illegal for public officials to capture or imprison former slaves.{{sfn|Potter|1976|p=139}} The perception that Northern states ignored the fugitive slave laws and regulations was a major justification offered for [[secession in the United States|secession]].<ref>{{cite web| url=https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_scarsec.asp| title=Avalon Project – Confederate States of America – Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union| website=Avalon.law.yale.edu| access-date=June 7, 2016| archive-date=February 20, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220121942/https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_scarsec.asp| url-status=live}}</ref>
{{anchor|ur_structure}} <!-- Other pages link to this section. -->

==Routes and methods of escape==

[[File:Great Dismal Swamp-Fugitive Slaves crop.jpg|thumb|Freedom seekers escaped to the [[Great Dismal Swamp maroons|Great Dismal Swamp]]'s maroon community.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Underground Railroad |url=https://www.camdencountync.gov/departments/dismal-swamp-welcome-center/the-underground-railroad |website=Camden County, North Carolina Government |access-date=13 September 2024}}</ref>]]

Underground Railroad routes went north to free states and Canada, to the Caribbean, to United States western territories, and to [[Indian Territory|Indian territories]]. Some fugitive slaves traveled south into Mexico for their freedom.<ref>{{cite web |title=Selected Routes of the Underground Railroad |url=https://www.nps.gov/npgallery/GetAsset/7075060c-593d-4a38-b7e0-719c2dd5f4b3 |website=NPS |access-date=21 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240921163132/https://www.nps.gov/npgallery/GetAsset/7075060c-593d-4a38-b7e0-719c2dd5f4b3 |archive-date=2024-09-21 }}</ref>{{sfn|Hudson|2015}} Many escaped by sea, including [[Oney Judge|Ona Judge]], who had been enslaved by President [[George Washington]].<ref>Russell, Tonya, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/10/15/underground-railroad-by-sea-slavery/ "Underground Railroad's forgotten route: Thousands fled slavery by sea", ''The Washington Post'', October 15, 2023]</ref> Some historians view the waterways of the South as an important component for freedom seekers to escape as water sources were pathways to freedom. In addition, historians of the Underground Railroad found 200,000 runaway slave advertisements in North American newspapers from the middle of the 1700s until the end of the American Civil War.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tabb |first1=Kip |title=Symposium highlights enslaved people's escape by water |url=https://coastalreview.org/2022/05/symposium-highlights-enslaved-peoples-escape-by-water/ |website=Coastal Review |date=May 26, 2022 |access-date=12 September 2024}}</ref> Freedom seekers in [[Alabama]] hid on [[steamboat]]s heading to [[Mobile, Alabama]] in hopes of blending in among the city's free Black community, and also hid on other steamboats leaving Alabama that were headed further northward into free territories and free states. In 1852, a law was passed by the Alabama legislature to reduce the number of freedom seekers escaping on boats. The law penalized slaveholders and captains of vessels if they allowed enslaved people on board without a pass. Alabama freedom seekers also made canoes to escape.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Nordmann |first1=Christopher |title=Fugitive Slave Laws and Freedom Seeking |url=https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/runaway-slaves/ |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |access-date=15 September 2024}}</ref> Freedom seekers escaped from their enslavers in [[Panama]] on boats heading for California by way of the Panama route. Slaveholders used the Panama route to reach California. In Panama slavery was illegal and [[Afro-Panamanians|Black Panamanians]] encouraged enslaved people from the United States to escape into the local city of Panama.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Quest for Freedom Moves West 1848–1869 |url=https://npshistory.com/brochures/ugrr/western-quest-for-freedom.pdf |website=NPS |access-date=21 September 2024}}</ref>

Freedom seekers created methods to throw off the [[slave catcher]]s' bloodhounds from tracking their scent. One method was using a combination of hot pepper, lard, and vinegar on their shoes. In North Carolina freedom seekers put [[turpentine]] on their shoes to prevent slave catchers' dogs from tracking their scents, in Texas escapees used paste made from a charred bullfrog.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gattuso |first1=Reina |title=A Historical Dig Sheds Light on the Food of the Underground Railroad |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-did-people-eat-on-underground-railroad |website=Atlas Obscura |date=October 14, 2020 |access-date=13 September 2024}}</ref> Other runaways escaped into the swamps to wash off their scent.<ref name="auto3">{{cite web |title=The Underground Railroad |url=https://mrnussbaum.com/storage/uploads/activities/tubman/path.htm |website=mrnussbaum.com |access-date=10 September 2024}}</ref> Most escapes occurred at night when the runaways could hide under the cover of darkness.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stevens |first1=Kathleen |title=William Still and the Underground Railroad |date=2008 |publisher=Townsend Press |isbn=9781591944140 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ljljDwAAQBAJ&q=That%20night,%20under%20cover%20of%20darkness}}</ref>

Another method freedom seekers used to prevent capture was carrying forged free passes. During slavery, free Blacks showed proof of their freedom by carrying a pass that proved they were free. Free Blacks and enslaved people created forged free passes for freedom seekers as they traveled through slave states.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Biehl |first1=Andre F. |title=Strategies for Escape: A Study of Fugitive Slave Ads (1770–1819) |url=https://slavery.princeton.edu/stories/strategies-for-escape |website=Princeton and Slavery |publisher=Princeton University |access-date=15 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Successfully Escaping Slavery on Maryland's Underground Railroad |url=https://www.visitmaryland.org/article/successfully-escaping-slavery-marylands-underground-railroad |website=Visit Maryland |access-date=15 September 2024}}</ref>

== North to free states and Canada ==

=== Structure ===
{{Further|Quakers in the abolition movement}}
[[File:Harriet Tubman.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Harriet Tubman]] (photo H. B. Lindsley), {{circa|1870}}. A worker on the Underground Railroad, Tubman made 13 trips to the South, helping to free over 70 people. She led people to the northern free states and Canada. This helped Harriet Tubman gain the name "[[Moses]] of Her People".{{sfn|Clifford Larson|2004|loc=xvii}}]]
[[File:Levi coffin.JPG|thumb|right|200px|[[Quaker]] abolitionist [[Levi Coffin]] and his wife Catherine helped more than 2,000 enslaved people escape to freedom.]]

Despite the thoroughfare's name, the escape network was neither literally underground nor a railroad. (The first literal underground railroad did not exist [[London Underground|until 1863]].) According to [[John Rankin (abolitionist)|John Rankin]], "It was so called because they who took passage on it disappeared from public view as really as if they had gone into the ground. After the fugitive slaves entered a depot on that road no trace of them could be found. They were secretly passed from one depot to another until they arrived at a destination where they were able to remain free."<ref>{{cite book|title=The soldier, the battle, and the victory : being a brief account of the work of Rev. John Rankin in the anti-slavery cause|location=Cincinnati|publisher=Western Tract and Book Society|year=1870|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ASPC0002367700/page/n96 96]–97|url=https://archive.org/details/ASPC0002367700|first=Andrew|last=Ritchie}}</ref> It was known as a railroad, using rail terminology such as stations and conductors, because that was the transportation system in use at the time.<ref>Blight, David, 2004, p. 3.</ref>

The Underground Railroad did not have a headquarters or governing body, nor were there published guides, maps, pamphlets, or even newspaper articles. It consisted of meeting points, secret routes, transportation, and [[safe house]]s, all of them maintained by [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist sympathizers]] and communicated by [[word of mouth]], although there is also a report of a numeric code used to encrypt messages.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Grave of Old John Brown's Son. It Lies Above the San Gabriel Valley and Overlooks Pasadena. Owen and Jason Brown Lived in the Mountains and Were Guides to Tourists. Uncle James Townsend, a Venerable Quaker, Knew Them Both Well and Their Father|newspaper=[[San Francisco Call]]|date=21 Jun 1896|page=24|via=[[newspapers.com]]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5369067/james-townsend-john-brown/|first=Mary E.|last=Wright|access-date=September 24, 2021|archive-date=September 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925182112/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5369067/james-townsend-john-brown/|url-status=live}}</ref> Participants generally organized in small, independent groups; this helped to maintain secrecy. People escaping enslavement would move north along the route from one way station to the next. "Conductors" on the railroad came from various backgrounds and included [[free people of color|free-born blacks]], white abolitionists, the formerly enslaved (either escaped or [[manumission|manumitted]]), and Native Americans.<ref>{{cite news
|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.org/maps/undergroundrailroad/
|title=The Underground Railroad|date=November 16, 2011|work=National Geographic Society|access-date=August 1, 2017|language=en|archive-date=August 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801160322/https://www.nationalgeographic.org/maps/undergroundrailroad/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Miles|first=Tiya|date=Summer 2011|title=Of Waterways and Runaways: Reflections on the Great Lakes in Underground Railroad History|magazine=Michigan Quarterly Review|volume=L|issue=3|issn=1558-7266|hdl=2027/spo.act2080.0050.320}}</ref> Believing that slavery was "contrary to the ethics of Jesus", Christian congregations and clergy played a role, especially the [[Religious Society of Friends]] ([[Quakers]]), [[Congregational church|Congregationalists]], [[Wesleyan Methodist Church (United States)|Wesleyan Methodists]], and [[Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America|Reformed Presbyterians]], as well as the anti-slavery branches of [[Mainline Protestant|mainstream denominations]] which entered into [[schism]] over the issue, such as the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]] and the [[American Baptists|Baptists]].<ref>{{cite book |title=History of Salem Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan |date=1976 |publisher=Salem Area Historical Society |page=56 |language=English}}</ref> The role of free blacks was crucial; without it, there would have been almost no chance for fugitives from slavery to reach freedom safely.<ref>{{cite book| last=Pinsker| first=Matthew| title=Vigilance in Pennsylvania: Underground Railroad Activities in the Keystone State, 1837–1861| year=2000| publisher=PHMC| location=Lancaster}}</ref> The groups of underground railroad "agents" worked in organizations known as [[vigilance committee]]s.{{sfn|Foner|2015}}

[[Free Negro|Free Black]] communities in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York helped freedom seekers escape from slavery. [[Black church|Black Churches]] were stations on the Underground Railroad, and Black communities in the North hid freedom seekers in their churches and homes. Historian Cheryl Janifer Laroche explained in her book, ''Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad The Geography of Resistance'' that: "Blacks, enslaved and free, operated as the main actors in the central drama that was the Underground Railroad." Laroche further explained how some authors center white abolitionists and white people involved in the antislavery movement as the main factors for freedom seekers escapes and overlook the important role of free Black communities.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Laroche |first1=Cheryl J. |title=Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad The Geography of Resistance |date=2013 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252095894 |pages=1–3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d7gPBAAAQBAJ&q=free+blacks+underground+railroad}}</ref> In addition, author Diane Miller states: "Traditionally, historians have overlooked the agency of African Americans in their own quest for freedom by portraying the Underground Railroad as an organized effort by white religious groups, often Quakers, to aid 'helpless' slaves." Historian Larry Gara argues that many of the stories of the Underground Railroad belonged in folklore and not history. The actions of real historical figures such as Harriet Tubman, [[Thomas Garrett]], and Levi Coffin are exaggerated, and Northern abolitionists who guided the enslaved to Canada are hailed as the heroes of the Underground Railroad. This narrative minimizes the intelligence and agency of enslaved Black people who liberated themselves, and implies that freedom seekers needed the help of Northerners to escape.<ref>{{cite web |last=Miller |first=Diane |title=The Underground Railroad in Bleeding Kansas |url=https://www.nps.gov/npgallery/GetAsset/5c8a5ce2-d40d-4a57-bbef-703aac0b479c |website=The National Park Service |access-date=16 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250304001224/https://www.nps.gov/npgallery/GetAsset/5c8a5ce2-d40d-4a57-bbef-703aac0b479c |archive-date=2025-03-04 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gara |first=Larry |title=The Liberty Line The Legend of the Underground Railroad |date=2013 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=9780813143569 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WK48TBgPW-EC&q=folklore}}</ref>

== Geography ==
[[File:Rail Road Suspension Bridge Near Niagara Falls v2.jpg|thumb|Freedom seekers escaped slavery and reached Canada by way of the [[Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge]].]]

The Underground Railroad benefited greatly from the geography of the U.S.–Canada border: Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and most of New York were separated from Canada by water, over which transport was usually easy to arrange and relatively safe. The main route for freedom seekers from the South led up the Appalachians, Harriet Tubman going via [[Harpers Ferry]], through the highly anti-slavery [[Connecticut Western Reserve|Western Reserve]] region of northeastern Ohio to the vast shore of Lake Erie, and then to Canada by boat. A smaller number, traveling by way of New York or New England, went via [[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]] (home of [[Samuel May]]) and [[Rochester, New York]] (home of [[Frederick Douglass]]), crossing the [[Niagara River]] or [[Lake Ontario]] into Canada. By 1848 the [[Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge]] had been built—it crossed the Niagara River and connected New York to Canada. Enslaved runaways used the bridge to escape their bondage, and Harriet Tubman used the bridge to take freedom seekers into Canada.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Niagara River: Between Slavery and Freedom |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-niagara-river-between-slavery-and-freedom.htm |website=NPS |access-date=21 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center |url=https://www.nps.gov/places/niagara-falls-underground-railroad-heritage-center.htm |website=NPS |access-date=21 September 2024}}</ref> Those traveling via the New York [[Adirondacks]], sometimes via Black communities like [[Timbuctoo, New York]], entered Canada via [[Ogdensburg, New York|Ogdensburg]], on the [[St. Lawrence River]], or on [[Lake Champlain]] ([[Joshua Young]] assisted). The western route, used by [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] among others, led from Missouri west to free Kansas and north to free Iowa, then east via Chicago to the [[Detroit River]].

[[Thomas Downing (restaurateur)|Thomas Downing]] was a free Black man in New York and operated his Oyster restaurant as a stop on the Underground Railroad. [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|Freedom seekers]] (runaway slaves) escaping slavery and seeking freedom hid in the basement of Downing's restaurant.<ref>{{cite web |title=Downing's Oyster House |url=https://maap.columbia.edu/place/1.html |website=Mapping the African American Past |publisher=Columbia University |access-date=20 June 2024}}</ref> Enslaved people helped freedom seekers escape from slavery. Arnold Gragstone was enslaved and helped runaways escape from slavery by guiding them across the [[Ohio River]] for their freedom.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blaisdell |first1=Bob |last2=Rudisel |first2=Christine |title=Slave Narratives of the Underground Railroad |date=2014 |publisher=Dover Publications |isbn=9780486780610 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0g_dAwAAQBAJ&q=civil%20war}}</ref>

[[File:William Still portrait.png|thumb|William Still was a free Black man in Philadelphia who helped hundreds of freedom seekers escape from slavery.]]

[[William Still]],<ref>Blight, David, 2004, p. 175</ref> sometimes called "The Father of the Underground Railroad", helped hundreds of slaves escape (as many as 60 a month), sometimes hiding them in his [[Philadelphia]] home. He kept careful records, including short biographies of the people, that contained frequent railway metaphors. He maintained correspondence with many of them, often acting as a middleman in communications between people who had escaped slavery and those left behind. He later published these accounts in the book ''The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts'' (1872), a valuable resource for historians to understand how the system worked and learn about individual ingenuity in escapes.

According to Still, messages were often encoded so that they could be understood only by those active in the railroad. For example, the following message, "I have sent via at two o'clock four large hams and two small hams", indicated that four adults and two children were sent by train from [[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania|Harrisburg]] to Philadelphia. The additional word ''via'' indicated that the "passengers" were not sent on the usual train, but rather via [[Reading, Pennsylvania]]. In this case, the authorities were tricked into going to the regular location (station) in an attempt to intercept the runaways, while Still met them at the correct station and guided them to safety. They eventually escaped either further north or to Canada, where slavery had been [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833|abolished]] during the 1830s.<ref>{{cite book| last=Still|first=William| title=The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts| date=1872}}</ref>

[[File:Desperate Conflict in a Barn.png|thumb|280px|''Struggle for freedom in a Maryland barn''. Wood-engraving from William Still's ''The Underground Rail Road'', p. 50.<ref>Dictated by Robert Jackson a.k.a. Wesley Harris on November 2, 1853. "Engravings by Bensell, Schell, and others."</ref>]]

To reduce the risk of infiltration, many people associated with the Underground Railroad [[Compartmentalization (information security)|knew only their part of the operation]] and not of the whole scheme. "Conductors" led or transported the "passengers" from station to station. A conductor sometimes pretended to be enslaved to enter a [[plantations in the American South|plantation]]. Once a part of a plantation, the conductor would direct the runaways to the North. Enslaved people traveled at night, about {{convert|10|-|20|mi|0}} to each station. They rested, and then a message was sent to the next station to let the station master know the escapees were on their way. They would stop at the so-called "stations" or "depots" during the day and rest. The stations were often located in basements,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cedarville University|date=February 12, 2018|title=Underground Railroad Hiding Places|url=https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/wyland_collection/85|journal=Slideshow Images|access-date=February 28, 2021|archive-date=April 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424165353/https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/wyland_collection/85/|url-status=live}}</ref> barns,<ref>{{cite web|date=1930s|title=Point of interest at Oakland City – site of barn of Col. James W. Cockrum used as an underground railroad station|url=https://visions.indstate.edu:8888/cdm/singleitem/collection/isulib/id/7638/rec/3|url-status=live|access-date=February 27, 2021|website=Wabash Valley Visions & Voices Digital Memory Project|archive-date=April 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415024158/https://visions.indstate.edu:8888/cdm/singleitem/collection/isulib/id/7638/rec/3}}</ref> churches,<ref>{{cite web|date=March 15, 2017|title=The Underground Railroad|url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog/underground-railroad|access-date=February 28, 2021|website=National Museum of African American History and Culture|language=en|archive-date=March 10, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310182912/https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog/underground-railroad|url-status=live}}</ref> or in hiding places in caves.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Smith Underground Railroad Station :: Ohio :: Henry Robert Burke :: Lest We Forget|url=https://lestweforget.hamptonu.edu/page.cfm?uuid=9FEC4E64-D74A-B3E9-A15B5ED01281AC79|access-date=February 28, 2021|website=lestweforget.hamptonu.edu|archive-date=April 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415024543/https://lestweforget.hamptonu.edu/page.cfm?uuid=9FEC4E64-D74A-B3E9-A15B5ED01281AC79|url-status=live}}</ref>

The resting spots where the freedom seekers could sleep and eat were given the code names "stations" and "depots", which were held by "station masters". "Stockholders" gave money or supplies for assistance. Using biblical references, fugitives referred to Canada as the "[[Promised Land]]" or "Heaven" and the [[Ohio River]], which marked the boundary between [[slave states and free states]], as the "[[Jordan River|River Jordan]]".<ref>{{cite web| title=Underground Railroad Codes| url=https://www.safepassageohio.org/resources/weblesson.pdf| work=Myths and Codes of the Underground Railroad| series=Safe Passage| publisher=Greater Cincinnati Television Educational Foundation| page=20| access-date=June 29, 2013| archive-date=June 12, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612135935/https://www.safepassageohio.org/resources/weblesson.pdf| url-status=usurped}}</ref>

== Traveling conditions ==
[[File:4271695318-marymeachum.jpg|thumb|Mary Meachum was an Underground Railroad agent in St. Louis, Missouri]]

Although the freedom seekers sometimes traveled on boat or train,<ref>Bordewich, Fergus, 2005, p. 236</ref> they usually traveled on foot or by wagon, sometimes lying down, covered with hay or similar products, in groups of one to three escapees. Some groups were considerably larger. Abolitionist [[Charles Turner Torrey]] and his colleagues rented horses and wagons and often transported as many as 15 or 20 people at a time.<ref>{{cite book| last=Torrey| first=E. Fuller| author-link=E. Fuller Torrey|title=The Martyrdom of Abolitionist Charles Torrey| year=2013| publisher=Louisiana State University Press| location=Baton Rouge}}</ref> Free and enslaved black men occupied as mariners (sailors) helped enslaved people escape from slavery by providing a ride on their ship, providing information on the safest and best escape routes, and safe locations on land, and locations of trusted people for assistance. Enslaved African-American mariners had information about slave revolts occurring in the Caribbean, and relayed this news to enslaved people they had contact with in American ports. Free and enslaved African-American mariners assisted [[Harriet Tubman]] in her rescue missions. Black mariners provided to her information about the best escape routes and helped her on her rescue missions. In [[New Bedford, Massachusetts]], freedom seekers stowed away on ships leaving the docks with the assistance of Black and white crewmembers and hid in the ships' cargoes during their journey to freedom.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Underground Railroad: New Bedford Massachusetts |url=https://npshistory.com/publications/nebe/brochures/underground-railroad2.pdf |website=The National Park Service |access-date=13 September 2024}}</ref>

Enslaved people living near rivers escaped on boats and canoes. In 1855, [[John Berry Meachum|Mary Meachum]], a free Black woman, attempted to help eight or nine slaves escape from slavery on the [[Mississippi River]] near St. Louis, Missouri to the free state of Illinois. To assist with the escape were white antislavery activists and an African American guide from Illinois named "Freeman." However, the escape was not successful because word of the escape reached police agents and slave catchers who waited across the river on the Illinois shore. Breckenridge, Burrows and Meachum were arrested. Prior to this escape attempt, Mary Meachum and her husband John, a former slave, were agents on the Underground Railroad and helped other slaves escape from slavery crossing the Mississippi River.<ref>{{cite web |title=Slave Stampedes on the Southern Borderlands |url=https://housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/stampedes/meachum-1855/ |website=National Park Service Network to Freedom |date=June 20, 2019 |publisher=Dickson College |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Underground Railroad Handbook.jpg|thumb|Enslaved people living near rivers and the [[Chesapeake Bay]] escaped from slavery using canoes and boats.]]

Routes were often purposely indirect to confuse pursuers. Most escapes were by individuals or small groups; occasionally, there were mass escapes, such as with the [[Pearl incident|''Pearl'' incident]]. The journey was often considered particularly difficult and dangerous for women or children. Children were sometimes hard to keep quiet or were unable to keep up with a group. In addition, enslaved women were rarely allowed to leave the plantation, making it harder for them to escape in the same ways that men could.<ref>{{cite journal| last1=Blackett| first1=Richard| s2cid=154049844| title=The Underground Railroad and the Struggle Against Slavery| journal=History Workshop Journal| date=October 2014| volume=78| issue=1| page=279| doi=10.1093/hwj/dbu012}}</ref> Although escaping was harder for women, some women were successful. One of the most famous and successful conductors (people who secretly traveled into slave states to rescue those seeking freedom) was [[Harriet Tubman]], a woman who escaped slavery.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0120/p19s02-bogn.html |title=The most famous abductor on the Underground Railroad |last=Wellington |first=Darryl Lorenzo |date=January 20, 2004 |work=Christian Science Monitor |access-date=January 9, 2012 |archive-date=September 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180907110326/https://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0120/p19s02-bogn.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/underground-railroad|title=Underground Railroad – Black History |website=history.com|access-date=August 1, 2017|archive-date=December 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215130905/https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/underground-railroad|url-status=live}}</ref>

Due to the risk of discovery, information about routes and safe havens was passed along by word of mouth, although in 1896 there is a reference to a numerical code used to encrypt messages. Southern newspapers of the day were often filled with pages of notices soliciting information about fugitive slaves and offering sizable rewards for their capture and return. [[United States Marshals Service#History|Federal marshals]] and professional [[bounty hunter]]s known as [[slave catcher]]s pursued freedom seekers as far as the [[Canada–United States border|Canada–U.S. border]].{{sfn|Potter|1976|p=133}}

[[Fugitive slaves in the United States|Freedom seekers]] (runaway slaves) foraged, fished, and hunted for food on their journey to freedom on the Underground Railroad. With these ingredients, they prepared one-pot meals (stews), a West African cooking method. Enslaved and free Black people left food outside their front doors to provide nourishment to the freedom seekers. The meals created on the Underground Railroad became a part of the foodways of Black Americans called [[soul food]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Soul Food Got Its Start From Freedom Seekers Surviving Off The Land |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/soul-food-freedom-seekers-surviving-off-the-land/ |access-date=20 June 2024 |agency=CBS News |date=2022}}</ref>

== Maroons ==
[[File:Maroons preparing to ambush a convoy.jpg|thumb|Maroons]]

{{main|Maroons}}

The majority of [[freedom seekers]] that escaped from slavery did not have help from an abolitionist. Although there are stories of black and white abolitionists helping freedom seekers escape from slavery, many escapes were unaided.<ref name="auto2"/><ref name="NPS What Is" />

Other Underground Railroad escape routes for freedom seekers were [[Maroons|maroon communities]]. Maroon communities were hidden places, such as wetlands or marshes, where escaped slaves established their own independent communities. Examples of maroon communities in the United States include the [[Black Seminoles|Black Seminole]] communities in Florida, as well as groups that lived in the [[Great Dismal Swamp maroons|Great Dismal Swamp]] in Virginia and in the [[Okefenokee Swamp|Okefenokee swamp]] of Georgia and Florida, among others.{{sfn|Hudson|2015|pp=143–144}}<ref name="NPS Telling Stories">{{cite web |title=The Underground Railroad in American History |url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/tellingallamericansstories/upload/UndergroundRailroad.pdf |website=[[National Park Service]] |access-date=22 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240930211640/https://www.nps.gov/subjects/tellingallamericansstories/upload/UndergroundRailroad.pdf |archive-date=2024-09-30 }}</ref> In the 1780s, Louisiana had a maroon community in the [[bayou]]s of [[Saint Malo, Louisiana|Saint Malo]]. The leader of the Saint Malo maroon community was [[Jean Saint Malo]], a freedom seeker who escaped to live among other runaways in the swamps and bayous of Saint Malo. The population of maroons was fifty and the Spanish colonial government broke up the community and on June 19, 1784, Jean Saint Malo was executed.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Allen |first1=Diane |title=Living Freedom Through the Maroon Landscape |url=https://placesjournal.org/article/the-maroon-communities-and-landscapes-of-louisiana/ |journal=Places Journal |date=2022 |issue=2022 |doi=10.22269/220922 |access-date=19 September 2024|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Palmer |first1=Lue |title=Juneteenth & Jean Saint Malo: How New Orleans is celebrating justice and freedom on June 19 |url=https://veritenews.org/2023/06/15/juneteenth-jean-saint-malo/#:~:text=According%20to%20Creole%20legend%2C%20Jean,against%20French%20and%20Spanish%20slaveholders. |access-date=19 September 2024 |agency=Verite News |date=2023}}</ref> Colonial [[Province of South Carolina|South Carolina]] had a number of maroon settlements in its marshland regions in the [[South Carolina Lowcountry|Lowcountry]] and near rivers. Maroons in South Carolina fought to maintain their freedom and prevent enslavement in [[Ashepoo River|Ashepoo]] in 1816, Williamsburg County in 1819, [[Georgetown, South Carolina|Georgetown]] in 1820, Jacksonborough in 1822, and near Marion in 1861. Historian [[Herbert Aptheker]] found evidence that fifty maroon communities existed in the United States between 1672 and 1864.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fitzgerald |first1=Catherine |title=Maroons |url=https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/maroons/#:~:text=The%20typical%20South%20Carolina%20maroon,away%20more%20on%20their%20own. |website=South Carolina Encyclopedia |publisher=University of South Carolina, Institute for Southern Studies |access-date=22 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Silkenat |first1=David |title=An Inhospitable Refuge |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/41417/chapter-abstract/352738020?redirectedFrom=fulltext |website=Oxford Academic |date=2022 |pages=123–148 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197564226.003.0007 |isbn=978-0-19-756422-6 |access-date=22 September 2024}}</ref> The history of maroons showed how the enslaved resisted enslavement by living in free independent settlements. Historical archeologist Dan Sayer says that historians downplay the importance of maroon settlements and place valor in white involvement in the Underground Railroad, which he argues shows a racial bias, indicating a "...reluctance to acknowledge the strength of black resistance and initiative."<ref>{{cite web |title=Deep in the Swamps, Archaeologists Are Finding How Fugitive Slaves Kept Their Freedom |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/deep-swamps-archaeologists-fugitive-slaves-kept-freedom-180960122/ |website=Smithsonian Magazine |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=20 September 2024}}</ref>

== Freedom routes into Native American lands ==
From colonial America into the 19th century, [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous peoples]] of North America assisted and protected enslaved Africans journey to freedom.<ref name="auto1">{{cite news |title=The Indigenous connection to the Underground Railroad |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/what-happens-when-hidden-histories-become-a-national-conversation-1.6059520/the-indigenous-connection-to-the-underground-railroad-1.6061957 |access-date=10 September 2024 |agency=CBC |date=2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Uncovering Tribal Connections to the Underground Railroad |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/tribal-ugrr-connections.htm |website=The National Park Service |access-date=10 September 2024}}</ref> However, not all Indigenous communities were accepting of freedom seekers, some of whom they enslaved themselves or returned to their former enslavers.<ref name="NPS Telling Stories"/> The earliest accounts of escape are from the 16th century. In 1526, Spaniards established the first European colony in the continental United States in South Carolina called [[San Miguel de Gualdape]]. The enslaved Africans revolted and historians suggest they escaped to Shakori Indigenous communities.<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Brockell |first1=Gillian |title=Before 1619, there was 1526: The mystery of the first enslaved Africans in what became the United States |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/09/07/before-there-was-mystery-first-enslaved-africans-what-became-us/ |access-date=18 September 2024 |agency=The Washington Post |date=2019}}</ref> As early as 1689, [[Slavery in the colonial United States|enslaved Africans]] fled from the [[South Carolina Lowcountry]] to [[Spanish Florida]] seeking freedom.<ref name="Opala">
{{cite book|chapter-url=https://www.yale.edu/glc/gullah/07.htm |first=Joseph A. |last=Opala |title=The Gullah: Rice, Slavery, and the Sierra Leone-American Connection – Website
|chapter=Black Seminoles – Gullahs Who Escaped From Slavery |publisher=Yale University, Gilder Lehrman Center |access-date=2009-08-04 |url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090829221041/https://www.yale.edu/glc/gullah/07.htm |archive-date=2009-08-29 }}</ref> The [[Seminole|Seminole Nation]] accepted [[Gullah]] runaways (today called [[Black Seminoles]]) into their lands.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pressly |first1=Paul |title=A Southern Underground Railroad Black Georgians and the Promise of Spanish Florida and Indian Country |date=2024 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=9780820366326 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zjBQ0AEACAAJ}}</ref> This was a southern route on the Underground Railroad into Seminole Indian lands that went from Georgia and the Carolinas into Florida. In Northwest Ohio in the 18th and 19th centuries, three [[Native Americans in the United States|Indigenous/Native American]] nations, the [[Shawnee]], Ottawa, and [[Wyandot people|Wyandot]] assisted freedom seekers escape from slavery. The Ottawa people accepted and protected runaways in their villages. Other escapees were taken to [[Fort Malden]] by the Ottawa. In [[Upper Sandusky, Ohio|Upper Sandusky]], Wyandot people allowed a [[Maroons|maroon community]] of freedom seekers in their lands called Negro Town for four decades.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Finkinebine |first1=Roy |title=The Underground Railroad in "Indian Country": Northwest Ohio, 1795–1843 |date=2018 |publisher=University Press of Florida |pages=70–92 |doi=10.5744/florida/9780813056036.003.0004 |isbn=978-0-8130-5603-6 |url=https://academic.oup.com/florida-scholarship-online/book/14776/chapter-abstract/168992172?redirectedFrom=fulltext}}</ref>

In the 18th and 19th centuries in areas around the [[Chesapeake Bay]] and [[Delaware]], [[Nanticoke people]] hid freedom seekers in their villages. The Nanticoke people lived in small villages near the [[Pocomoke River]]; the river rises in several forks in the [[Great Cypress Swamp]] in southern [[Sussex County, Delaware]]. African Americans escaping slavery were able to hide in swamps, and the water washed off the scent of enslaved runaways, making it difficult for dogs to track their scent. As early as the 18th century, mixed-blood communities formed.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gould |first1=Bill |title=Delmarva Native Americans and the earliest Underground Railroad |url=https://nativeamericansofdelawarestate.com/Delmarva_Indians_&_Underground_Railroad.htm |website=Native Americans of Delaware State |access-date=10 September 2024}}</ref><ref name="auto3"/> In [[History of slavery in Maryland|Maryland]], freedom seekers escaped to Shawnee villages located along the [[Potomac River]]. Slaveholders in Virginia and Maryland filed numerous complaints and court petitions against the Shawnee and Nanticoke for hiding freedom seekers in their villages.<ref>{{cite web |title=What is the Underground Railroad and why did it exist here? |url=https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc5300/sc5339/000113/011000/011364/unrestricted/20090253e.pdf |website=Maryland State Government |access-date=15 September 2024}}</ref> [[Odawa]] people also accepted freedom seekers into their villages. The Odawa transferred the runaways to the [[Ojibwe]] who escorted them to Canada.<ref name="auto1"/> Some enslaved people who escaped slavery and fled to Native American villages stayed in their communities. White pioneers who traveled to Kentucky and the [[Ohio Territory]] saw "[[Black Indians in the United States|Black Shawnees]]" living with Indigenous people in the [[Trans-Appalachia|trans-Appalachian west]]. During the colonial era in [[New Spain]] and in the [[Seminole]] Nation in Florida, African Americans and Indigenous marriages occurred.{{sfn|Hudson|2015|p=155}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Garrison |first1=Timothy A. |last2=Haefeli |first2=Evan |title=Native Americans and African Americans |url=https://oxfordaasc.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-44914 |website=Oxford African American Studies Center |access-date=11 September 2024}}</ref>

== South to Florida and Mexico ==

=== Background ===
[[File:1888-view-Old Stone Fort-Harby-illus-American Magazine.jpg|thumb|"[[Old Stone Fort Museum (Texas)|The Old Stone Fort of Nacogdoches]]", by Lee C. Harby, ''The American Magazine'', April 1888 edition]]

Beginning in the 16th century, Spaniards brought enslaved Africans to [[New Spain]], including Mission Nombre de Dios in what would become the city of [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]] in [[Spanish Florida]]. Over time, free [[Afro-Spaniards]] took up various trades and occupations and served in the [[Military of New Spain|colonial militia]].<ref name="UTSA - AAT">{{Cite web |date=2019 |title=African American Texans |url=https://texancultures.utsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/TOA_African-American_Revised_VI.pdf |website=Institute of Texan Cultures, University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) |access-date=July 7, 2021 |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709185719/https://texancultures.utsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/TOA_African-American_Revised_VI.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> After King [[Charles II of Spain]] proclaimed Spanish Florida a safe haven for escaped slaves from British North America, they began escaping to Florida by the hundreds from as far north as [[Province of New York|New York]]. The Spanish established [[Fort Mose Historic State Park|Fort Mose]] for free Blacks in the St. Augustine area in 1738.

In 1806, enslaved people arrived at the [[Old Stone Fort Museum (Texas)|Stone Fort]] in [[Nacogdoches, Texas]] seeking freedom. They arrived with a forged passport from a Kentucky judge. The Spanish refused to return them back to the United States. More freedom seekers traveled through Texas the following year.<ref name="Barnes" />

Enslaved people were emancipated by crossing the border from the United States into Mexico, which was a [[Territorial evolution of Mexico|Spanish colony]] into the nineteenth century.{{sfn|Crable|2021}} In the United States, enslaved people were considered property. That meant that they did not have rights to marry and they could be sold away from their partners. They also did not have rights to fight inhumane and cruel punishment. In [[New Spain]], fugitive slaves were recognized as humans. They were allowed to join the Catholic Church and marry. They also were protected from inhumane and cruel punishment.<ref name="Barnes" />

During the [[War of 1812]], [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] general [[Andrew Jackson]] invaded [[Spanish Florida]] in part because enslaved people had run away from plantations in the Carolinas and Georgia to Florida. Some of the runaways joined the [[Black Seminoles]] who later moved to Mexico.<ref name="Barnes" /> However, Mexico sent mixed signals on its position against slavery. Sometimes it allowed enslaved people to be returned to slavery and it allowed Americans to move into Spanish territorial property in order to populate the North, where the Americans would then establish cotton plantations, bringing enslaved people to work the land.<ref name="Barnes" />

In 1829, Mexican president [[Vicente Guerrero]] (who was a mixed race black man) formally abolished slavery in Mexico.{{sfn|Hudson|2015}}{{sfn|Little|2021}} Freedom seekers from Southern plantations in the [[Deep South]], particularly from Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, escaped slavery and headed for Mexico.{{sfn|Hudson|2015}}<ref name="Barnes">{{Cite news |last=Barnes |first=Michael |date=April 13, 2021 |title=One route of the Underground Railroad ran through Texas to Mexico |language=en-US |work=Austin American-Statesman |url=https://www.statesman.com/story/news/history/2021/04/13/slaves-moved-through-texas-freedom-mexico/7141742002/ |access-date=2021-07-07 |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709185249/https://www.statesman.com/story/news/history/2021/04/13/slaves-moved-through-texas-freedom-mexico/7141742002/ |url-status=live }}</ref> At that time, Texas was part of Mexico. The [[Texas Revolution]], initiated in part to legalize slavery, resulted in the formation of the [[Republic of Texas]] in 1836.{{sfn|Little|2021}} Following the [[Battle of San Jacinto]], there were some enslaved people who withdrew from the Houston area with the Mexican army, seeing the troops as a means to escape slavery.{{sfn|Burnett|2021}} When Texas joined the Union in 1845, it was a [[slave state]]{{sfn|Little|2021}} and the Rio Grande became the international border with Mexico.{{sfn|Burnett|2021}}

Pressure between free and slave states deepened as Mexico abolished slavery and western states joined the Union as free states. As more free states were added to the Union, the lesser the influence of slave state representatives in Congress.{{sfn|Crable|2021}}<ref name="Barnes" />

=== Slave states and slave hunters ===
The Southern Underground Railroad went through slave states, lacking the abolitionist societies and the organized system of the north. People who spoke out against slavery were subject to mobs, physical assault, and being hanged. There were slave catchers who looked for runaway slaves. There were never more than a few hundred free blacks in Texas, which meant that free blacks did not feel safe in the state. The network to freedom was informal, random, and dangerous.{{sfn|Bird|2021}}

[[United States Armed Forces|U.S. military]] forts, established along the Rio Grande border during the [[Mexican–American War]] of the 1840s, captured and returned fleeing enslaved people to their slaveholders.<ref name="Leanos">{{Cite news |last=Leanos |first=Reynaldo Jr. |date=March 29, 2017 |title=This underground railroad took slaves to freedom in Mexico |language=en |work=The World, a public radio program |url=https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-03-29/underground-railroad-took-slaves-freedom-mexico |access-date=2021-07-07 |archive-date=October 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018081421/https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-03-29/underground-railroad-took-slaves-freedom-mexico |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Grant |first1=Richard |title=South to the Promised Land |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/southbound-underground-railroad-brought-thousands-enslaved-americans-mexico-180980328/ |website=Smithsonian Magazine |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=15 September 2024}}</ref>

The [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]] made it a criminal offense to aid fleeing enslaved people in [[Slave states and free states|free states]]. Similarly, the United States government wanted to enact a treaty with Mexico to facilitate the capture and return of escaped slaves in that country. Mexico, however, continued its practice of allowing any slave who crossed its border to be free. Slave catchers, though, continued to cross the southern border into Mexico and illegally capture black people and return them to slavery.{{sfn|Little|2021}} A group of slave hunters became the [[Texas Ranger Division|Texas Rangers]].<ref name="Leanos" />

== Routes ==
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| caption     = Routes from Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Arkansas, and Louisiana through Texas: 1) Dallas or Nacogdoches to Austin – San Antonio – Laredo, 2) Nacogdoches to Houston – Galveston – boat to Mexico, 3) Nacogdoches to Houston – Matamoros{{sfn|Burnett|2021}}
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[[File:Brooklyn Museum - A Ride for Liberty -- The Fugitive Slaves - Eastman Johnson - overall.jpg|thumb|[[Eastman Johnson]], ''[[A Ride for Liberty – The Fugitive Slaves]]'', oil on paperboard, 22 × 26.25 inches, {{circa|1862}}, [[Brooklyn Museum]]. Depicts a family of African Americans fleeing enslavement in the Southern United States during the [[American Civil War]].]]
Thousands of freedom seekers traveled along a network from the southern United States to Texas and ultimately Mexico.{{sfn|Contreras|2020b}} Southern enslaved people generally traveled across "unforgiving country" on foot or horseback while pursued by lawmen and slave hunters.{{sfn|Bird|2021}} Some stowed away on ferries bound for a Mexican port{{sfn|Little|2021}}{{sfn|Contreras|2020b}} from [[New Orleans]], Louisiana and [[Galveston, Texas]].{{sfn|Burnett|2021}} There were some who transported cotton to [[Brownsville, Texas]] on wagons and then crossed into Mexico at [[Matamoros, Tamaulipas|Matamoros]].{{sfn|Burnett|2021}}

{{Quote box|align=right|width=250px|Sometimes someone would come 'long and try to get us to run up north and be free. We used to laugh at that.|—Former slave Felix Haywood, interviewed in 1937 for the federal Slave Narrative Project.{{sfn|Burnett|2021}}}}
Many traveled through North Carolina, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, or Mississippi toward Texas and ultimately Mexico.{{sfn|Little|2021}}{{sfn|Contreras|2020b}} People fled slavery from [[Indian Territory]] (now Oklahoma).{{sfn|Burnett|2021}} [[Black Seminoles]] traveled on a southwestern route from Florida into Mexico.{{sfn|Hudson|2015|p=147}}<ref name="NPS What Is" />

Going overland meant that the last 150 miles or so were traversed through the difficult and extremely hot terrain of the [[Nueces Strip]] located between the [[Nueces River]] and the [[Rio Grande]]. There was little shade and a lack of potable water in this brush country.{{sfn|Bird|2021}}{{efn|Of recent years, unauthorized migrants have died when crossing this area, evidenced by bones found by immigration agents.{{sfn|Burnett|2021}}}} Escapees were more likely to survive the trip if they had a horse and a gun.{{sfn|Bird|2021}}

The [[National Park Service]] identified a route from [[Natchitoches, Louisiana]] to [[Monclova]], [[Mexico]] in 2010 that is roughly the southern Underground Railroad path. It is also believed that ''[[El Camino Real de los Tejas]]'' was a path for freedom. It was made a [[National Historic Trail]] by President [[George W. Bush]] in 2004.{{sfn|Contreras|2020b}}

== Assistance ==
Some journeyed on their own without assistance, and others were helped by people along the southern Underground Railroad.{{sfn|Little|2021}} Assistance included guidance, directions, shelter, and supplies.{{sfn|Bird|2021}}

Black people, black and white couples, and anti-slavery German immigrants provided support, but most of the help came from Mexican laborers.{{sfn|Bird|2021}}{{sfn|Contreras|2020b}} So much so that enslavers came to distrust any Mexican, and a law was enacted in Texas that forbade Mexicans from talking to enslaved people.{{sfn|Burnett|2021}} Mexican migrant workers developed relationships with enslaved black workers whom they worked with. They offered guidance, such as what it would be like to cross the border, and empathy. Having realized the ways in which Mexicans were helping enslaved people to escape, slaveholders and residents of Texan towns pushed people out of the town, whipped them in public, or lynched them.{{sfn|Bird|2021}}{{sfn|Contreras|2020b}}

Some border officials helped enslaved people crossing into Mexico. In [[Monclova]], [[Mexico]] a border official took up a collection in the town for a family in need of food, clothing, and money to continue on their journey south and out of reach of slave hunters.<ref name="Leanos" /> Once they crossed the border, some Mexican authorities helped former enslaved people from being returned to the United States by slave hunters.{{sfn|Burnett|2021}}

Freedom seekers that were taken on ferries to Mexican ports were aided by Mexican ship captains, one of whom was caught in Louisiana and indicted for helping enslaved people escape.{{sfn|Crable|2021}}

Knowing the repercussions of running away or being caught helping someone runaway, people were careful to cover their tracks, and public and personal records about fugitive slaves are scarce. In greater supply are records by people who promoted slavery or attempted to catch fugitive slaves. More than 2,500 escapes are documented by the Texas Runaway Slave Project at [[Stephen F. Austin State University]].{{sfn|Bird|2021}}

== Southern freedom seekers ==
[[File:Tom Blue, General Sam Houston's bodyguard.jpg|thumb|[[Tom Blue]], enslaved by General [[Sam Houston]], ran away and joined the Mexican military.]]

Advertisements were placed in newspapers offering rewards for the return of their "property". Slave catchers traveled through Mexico. There were [[Black Seminoles]], or ''Los Mascogos'' who lived in northern Mexico who provided armed resistance.{{sfn|Contreras|2020b}}

[[Sam Houston]], president of the [[Republic of Texas]], was the slaveholder to [[Tom Blue|Tom]] who ran away. He headed to Texas and once there he enlisted in the Mexican military.{{sfn|Little|2018}}

One enslaved man was branded with the letter "R" on each side of his cheek after a failed attempt to escape slavery. He tried again in the winter of 1819, leaving the cotton plantation of his enslaver on horseback. With four others, they traveled southwest to Mexico at the risk of being attacked by hostile Native Americans, apprehended by slave catchers, or attacked by "horse-eating alligators".{{sfn|Crable|2021}}

Many people did not make it to Mexico. In 1842, a Mexican man and a black woman left [[Jackson County, Texas]] on two horses, but they were caught at the [[Lavaca River]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hammack |first1=María |title=Love In Times of Texas Slavery |url=https://notevenpast.org/love-in-the-time-of-texas-slavery/ |website=Not Even Past |date=June 5, 2019 |publisher=Department of History, University of Texas at Austin |access-date=13 August 2021 |archive-date=August 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813212021/https://notevenpast.org/love-in-the-time-of-texas-slavery/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The wife, an enslaved woman, was valuable to her owner so she was returned to slavery. Her husband, possibly a farm laborer or an indentured servant, was immediately lynched.{{sfn|Bird|2021}}

Fugitive slaves changed their names in Mexico. They married into Mexican families and relocated further south of the American-Mexican border. All of these factors makes it hard to trace the whereabouts of the formerly enslaved people.{{sfn|Contreras|2020b}} A database at [[Stephen F. Austin State University]] has a database of runaway slave advertisements as part of The Texas Runaway Slave Project. The [[Works Progress Administration]] during the [[Great Depression]] initiated a [[Federal Writers' Project]] to document slave narratives, including those who settled in Mexico. One of them was Felix Haywood, who found freedom when he crossed the [[Rio Grande]].{{sfn|Contreras|2020b}}

== Rio Grande stations ==
Two families, the Webbers and the Jacksons, lived along the Rio Grande and helped people escape slavery. The husbands were white and the wives were black women who had been formerly enslaved.{{sfn|Contreras|2020b}} It is not known if [[Matilda and Nathaniel Jackson#Nathaniel Jackson|Nathaniel Jackson]] purchased the freedom of [[Matilda and Nathaniel Jackson|Matilda Hicks]] and her family, but in the early 1860s they moved to Hidalgo county, where they settled and lived as a family. He was a white southerner and she was an enslaved woman, who had been childhood sweethearts in Alabama.{{sfn|Contreras|2020b}} He was the son of her slaveholder,{{sfn|Little|2021}} who helped a group of seven families in 1857 and others cross into Mexico.{{sfn|Bird|2021}}

Silvia Hector Webber was born enslaved in West Florida and in 1819 was sold to a slaveholder in Clark County, Arkansas. The slaveholders' son, John Cryer, illegally brought Silvia to Mexican Texas in 1828, four years after Mexico had deemed the slave trade into Mexican territory against the law. Silvia, however, with the help of John Webber secured her and her 3 children's freedom papers in 1834.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hammack |first1=María Esther |chapter=Silvia Hector Webber |title=Handbook of Texas |publisher=Texas State Historical Association |date=Spring 2020 |chapter-url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/webber-sylvia-hector-aunt-puss |access-date=13 August 2021 |archive-date=July 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710234324/https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/webber-sylvia-hector-aunt-puss |url-status=live }}</ref> Together Silvia and John lived an antislavery life and often harbored fugitives from slavery in their ranch and house. Silvia was known to transport freedom seekers, on a ferry she licensed at her ranch, onto freedom in Mexico.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hammack |first1=Maria |title=Silvia Hector Webber |url=https://mariaestherhammack.me/publications-publicaciones/silvia-hector-webber/ |website=mariaesteherhammack.me |date=January 31, 2021 |publisher=Maria Hammack |access-date=13 August 2021 |archive-date=August 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813213329/https://mariaestherhammack.me/publications-publicaciones/silvia-hector-webber/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[John Ferdinand Webber]], born in Vermont, lived along the Rio Grande with his wife, [[Silvia Hector Webber]],{{sfn|Contreras|2020b}} and together were known to have helped enslaved people cross the Rio Grande.{{sfn|Bird|2021}} The Jacksons and Webbers, who both owned licensed ferry service, were well known among runaways.{{sfn|Burnett|2021}}

== Arrival in Mexico ==
{{See also|Black Seminoles#Migration to Mexico}}

Black freedom seekers arrived in Mexico with uncertain fates due to Mexican immigration policy. The law required that all persons entering the country and seeking to settle obtain a visa. Formerly enslaved Africans could not get a visa because the application required documentation from the country of origin. Although the visa policy did create barriers in obtaining a legal stay and increased the chances of recapture from [[Slave catcher|slave catchers]] up until 1857, when it was eliminated, becoming members of civic society, such as joining the Mexican military, becoming godparents to Mexican children, and marrying into families, offered a unique citizenship status that the Mexican government recognized.<ref>Sarah E. Cornell, "Citizens of Nowhere: Fugitive Slaves and Free African Americans in Mexico, 1833-1857," ''The Journal of American History'' 100, no. 2 (September 2013): 351-374; Alice Baumgartner, “Citizenship” in S''outh to freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War''” (New York: Basic Books, 2020), 203–225.</ref> 

Mexican people also helped formerly enslaved Africans by offering them “hospitality” into Mexico and protecting them from recapture.<ref>Kenneth W. Porter, ''The Black Seminoles: History of a Freedom-Seeking People'' (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2013), 137.</ref> In one of many instances, Mexican officials and civilians in [[Piedras Negras, Coahuila|Piedras Negras, Mexico]], rejected [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850|fugitive slave laws]] and “expelled” American slave catchers who attempted to recapture freed Africans.<ref>Sean Kelley, ""Mexico in His Head": Slavery and the Texas-Mexico Border, 1810-1860, " ''Journal of Social History'' 37, no. 3 (Spring 2004): 718. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1353/jsh.2004.0010</nowiki>. </ref> When formerly enslaved Africans could be deported or recaptured, Mexican people would rally behind them and advocate for their legal stay. In most cases, formerly enslaved Africans were recognized as citizens by the Mexican government, which allowed them to remain in Mexico at most.<ref>Cornell, "Citizens of Nowhere,” 351-374.</ref> 

== Colonies ==
There were abolitionists from the north who petitioned the Mexican government to establish colonies for free and runaway blacks. Benjamin Lundy, a [[Quakers|Quaker]], lobbied for a colony to be established in what is now Texas during the early 1830s, but he was unable to do so when Texas legalized slavery when it separated from Mexico and became the [[Republic of Texas]] (1836).{{sfn|Little|2021}} [[Black Seminoles]] successfully petitioned for land and established a colony in 1852. The land is still owned by their descendants.{{sfn|Little|2021}}

=== Scholarship ===
[[File:Galveston Weekly News from May 11, 1858. "$25 Reward.jpg|thumb|$25 Reward for Tom, ''Galveston Weekly News'' from May 11, 1858]]

The Texas Runaway Slave Project, located in [[Nacogdoches]] at the [[Stephen F. Austin State University]], has researched runaway advertisements that appeared in 19,000 editions of newspapers from the mid-19th century.{{sfn|Burnett|2021}}

Alice L. Baumgartner has studied the prevalence of people who fled slavery from the Southern states to Mexico. She published ''South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War''.<ref name="Barnes" /> Thomas Mareite completed a doctoral dissertation at Leiden University on the social and political experiences of enslaved people who escaped from the U.S. South to Mexico, titled ''Conditional Freedom: Free Soil and Fugitive Slaves from the U.S. South to Mexico's Northeast, 1803–1861''.<ref>Mareite, Thomas, ''Conditional Freedom: Free Soil and Fugitive Slaves from the US South to Mexico's Northeast, 1803–1861'' (PhD Diss., Leiden University, 2020) https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/85166 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307090353/https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/85166 |date=March 7, 2022 }}</ref> Roseann Bacha-Garza, of the [[University of Texas Rio Grande Valley]], has managed historical archeology projects and has researched the incidence of enslaved people who fled to Mexico.<ref name="Leanos" />{{sfn|Contreras|2020a}} Mekala Audain has also published a chapter titled "A Scheme to Desert: The Louisiana Purchase and Freedom Seekers in the Louisiana-Texas Borderlands, 1804–1806" in the edited volume ''In Search of Liberty: African American Internationalism in the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World.''<ref>{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Angelo |title=In Search of Liberty: African American Internationalism in the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World |date=2021 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |location=Athens}}</ref> Maria Esther Hammack completed her doctoral dissertation on the subject in 2021 at the [[University of Texas at Austin]].<ref name="Leanos" />

== "Reverse Underground Railroad" ==
{{Main|Kidnapping into slavery in the United States}}

Freedom seekers were not the only black people at risk from slave catchers. With demand for slaves high in the Deep South as cotton was planted, strong, healthy blacks in their prime working and reproductive years were seen and treated as highly valuable commodities. Both former slaves and free blacks were sometimes kidnapped and sold into slavery, as in the well-documented case of [[Solomon Northup]], a New York-born free black who was kidnapped by Southern slavers while visiting Washington, DC. "Certificates of freedom", also known as "free papers", were signed and [[wikt:notarize|notarized]] statements attesting to the free status of individual Blacks. They could easily be destroyed or stolen, so they provided little protection.

Some buildings, such as the [[Crenshaw House (Gallatin County, Illinois)|Crenshaw House]] in far-southeastern [[Illinois]], are known sites where free blacks were sold into slavery, known as the "[[Reverse Underground Railroad]]".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Meyers |last2=Walker |title=The Reverse Underground Railroad in Ohio |date=2022 |publisher=History Press |isbn=9781467150842 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SHZWEAAAQBAJ&q=crenshaw%20house}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Snodgrass |title=The Underground Railroad An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Operations |date=2015 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781317454151 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RmqsBwAAQBAJ&q=reverse%20underground%20railroad}}</ref>

== American Revolutionary War routes (1775 to 1783) ==
{{See also|Black Company of Pioneers}}
{{See also|Rose Fortune}}

[[File:The underground rail road - a record of facts, authentic narratives, letters, &c., narrating the hardships, hair-breadth escapes, and death struggles of the slaves in their efforts for freedom, as (14757706931).jpg|thumb|Some enslaved people escaped from slavery using their enslaver's horse.]]

During the [[American Revolutionary War]], enslaved people escaped from bondage and fled to British forces, Canada, Florida, and [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] lands. The last [[John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore|Royal Governor of Virginia]], [[Dunmore's Proclamation|Lord Dunmore]], planned to weaken American colonists by issuing a proclamation in 1775 that gave freedom to the enslaved who escaped their American colonial masters and joined the British. According to a PBS and National Park Service article this proclamation resulted in an estimated 100,000 [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|freedom seekers]] escaping during the war. American colonial officers received numerous requests for the return of escaped slaves. In November of 1775, Dunmore started a military unit of 300 freedom seekers in North Carolina called "the [[Ethiopian Regiment]]." In Virginia 800 freedom seekers joined the regiment.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fitzgibbons |first1=Ellen |title=Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment |url=https://www.ncpedia.org/dunmores-ethiopian-regiment#:~:text=In%20November%201775%20Dunmore%2C%20who,as%20%22Dunmore's%20Ethiopian%20Regiment.%22 |website=Encyclopedia of North Carolina |access-date=11 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Allen |first1=Kathryn |last2=Shuck-Hall |first2=Sheri |title=The Ethiopian Regiment and the Fight for Independence |url=https://www.explorehistorycnu.org/2024/02/22/the-ethiopian-regiment-and-the-fight-for-independence/ |website=Christopher Newport University's |date=February 22, 2024 |access-date=11 September 2024}}</ref> American colonists tried to deter freedom seekers from joining the British by sending [[slave patrol]]s to stop runaways, and published newspapers and editorials stating the British will not act on their promise of granting freedom to runaway slaves.<ref>{{cite web |title=Virginia: Group Escape, November 26, 1775 |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/group-escape-virginia-november-26-1775.htm |website=Underground Railroad Network to Freedom |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=19 September 2024}}</ref> Thousands of free and enslaved Black people fought with the British in hopes to gain their freedom were called [[Black Loyalist]]s. Black Loyalists who served with the British for one year received Certificates of Freedom and were taken to Caribbean [[British colonization of the Americas|British colonies]] to live as free people in the Bahamas and Jamaica, and others were taken north to Canada.<ref>{{cite web |title=Harry Washington |url=https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/1bbc314b54da43d99dd890e3b3f4b0c5 |website=Underground Railroad Network to Freedom |date=February 13, 2024 |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=19 September 2024}}</ref> Between 1783 and 1785, 3,000 enslaved and free Black Americans settled in the British colony of [[Black Nova Scotians|Nova Scotia, Canada]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Oyeniran |first1=Channon |title=Black Loyalists in British North America |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/black-loyalists-in-british-north-america |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |access-date=16 September 2024}}</ref> Other enslaved people ran away to join the [[Continental Army]] or Patriot [[Militia (United States)|militias]]. Black Americans who fought in the Continental Army were called [[Black Patriot]]s, and some did earn their freedom through their military service. Some enslaved runaways took the war as an opportunity to escape using their enslaver's horse.<ref>{{cite web |title=Runaways 1740–1783 |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p17.html#:~:text=An%20estimated%20100%2C000%20took%20advantage,slaves%20in%20one%20year%20alone. |website=Africans in America |publisher=PBS |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Freedom Denied? Enslaved Soldiers During the Revolution |url=https://www.nps.gov/fost/blogs/freedom-denied-enslaved-soldiers-during-the-revolution.htm |website=Fort Stanwix National Monument |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=11 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Ayres |first1=Edward |title=African Americans and the American Revolution |url=https://www.jyfmuseums.org/learn/research-and-collections/essays/african-americans-and-the-american-revolution |website=American Revolution Museum at Yorktown |access-date=11 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Revolutionary War |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2narr4.html |website=Africans in America |publisher=PBS |access-date=11 September 2024}}</ref>

== War of 1812 routes ==
{{See also|Slavery in Canada}}

[[File:William Williams Black Soldier U.S. Army War of 1812.jpg|thumb|William Williams was an enslaved runaway and a Black Soldier in the U.S. Army in the War of 1812.<ref>{{cite web |title=William Williams |url=https://www.nps.gov/people/william-williams.htm |website=Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=10 September 2024}}</ref>]]

During the [[War of 1812]], 700 enslaved people in [[History of slavery in Maryland|Maryland]] escaped from slavery.<ref>{{cite web |title=African Americans and the War of 1812 |url=https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdstatehouse/war1812/html/afam_war.html#:~:text=Upwards%20of%20700%20slaves%20from,widow%20of%20Governor%20Benjamin%20Ogle. |website=The Maryland State Archives |access-date=10 September 2024}}</ref> Before the war, freedom seekers escaped to the [[Michigan Territory]] by crossing the [[Detroit River]]. Over the years the numbers of escaped African Americans grew in the territory. Territorial governor [[William Hull]] offered Peter Denison, an enslaved man, "a written license" allowing him to form a militia company of free Blacks and escaped slaves. The men were armed and trained but Hull disbanded the militia. Some of the Black men in the militia escaped from slavery in British Canada. In the 18th century, slavery was practiced in Canada, and by 1793 it was phased out, but some [[Black Canadians]] remained enslaved. During the late 18th century and early 19th century, the route of freedom seekers went south beginning in British Canada to their final destination in free American territories in the Old Northwest. By the War of 1812, slave laws in British Canada prohibited the continuation of slavery. This changed the final destinations of freedom seekers in the United States to look north to Canada to obtain their freedom. In the summer of 1812, Hull declared that enslaved runaways and free Blacks in the Michigan Territory were free citizens, and when war broke out with Britain, Black citizens of Michigan were armed to fight against the British. After his military service, Peter Denison and his family left Michigan and relocated north to Canada.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Allen Smith |first1=Gene |title=The Underground Railroad of 1812: Paths to freedom along the Canadian border |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-underground-railroad-changes-course.htm#:~:text=Yet%20by%20the%20end%20of,new%20Canadian%20land%20of%20freedom. |website=The National Park Service |access-date=10 September 2024}}</ref>

== Black Refugees ==
In April of 1814, the British Army promised freedom to enslaved Black Americans who joined the British military or who choose freedom in [[British colonization of the Americas|British colonies]]. In the Chesapeake Region of Virginia and Maryland and coastal areas of Georgia, about 4,000 enslaved Black Americans escaped from slavery. Within the number of 4,000 freedom seekers who escaped, 2,000 sailed to Nova Scotia between September 1813 and August 1816 on naval vessels and private ships chartered by the British and were taken to Nova Scotia and [[New Brunswick|New Brunswick, Canada]] and 400 freedom seekers were taken to [[Trinidad]] in the Caribbean. The Black people who settled in British Canada are known as [[Black refugee (War of 1812)|Black refugees]] who escaped slavery in the United States and sided with the British during the War of 1812.<ref>{{cite web |title=African Nova Scotians in the Age of Slavery and Abolition |url=https://archives.novascotia.ca/africanns/results/?Search=&SearchList1=4 |website=Nova Scotia Archives | date=April 20, 2020 |access-date=16 September 2024}}</ref>

== Merikens ==
The Merikins were formerly enslaved Black Americans that escaped slavery and joined the British military's all-Black unit of [[corps of Colonial Marines|Colonial Marines]] during the War of 1812. When the war ended, they were taken to numerous British colonies to live as free people. About 700 Colonial Marines were taken to [[Trinidad]] in the Caribbean. Although slavery was legal in Trinidad, they were guaranteed protection under commander Robert Mitchell. The formerly Black Americans called themselves Merikens, "an abbreviated word for 'Americans'" and started new lives in Trinidad in six Company Villages in the southern part of the island.<ref>{{cite web |title=Celebrating the Merikins |url=https://natt.gov.tt/sites/default/files/pdfs/Celebrating-the-Merikins.pdf |website=National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago |access-date=16 September 2024}}</ref> The Trinidadian government provided the [[Merikins|Merikens]] with food, rations, clothing, and tools needed to build their homes, and they grew their own food of corn, pumpkin, plantain, and rice.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Merikins |url=https://www.nps.gov/stsp/learn/historyculture/merikins.htm |website=Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=16 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Fergus |first1=Claudius |title=Revolutionary Emancipation Slavery and Abolitionism in the British West Indies |date=2013 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |isbn=9780807149898 |page=113 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kUrRM-RVRJ4C&dq=merikins+slavery&pg=PA115}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=A Guide to the Merikin Collection |url=https://www.natt.gov.tt/sites/default/files/images/NATT%20Merikin%20Collection%20GuideREV2021.pdf |website=National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago |access-date=16 September 2024}}</ref>

== The "Saltwater Railroad" freedom route ==
[[File:The merchant vessel - a sailor boy's voyages around the world (1884) (14593118478).jpg|thumb|A scene in the Bahamas in 1884]]

From 1821 to 1861, freedom seekers escaped from the Southeastern slave states of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida to the [[The Bahamas|Bahamas]] on a secret route called the "Saltwater Railroad." Prior to 1821, In Florida, a Spanish colony that historians know as [[Spanish Florida]], enslaved runaways were declared free under Spanish laws. However, by 1821 Florida was under the control of the United States. Free Blacks in Florida feared they might be re-enslaved under American laws and hundreds of free people escaped to the Bahamas. From 1821 to 1825, the Southern beaches of Florida provided a safe haven for freedom seekers looking to escape on boats that departed from Florida going to the island. Other freedom seekers escaped by making their own canoes and boats and sailed to the Bahamas unaided.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Campbell |first1=Nicole |title=The Saltwater Railroad (1821 to 1861) |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/the-saltwater-railroad-1821-1861/ |website=The Black Past |date=April 26, 2020 |access-date=12 September 2024}}</ref><ref name="auto4">{{cite web |last1=Wills |first1=Matthew |title=The Saltwater Railroad |url=https://daily.jstor.org/the-saltwater-road/ |website=JSTOR Daily |date=September 6, 2019 |access-date=12 September 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Gulf of Mexico.png|thumb|Enslaved people in the United States departed off the Southern Florida coast in boats and escaped to the Bahamas.]]

By 1825, the construction of the [[Cape Florida Light]]house (in present-day [[Miami-Dade County, Florida|Miami-Dade County]]) was a setback to enslaved runaways looking to escape at night on boats off the Florida coast due to the bright light that was helpful to guide sailors off the Florida Reef. The Bahamas attracted enslaved people because there was a community of [[Black Seminoles]] and other escapees. The Bahamas was a British controlled island where under local imperial practices Black people owned land, had access to education, and were legally married. In addition, in 1825, Britain declared that any escapees reaching British controlled lands were free. This declaration resulted in hundreds of more slaves in the United States to escape to the island. By the 1830s, historians estimate that at least 6,000 freedom seekers made their way to the Bahamas, and by the 1840s, the Bahamas had more enslaved runaways than any British colony in the Caribbean.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Knetsch |first1=Joe |last2=Winsboro |first2=Irvin |title=Florida Slaves, the 'Saltwater Railroad' to the Bahamas, and Anglo-American Diplomacy |journal=The Journal of Southern History |date=2013 |volume=79 |issue=1 |page=56 |jstor=23795403 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23795403 |access-date=12 September 2024}}</ref> The actions of Britain to liberate enslaved Americans strained political relationships with the United States. In 1841 on the slave ship, ''[[Creole mutiny|Creole]]'', a slave revolt occurred. The Creole departed from Virginia with over one hundred enslaved people heading to New Orleans, Louisiana. The enslaved revolted and took control of the ship and sailed it to [[Nassau, The Bahamas|Nassau]] in the Bahamas. This revolt sparked international attention; the escapees were charged but later released.<ref name="auto4"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Lyons |first1=Douglas |title='Saltwater Railroad' had its roots on Cape Florida |url=https://www.floridarambler.com/historic-florida-getaways/saltwater-railroad-cape-florida/ |access-date=12 September 2024 |agency=Florida Rambler |date=2024}}</ref>

== Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 ==
[[File:From Library of Congress- "Print shows a portrait of the fugitive slave Anthony Burns, whose arrest and trial under the Fugitive (32f5b651-55ed-457d-8c2e-45b46a5dcc24).jpg|thumb|A portrait of freedom seeker [[Anthony Burns]], arrested under the Fugitive Slave Law]]

Under the terms of the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]], when suspected fugitives were seized and brought to a special [[magistrate]] known as a commissioner, they had no right to a jury trial and could not testify on their own behalf. Between 1850 and 1860, 343 freedom seekers were taken before a commissioner and 332 were returned to slavery. Commissioners received ten dollars when they ruled in favor of a slaveholder and received five dollars if they ruled in a slave's favor. Technically, they were not accused of a crime. The marshal or private [[slave-catcher]] needed only to swear an oath to acquire a [[writ]] of ''[[replevin]]'' for the return of property. A fine of 1,000 dollars was charged to individuals who assisted a freedom seeker's escape.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Paul |first1=Catherine |title=Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 |url=https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/federal/fugitive-slave-act-of-1850/ |website=Virginia Commonwealth University |date=December 26, 2015 |access-date=14 September 2024}}</ref>

Congress was dominated by Southern congressmen because the population of their states was bolstered by the inclusion of [[Three-Fifths Compromise|three-fifths]] of the number of slaves in population totals. They passed the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 because of frustration at having fugitives from slavery helped by the public and even official institutions outside the South. In some parts of the North, slave catchers needed police protection.

According to author Andrew Delbanco, "Northerners began to realize slavery wasn't just a Southern issue after the passage of the 1850 law." Prior to the American Civil War, the nation was divided on how to deal with enslaved runaways. The Fugitive Slave Act further divided the nation as Southern slaveholders now had political power to return freedom seekers who escaped to the North and return them to the South, and Northerners were required by law to assist in the return of runaways.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gross |first1=Terry |title=How The Fugitive Slave Act Paved The Way For The Civil War |url=https://www.npr.org/2019/11/08/777212545/how-the-fugitive-slave-act-paved-the-way-for-the-civil-war |website=South Carolina Public Radio (NPR) |access-date=12 September 2024}}</ref>

Some freedom seekers were arrested under the fugitive slave law; they were, [[Anthony Burns]], John Price, [[Shadrach Minkins]], Stephen Pembroke and his two sons, and others. Abolitionists used these cases to push the question of slavery at the center of national politics; they argued that enslaved people's resistance to enslavement through numerous escapes advocates the abolition of slavery.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fugitive Slave Case: Stephen Pembrook |url=https://www.archives.gov/nyc/exhibit/stephen-pembrook.html |website=The National Archives and Records Administration |date=August 15, 2016 |access-date=13 September 2024 |archive-date=September 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240913133605/https://www.archives.gov/nyc/exhibit/stephen-pembrook.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Gonzalez |first1=Jennifer |title='Law or No Law': Abolitionist Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2023/02/law-or-no-law-abolitionist-resistance-to-the-fugitive-slave-act-of-1850/ |website=Library of Congress |date=February 10, 2023 |access-date=13 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Maltz |first1=Earl |title=The Trial of Anthony Burns (1854) |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/burns-anthony-the-trial-of-1854/ |website=Encyclopedia of Virginia |publisher=Virginia Humanities |access-date=13 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Shadrach Minkins (d. 1875) |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/minkins-shadrach-d-1875/ |website=Encyclopedia of Virginia |publisher=Virginia Humanities |access-date=14 September 2024}}</ref>

A few weeks after the fugitive slave law passed, Black populations in Northern cities declined due to formerly enslaved African Americans migrating to Canada in fear they might be captured and re-enslaved. On August 1, 1834, Britain [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833|abolished slavery]] in Canada and throughout the [[British Empire]], making Canada a safer choice for American slaves and free Blacks seeking freedom.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Enslavement of African People in Canada (c. 1629–1834) |url=https://www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2020/07/the-enslavement-of-african-people-in-canada-c-16291834.html |website=Government of Canada |date=July 31, 2020 |access-date=22 September 2024}}</ref> In [[Pittsburgh]], Pennsylvania most of the Black waiters working in the city's hotel fled to Canada. [[Columbia, Pennsylvania]]'s Black population decreased by half. Between mid-February and early March of 1851, one hundred free African Americans and fugitives fled the city of Boston. Abolitionists in [[Detroit|Detroit, Michigan]] guided 1,200 free people to Canada. By December of 1850, it is estimated that 3,000 African Americans took refuge in Canada.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Horton |first1=James |last2=Horton |first2=Louis |title=A Federal Assault: African Americans and the Impact of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 – Symposium on the Law of Slavery: Constitutional Law and Slavery |journal=Symposium on the Law of Slavery |date=1993 |volume=68 |issue=3 |pages=1187–1188 |url=https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=2905&context=cklawreview |access-date=14 September 2024}}</ref>

== American Civil War routes (1861 to 1865) ==
{{See also|Contraband (American Civil War)}}

[[File:Contraband foreground - Copy.jpg|thumb|Enslaved people who escaped to Union lines during the Civil War were called contraband.]]

During the [[American Civil War]], the [[Union Army]] captured Southern towns in [[Beaufort, South Carolina]], [[St. Simons, Georgia|St. Simons Island, Georgia]], and other areas and setup encampments. As a result, enslaved people on nearby plantations escaped from slavery and ran to Union lines for freedom and to sign up to fight in the Union Army. American historian [[Eric Foner]] explains in his book, ''Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad,'' that: "...the Civil War fundamentally transformed the opportunities available for slaves seeking freedom. As soon as federal troops which in Maryland meant the very beginning of the war, slaves sought refuge with the Union..."{{sfn|Foner|2015}} [[Susie King Taylor]] was born enslaved in Liberty County, Georgia and escaped from slavery with her family to Union lines in [[St. Catherines Island|St. Catherine's Island]], Georgia with the help of her uncle who put her on a federal gunboat plying the waters near [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]]-held [[Fort Pulaski National Monument|Fort Pulaski]]. In addition, thousands of enslaved Black Americans escaped slavery and fled to Union lines in the South Carolina [[Sea Islands]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Susie King Taylor |url=https://www.nps.gov/people/susie-king-taylor.htm |website=Fort Pulaski National Monument, Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park, Reconstruction Era National Historical Park |publisher= National Park Service |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Susie King Taylor An African American Nurse and Teacher in the Civil War |url=https://www.loc.gov/ghe/cascade/index.html?appid=5be2377c246c4b5483e32ddd51d32dc0&bookmark=Narrative%20of%20War |website=Library of Congress |access-date=11 September 2024}}</ref> In 1861, Jarvis Harvey escaped from slavery and sailed to Union lines at [[Fort Monroe|Fortress Monroe, Virginia]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Hahn |first1=Steven |title=The Largest, Most Successful Slave Revolt in History? What historians get wrong about the actions of enslaved people during the Civil War. |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/10/why-historians-are-reluctant-to-call-the-american-civil-war-a-slave-rebellion.html |website=The Slate |date=October 13, 2015 |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref> Robert Sutton was born enslaved in Alberti Plantation along Florida's northeastern boundary with Georgia, and during the Civil War he escaped from slavery by making a canoe and sailed out to Port Royal, South Carolina where Black Americans were freed from slavery after the [[Battle of Port Royal]] and signed up to fight in the [[1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Colored)|1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Robert Suttion |url=https://www.nps.gov/people/robert-sutton.htm |website=Reconstruction Era National Historical Park |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref> [[Prince Rivers]] escaped from slavery and found freedom in Union lines in [[Port Royal, South Carolina]] after his enslaver fled Beaufort upon arrival of the Union Navy and Army. Rivers later signed up to fight in the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Poole |first1=Scott |title=Rivers, Prince |url=https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/rivers-prince/ |website=South Carolina Encyclopedia |publisher=University of South Carolina, Institute for Southern Studies |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref> On May 12, 1862, [[Robert Smalls]] and sixteen enslaved people escaped from slavery during the Civil War on a Confederate ship and sailed it out the [[Charleston Harbor]] to a Union blockade in South Carolina.<ref>{{cite web |title=Robert Smalls |url=https://www.nps.gov/people/robert-smalls.htm |website=Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park, Reconstruction Era National Historical Park |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Contraband Camp, formerly used as a Female Seminary.jpg|thumb|Contraband camps were formed during the Civil War and provided refuge and protection to newly freed people in Union occupied territories of the South.]]

Underground Railroad agents shifted their efforts and escape plans around Union encampments because large numbers of [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|freedom seekers]] escaped to Union occupied territories and not the North for their freedom.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Viola |last2=Wolny |first2=Philip |title=A Primary Source Investigation of the Underground Railroad |date=2015 |publisher=Rosen Publishing |isbn=9781499435177 |page=46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CIphDwAAQBAJ}}</ref> For example, the [[Kansas Territory|Kansas territory]] became a state in 1861, and slavery was prohibited in the state of Kansas. During the Civil War, abolitionists, [[Free-Stater (Kansas)|free staters]], and [[Jayhawker]]s helped to emancipate freedom seekers who escaped slavery from Missouri (a slave state that bordered Kansas) and brought them back to Kansas as [[Contraband (American Civil War)|contraband]] of war.<ref>{{cite web |title=First to Serve-1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/1stkansas.htm |website=Fort Scott National Historic Site |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref> An article from the National Park Service explains how the Civil War shifted the escape routes and final destinations of freedom seekers: "But, no sooner had Union troops appeared in the border states, on the islands off the Atlantic coast, and in the lower Mississippi Valley, than thousands of blacks took the opportunity to liberate themselves by absconding to the Yankee (Union) camps. A first effort to send them back to their masters was soon abandoned. The runaways became '[[Contraband (American Civil War)|contraband]],' or confiscated property of war. Many of them quickly found work within the Union lines and members of their families began to join them."<ref name="auto5"/>

[[File:Contrabands at headquarters of General Lafayette LCCN2014646902.jpg|thumb|Contrabands at headquarters of General Lafayette in Yorktown, Virginia]]

The word contraband was given to enslaved runaways by Union General [[Benjamin Butler]]. In 1861, three enslaved men in Norfolk, Virginia, Shepard Mallory, Frank Baker, and James Townsend, escaped from slavery and fled to Union lines at [[Fort Monroe]]. Butler refused to act on the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 that required the return of escaped slaves to their enslavers. Instead, Butler kept the three men because they were "property" of the Confederate States and not the United States where the Fugitive Slave Act was passed and enforced. An article from the National Trust for Historical Preservation explains: "...Butler realized the absurdity of honoring the Fugitive Slave Law, which dictated that he return the three runaways to their owner. They had been helping to construct a Confederate battery that threatened his fort. Why send them back and bolster that effort? So the general struck upon a politically expedient solution: Because Virginia had seceded from the Union, he argued, he no longer had a constitutional obligation to return the runaways. Rather, in keeping with military law governing war between nations, he would seize the three runaways as contraband—property to be used by the enemy against the Union."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wills |first1=Eric |title=The Forgotten: The Contraband of America and the Road to Freedom |url=https://savingplaces.org/stories/the-forgotten-the-contraband-of-america-and-the-road-to-freedom |website=National Trust for Historic Preservation |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Confederate Slave Contraband, and the American Civil War, a story |url=https://aaregistry.org/story/confederate-contraband-and-the-american-civil-war-a-story/ |website=African American Registry |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Corinth Contraband Camp (2c163208-1dd8-b71c-079b-9015087c01e4).jpg|thumb|A plaque to remember Corinth Contraband Camp]]

As the Civil War continued, areas of the South and border states became refugee camps for freedom seekers. [[Washington, D.C.|Washington D.C.]] was a large refugee area during the war. On April 16, 1862, Congress passed the [[District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act|Compensated Emancipation Act]] that abolished slavery in the District of Columbia. After the passage of this act, freedom seekers from Virginia and Maryland escaped and found freedom in the District of Columbia, and by 1863, there were 10,000 refugees (former runaway slaves) in the city and their numbers doubled the Black population in Washington, D.C.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kiger |first1=Patrick |title=The Civil War Created a Refugee Crisis in Washington |url=https://boundarystones.weta.org/2016/01/14/civil-war-created-refugee-crisis-washington |website=Boundary Stones WETA's Local History Website |date=January 14, 2016 |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Fling |first1=Sarah |title=Washington, D.C.'s 'Contraband' Camps |url=https://www.whitehousehistory.org/washington-d-c-s-contraband-camps |website=The White House Historical Association |access-date=8 September 2024}}</ref> During the war, enslaved people living near Beaufort County, South Carolina escaped from slavery and fled to Union lines in Beaufort because African Americans in the county were freed from slavery after the [[Battle of Port Royal]] on November 7, 1861 when the plantation owners fled the area after the arrival of the Union Navy and Army. As a result, a refugee camp was started to provide safety and protection to freedom seekers. In the beginning there were sixty to seventy runaways, but as time progressed the numbers of refugees grew to 320. The Union Army did not have enough food rations and clothes to take care of them. Free men, women, and children in Beaufort's refugee camp were paid to work for the Union as cooks, laundress, servants, and carpenters.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fields-Black |first1=Edda |title=Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War |date=2024 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780197552797 |pages=193–195 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tb3sEAAAQBAJ&q=refugee%20camps}}</ref> Union forces occupied [[Corinth, Mississippi]] and slaves from nearby plantations escaped to Union lines. To accommodate the freedom seekers, general [[Grenville M. Dodge]] established the Corinth Contraband Camp with homes, schools, hospitals, churches, and paid employment for African Americans. It was estimated that Corinth Contraband Camp provided a new life for 6,000 former slaves.<ref>{{cite web |title=Corinth Contraband Camp |url=https://www.nps.gov/shil/planyourvisit/contrabandcamp.htm |website=Shiloh National Military Park |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Corinth Contraband Camp |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/corinth-contraband-camp-poi.htm |website=The National Park Service |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref>

== Union Navy and Emancipation ==
[[File:Company of colored troops. (3110840538).jpg|thumb|Free Blacks and former slaves who escaped slavery signed up to fight in the Union Army and Navy.]]

The Secretary of the Navy during the Civil War was [[Gideon Welles]] and in September of 1861 Welles declared that enslaved and free African Americans could enlist at the lowest rating of "Boy" in the Union Navy. Union vessels located in Southern ports received numbers of runaways who fled slavery by way of small boats to vessels docked in Union controlled territories. Benjamin Gould recorded in his journal that by September 22, 1862, eight freedom seekers had arrived at the [[USS Cambridge (1860)|USS ''Cambridge'']] and that 20 more runaways arrived two weeks later. One of the escaped freedom seekers listed was William Gould, who later joined the Union (U.S.) Navy and fought against the Confederacy from 1862 to 1865. The Union vessel USS Hartford helped to liberate enslaved people while going up the [[Mississippi River]]. [[Bartholomew Diggins]], who served aboard the vessel, recalled the events of liberating the enslaved. He said: "we picked [up] many negroes [sic] slaves who would come out to the ships in small boats at every place we anchored." Other Union vessels that helped to liberate the enslaved were the USS Essex and USS Iroquois. A few Union soldiers and sailors returned escaped slaves back to their enslavers.<ref>{{cite web |title=African Americans in the U.S. Navy During the Civil War |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/civil-war-archive1/african-americans-in-the-u-s--navy-during-the-civil-war.html#:~:text=The%20Navy%20drew%20upon%20these,of%20the%20Navy%27s%20enlisted%20manpower. |website=Naval History and Heritage Command |access-date=19 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Stanford professor finds inspiration, fortitude from the diaries of his great-grandfather, who escaped slavery |url=https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2021/06/finding-fortitude-diaries-escaped-slave |website=Stanford Report |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=20 September 2024}}</ref> By the end of the war, 179,000 formerly enslaved and free Black Americans had fought in the Union Army, and 21,000 had fought in the Union Navy.<ref>{{cite web |title=Black Soldiers in the U.S. Military During the Civil War |url=https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war#:~:text=By%20the%20end%20of%20the,19%2C000%20served%20in%20the%20Navy. |website=National Archives and Records Administration | date=August 15, 2016 |access-date=20 September 2024}}</ref>

From the [[American Revolutionary War]], through the [[War of 1812]], and then the American Civil War, the Underground Railroad contributed to hundreds and sometimes thousands of escapes by African Americans.{{sfn|Hudson|2015|pp=2, 9–10}}

== Legal and political ==
When frictions between North and South culminated in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], many Black people, both enslaved and free, fought for the [[Union Army]].<ref>Mark Lardas, ''African American Soldier in the Civil War: USCT, 1862–66''</ref> Following Union victory in the Civil War, on December 6, 1865, the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]] to the Constitution outlawed slavery except as punishment for a crime.<ref>Ann Heinrichs, ''The Underground Railroad''</ref> Following its passage, in some cases the Underground Railroad operated in the opposite direction, as people who had escaped to Canada returned to the United States.<ref>{{cite book| title=The Underground Railroad and Sylvania's Historic Lathrop House| last1=Gindy| first1=Gaye E.| page=20|  date=2008| publisher=AuthorHouse| isbn=9781434367617}}</ref>

=== Criticism ===
[[Frederick Douglass]] was a writer and orator who had escaped slavery. He wrote critically of the attention drawn to the ostensibly secret Underground Railroad in his first autobiography, ''[[Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave]]'' (1845):

{{Blockquote|I have never approved of the very public manner in which some of our western friends have conducted what they call the ''Underground Railroad'', but which I think, by their open declarations, has been made most emphatically the ''upperground railroad.''}}

He went on to say that, although he honored the movement, he felt that the efforts at publicity served more to enlighten the slave-owners than the slaves, making them more watchful and making it more difficult for future slaves to escape.<ref>Douglass, Frederick. (1845) ''Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass''. Dover Publications. Chapter 11.</ref>

== Arrival in Canada ==
{{See also|American immigration to Canada|Slavery in Canada}}
{{external media |width =180px | float =right | video1 ='''[https://www.historicacanada.ca/productions/minutes/underground-railroad "Underground Railroad"]''' – [[Historica Canada]]. - [[Heritage Minutes]] (1:01 min) }}
[[File:UndergroundRailroadmonumentWindsor.jpg|175px|thumb|''International Underground Railroad Memorial'' in [[Windsor, Ontario]]]]
[[File:John Brown by Levin Handy, 1890-1910.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] participated in the Underground Railroad as an abolitionist.]]

[[British North America]] (present-day Canada) was a desirable destination, as its long border gave many points of access, it was farther from [[slave catchers]], and it was beyond the reach of the United States' [[Fugitive Slave Act]]s. Further, slavery ended decades earlier in [[Slavery in Canada|Canada]] than in the [[Slavery in the United States|United States]]. Britain banned the institution of [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833|slavery in present-day Canada (and in most British colonies) in 1833]], though the practice of slavery in Canada had effectively ended already early in the 19th century through case law, due to court decisions resulting from litigation on behalf of slaves seeking [[manumission]].<ref name="Shadd2016">{{cite book|first=Mary Ann|last=Shadd|title=A Plea for Emigration; or Notes of Canada West: A Broadview Anthology of British Literature Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ob1aDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11|year=2016|publisher=Broadview Press|isbn=978-1-55481-321-6|page=11|access-date=November 30, 2020|archive-date=April 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415032411/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ob1aDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11|url-status=live}}</ref>

Most former enslaved, reaching Canada by boat across [[Lake Erie]] and [[Lake Ontario]], settled in [[Ontario]]. More than 30,000 people were said to have escaped there via the network during its 20-year peak period,<ref name="CAN"/> although [[United States census|U.S. census]] figures account for only 6,000.<ref>[https://www.cdva.ca.gov/news/GV%202-2-07.pdf "From slavery to freedom"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070713234430/https://www.cdva.ca.gov/news/GV%202-2-07.pdf |date=July 13, 2007 }}, ''The Grapevine'', pp. 3–5.</ref> Numerous fugitives' stories are documented in the 1872 book ''[[The Underground Railroad (Still)|The Underground Railroad Records]]'' by [[William Still]], an abolitionist who then headed the Philadelphia [[Vigilance Committee]].<ref>[[Deborah Gray White]], [[Mia Bay]], [[Waldo E. Martin Jr.]] ''Freedom on My Mind: A History of African Americans with Documents''. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, p. 287. {{ISBN|978-0-312-64883-1}}.</ref>

Estimates vary widely, but at least 30,000 slaves, and potentially more than 100,000, escaped to Canada via the Underground Railroad.<ref name="CAN">{{cite web| url=https://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=10166| work=[[Historica Minutes]]| quote=Between 1840 and 1860, more than 30,000 people enslaved in America came secretly to Canada and freedom| title=Settling Canada Underground Railroad |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106114439/https://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=10166 |archive-date=January 6, 2010 |access-date=January 30, 2018 }}</ref> The largest group settled in [[Upper Canada]] (Ontario), called [[Canada West]] from 1841.<ref>Bordewich, Fergus, 2005, p. 379</ref> Numerous [[Black Canadian]] communities developed in [[Southern Ontario]]. These were generally in the triangular region bounded by [[Niagara Falls, Ontario|Niagara Falls]], Toronto, and [[Windsor, Ontario|Windsor]]. Several rural villages made up mostly of people freed from slavery were established in [[Kent County, Ontario|Kent]] and [[Essex County, Ontario|Essex]] counties in Ontario.

[[Fort Malden]], in [[Amherstburg, Ontario]], was deemed the "chief place of entry" for escaped slaves seeking to enter Canada. The abolitionist [[Levi Coffin]], who was known for aiding over 2,000 fugitives to safety, supported this choice. He described Fort Malden as "the great landing place, the principle terminus of the underground railroad of the west."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Landon |first=Fred |date=1925 |title=Amherstburg, Terminus of the Underground Railroad |journal=[[Journal of Negro History]] |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=5|doi=10.2307/2713665 |jstor=2713665 |s2cid=149997017 }}</ref> After 1850, approximately thirty people a day were crossing over to Fort Malden by steamboat.{{sfn|Calarco|Vogel|Grover|Hallstrom|2011|p=15}} The ''Sultana'' was one of the ships, making "frequent round trips" between [[Great Lakes]] ports. Its captain, C.W. Appleby, a celebrated mariner, facilitated the conveyance of several fugitives from various [[Lake Erie]] ports to Fort Malden.{{sfn|Calarco|2008|p=110}} Other fugitives at Fort Malden had been assisted by [[William Wells Brown]], himself someone who had escaped slavery. He found employment on a Lake Erie steamer and transported numerous fugitives from Cleveland to Ontario by way of Buffalo or Detroit. "It is well known," he tells us, "That a great number of fugitives make their escape to Canada, by way of [[Cleveland|Cleaveland]]. ''[sic]'' ...The friends of the slave, knowing that I would transport them without charge, never failed to have a delegation when the boat arrived at Cleaveland. ''[sic]'' I have sometimes had four or five on board at one time."{{sfn|Brown|1848|pp=107–108}}

[[File:MarthaCoffinWright.jpg|thumb|[[Martha Coffin Wright]] operated her house in [[Auburn, New York]] as a stop on the Underground Railroad and it was frequented by Harriet Tubman during her rescue missions. Wright's house connected to other network of safe houses in New York that led to Canada.<ref>{{cite web |title=Martha C. Wright |url=https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/martha-c-wright.htm |website=Women's Rights National Historical Park |access-date=16 September 2024}}</ref>]]

Another important destination was [[Nova Scotia]], which was first settled by [[Black Loyalists]] during the [[American Revolution]] and then by [[Black Refugee (War of 1812)|Black Refugees]] during the [[War of 1812]] (''see [[Black Nova Scotians]]''). Important Black settlements also developed in other parts of [[British North America]] (now parts of Canada). These included [[Lower Canada]] (present-day [[Quebec]]) and [[Vancouver Island]], where Governor [[James Douglas (governor)|James Douglas]] encouraged Black immigration because of his opposition to slavery. He also hoped a significant Black community would form a bulwark against those who wished to unite the island with the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |title=First Black Settlers Arrive in Victoria |url=https://www.leg.bc.ca/dyl/Pages/First-Black-Settlers-Arrive-in-Victoria.aspx |access-date=2022-06-18 |website=www.leg.bc.ca |language=en |archive-date=August 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220816142039/https://www.leg.bc.ca/dyl/Pages/First-Black-Settlers-Arrive-in-Victoria.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Upon arriving at their destinations, many freedom seekers were disappointed, as life in Canada was difficult. While not at risk from [[slave catcher]]s due to being in a different country, [[Racism in Canada|racial discrimination]] was still widespread.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Maynard |title=Policing Black Lives State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present |date=2017 |publisher=Fernwood Publishing |isbn=9781552669792}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Winks |title=Blacks in Canada A History |date=1997 |publisher=McGill-Queens University Press |isbn=9780773566682 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5cMTlnBYjxIC&q=racism}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mullens |last2=Morgan |title=Canada the Great White North where Anti-Black Racism Thrives: Kicking Down the Doors and Exposing the Realities |journal=Phylon |date=Summer 2016 |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=20–41 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/phylon1960.53.1.20 |access-date=21 April 2023}}</ref> Many of the new arrivals had to compete with mass [[European Canadians|European immigration]] for jobs, and overt racism was common. For example, in reaction to Black Loyalists being settled in eastern Canada by the Crown, the city of [[Saint John, New Brunswick]], amended its charter in 1785 specifically to exclude Blacks from practicing a trade, selling goods, fishing in the harbor, or becoming freemen; these provisions stood until 1870.<ref>[https://www.saintjohn.nbcc.nb.ca/~Heritage/Black/Loyalists.htm "Arrival of the Black Loyalists: Saint John's Black Community"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519034253/https://www.saintjohn.nbcc.nb.ca/~Heritage/Black/Loyalists.htm |date=May 19, 2011 }}, Heritage Resources Saint John</ref>

With the outbreak of the Civil War in the U.S., many black refugees left Canada to enlist in the [[Union Army]]. While some later returned to Canada, many remained in the United States. Thousands of others returned to the American South after the war ended. The desire to reconnect with friends and family was strong, and most were hopeful about the changes emancipation and [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]] would bring.

== Folklore ==
{{Main|Quilts of the Underground Railroad|Songs of the Underground Railroad}}

Since the 1980s, claims have arisen that [[quilt]] designs were used to signal and direct enslaved people to escape routes and assistance. According to advocates of the quilt theory, ten quilt patterns were used to direct enslaved people to take particular actions. The quilts were placed one at a time on a fence as a means of nonverbal communication to alert escaping slaves. The code had a dual meaning: first to signal enslaved people to prepare to escape, and second to give clues and indicate directions on the journey.<ref>Williams, Ozella McDaniels, 1999.</ref>

The quilt design theory is disputed. The first published work documenting an [[oral history]] source was in 1999, and the first publication of this theory is believed to be a 1980 children's book.<ref name=SLJ407>{{Cite magazine| last=Aronson| first=Marc| date=April 1, 2007| url=https://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6430152.html| title=History That Never Happened| magazine=[[School Library Journal]]| access-date=March 31, 2011| archive-date=November 9, 2012| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121109103018/https://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6430152.html| url-status=live}}</ref> Quilt historians and scholars of pre-Civil War (1820–1860) America have disputed this legend.<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Stukin|first1=Stacie|title=Unravelling the Myth of Quilts and the Underground Railroad|url=https://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1606271,00.html|magazine=Time|date=April 3, 2007|access-date=January 18, 2017|archive-date=January 13, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113104857/https://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1606271,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref> There is no contemporary evidence of any sort of quilt code, and quilt historians such as Pat Cummings and Barbara Brackman have raised serious questions about the idea. In addition, Underground Railroad historian Giles Wright has published a pamphlet debunking the quilt code.

Similarly, some popular, nonacademic sources claim that spirituals and other songs, such as "[[Steal Away]]" or "[[Follow the Drinkin' Gourd|Follow the Drinking Gourd]]", contained coded information and helped individuals navigate the railroad. They have offered little evidence to support their claims. Scholars tend to believe that while the slave songs may certainly have expressed hope for deliverance from the sorrows of this world, these songs did not present literal help for runaway slaves.<ref name=songstory>{{cite journal| last= Kelley| first= James| title= Song, Story, or History: Resisting Claims of a Coded Message in the African American Spiritual 'Follow the Drinking Gourd{{'-}}| journal=[[The Journal of Popular Culture]]| volume=41| issue=2| date=April 2008 |pages=262–280| doi=10.1111/j.1540-5931.2008.00502.x}}</ref>

The Underground Railroad inspired cultural works. For example, "[[Song of the Free]]", written in 1860 about a man fleeing slavery in [[Tennessee]] by escaping to Canada, was composed to the tune of "[[Oh! Susanna]]". Every stanza ends with a reference to Canada as the land "where colored men are free". Slavery in [[Upper Canada]] (now Ontario) was outlawed in 1793; in 1819, [[Sir John Robinson, 1st Baronet, of Toronto|John Robinson]], the Attorney General of Upper Canada, declared that by residing in Canada, black residents were set free, and that Canadian courts would<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/alvin_mccurdy/settlement.aspx| title=Black History-From Slavery to Settlement| website=Archives.gov.on.ca| access-date=June 7, 2016| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130214020850/https://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/alvin_mccurdy/settlement.aspx| archive-date=February 14, 2013| df=mdy-all}}</ref> protect their freedom. [[Slavery in Canada]] as a whole had been in rapid decline after an 1803 court ruling, and was finally abolished outright in 1834.

===Notable people===
{{See also|:Category:Underground Railroad people}}

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Ann Bamford]]
* [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]
* [[Owen Brown (abolitionist, born 1771)|Owen Brown (father)]]
* [[Owen Brown (abolitionist, born 1824)|Owen Brown (son)]]
* [[Samuel Burris]]
* [[Obadiah Bush]]
* [[Levi Coffin]]
* [[Elizabeth Rous Comstock]]
* [[Hovenden House, Barn and Abolition Hall#Abolitionism|George Corson]]<ref>William Still, [https://archive.org/stream/undergroundrailr00stil#page/720/mode/2up/search/corson "George Corson,"] ''The Underground Rail Road'', (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872), pp. 721–23.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://articles.philly.com/2016-04-20/news/72457126_1_underground-railroad-runaway-slaves-zoning-variance|title=Letters: Underground Railroad site threatened in Montco|website=Articles.philly.com|access-date=June 7, 2016|archive-date=May 31, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160531195452/https://articles.philly.com/2016-04-20/news/72457126_1_underground-railroad-runaway-slaves-zoning-variance|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Moses Dickson]]<ref>Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr, ''Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience'', Oxford University Press, 1999 {{ISBN|978-0195170559}}</ref>
* [[Frederick Douglass]]<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210628094455/https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/dc1.htm "Aboard the Underground Railroad" – Boston African American NHS]. Nps.gov (September 5, 1962). Retrieved on August 16, 2013.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.history.rochester.edu/class/douglass/part3.html |title=The Rochester Years |access-date=December 3, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111124220634/https://www.history.rochester.edu/class/douglass/part3.html |archive-date=November 24, 2011 }}</ref>
* [[Asa Drury]]
* [[George Hussey Earle Sr.]]
* [[Calvin Fairbank]]
* [[Bartholomew Fussell]]
* [[Matilda Joslyn Gage]]
* [[Thomas Galt]]<ref>{{cite web|title= For the People: A Newsletter of the Abraham Lincoln Association v.8 number 1 Spring 2006, Springfield, Illinois|url= https://www.abrahamlincolnassociation.org/Newsletters/8-1.pdf|access-date= October 25, 2007|archive-date= October 8, 2007|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071008172446/https://abrahamlincolnassociation.org/Newsletters/8-1.pdf|url-status= dead}}</ref>
* [[Thomas Garrett]]{{sfn|Foner|2015|pp=155–159}}
* [[Sydney Howard Gay]]{{sfn|Foner|2015|pp=9–10}}
* [[Josiah Bushnell Grinnell]]
* [[Frances Harper]]
* [[Laura Smith Haviland]]{{sfn|Calarco|2008|pp=144–152}}
* [[Lewis Hayden]]{{sfn|Calarco|2008|p=153}}
* [[John Hunn (farmer)|John Hunn]]{{sfn|Foner|2015|p=156}}
* [[Roger Hooker Leavitt]]
* [[Jermain Wesley Loguen]]{{sfn|Foner|2015|p=180}}
* [[Samuel Joseph May]]{{sfn|Foner|2015|pp=146–147}}
* [[John Berry Meachum]]
* [[Mary Meachum]]<ref name="stlpublicradio">{{cite web| url=https://www.stlpublicradio.org/programs/commentaries/commentary.php?cid=1351#.VjVGcNAUplI| title=Mary Meachum and the Underground Railroad| publisher=St. Louis Public Radio| date=October 9, 2012| access-date=November 1, 2015| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305033819/https://www.stlpublicradio.org/programs/commentaries/commentary.php?cid=1351#.VjVGcNAUplI| archive-date=March 5, 2016| df=mdy-all}}</ref>
* [[Cynthia Catlin Miller]]
* [[William M. Mitchell]]{{sfn|Calarco|2008|pp=210–211}}
* [[Solomon Northup]]{{sfn|Calarco|2008|pp=222–224}}
* [[John Parker (abolitionist)|John Parker]]{{sfn|Calarco|2008|pp=225–228}}
* [[Elijah F. Pennypacker]]
* [[Mary Ellen Pleasant]]
* [[John Wesley Posey]]{{sfn|Calarco|2008|pp=236–238}}
* [[Amy and Isaac Post]]
* [[Peter Quire]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 18, 2021|title=St. John's Founder Peter Quire|url=https://www.newportthisweek.com/articles/st-johns-founder-peter-quire/ |access-date=2024-09-28 |website=Newport This Week}}</ref>
* [[John Rankin (abolitionist)|John Rankin]]{{sfn|Calarco|2008|pp=242–250}}
* [[Alexander Milton Ross]]
* [[David Ruggles]]{{sfn|Foner|2015|pp=2–3}}
* [[Gerrit Smith]]{{sfn|Foner|2015|pp=58–59, 123–124}}
* [[George Luther Stearns]]
* [[William Still]]{{sfn|Foner|2015|p=13}}
* [[John Ton]]
* [[Charles Turner Torrey]]{{sfn|Foner|2015|pp=87–88}}
* [[William Troy (abolitionist)|William Troy]]
* [[Harriet Tubman]]{{sfn|Foner|2015|pp=190–194}}
* [[Martha Coffin Wright]]
* [[John Van Zandt]]
* [[Bernardhus Van Leer]]
* [[Silvia and John Webber]]
* [[Edward Wetherill]]
{{div col end}}

==National Underground Railroad Network==

[[File:Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad NHP VC4.jpg|thumb|The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Dorchester County, Maryland]]

Following upon legislation passed in 1990 for the National Park Service to perform a special resource study of the Underground Railroad,<ref>{{Cite web|date=February 27, 2012|title=The Underground Railroad Leaves its Tracks in History|url=https://govbooktalk.gpo.gov/2012/02/27/underground-railroad/|access-date=June 10, 2020|website=Government Book Talk|language=en|archive-date=May 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200515140944/https://govbooktalk.gpo.gov/2012/02/27/underground-railroad/|url-status=live}}</ref> in 1997, the [[105th United States Congress|105th Congress]] introduced and subsequently passed H.R. 1635 – National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act of 1998, which President [[Bill Clinton]] signed into law that year.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Stokes|first=Louis|date=July 21, 1998|title=Actions – H.R.1635 – 105th Congress (1997–1998): National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act of 1999|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/105th-congress/house-bill/1635/actions|access-date=June 10, 2020|website=www.congress.gov|archive-date=June 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610152302/https://www.congress.gov/bill/105th-congress/house-bill/1635/actions|url-status=live}}</ref> This act authorized the [[United States National Park Service]] to establish the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program to identify associated sites, as well as preserve them and popularize the Underground Railroad and stories of people involved in it. The National Park Service has designated many sites within the network, posted stories about people and places, sponsors an essay contest, and holds a national conference about the Underground Railroad in May or June each year.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/undergroundrailroad/index.htm|title=Network to Freedom Homepage|website=www.nps.gov|access-date=January 16, 2017|archive-date=December 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203193655/https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park]], which includes Underground Railroad routes in three counties of [[Eastern Shore of Maryland|Maryland's Eastern Shore]] and [[Harriet Tubman's birthplace]], was created by President [[Barack Obama]] under the [[Antiquities Act]] on March 25, 2013.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Management – Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)|url=https://www.nps.gov/hatu/learn/management/index.htm|access-date=June 10, 2020|website=www.nps.gov|language=en|archive-date=June 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610193537/https://www.nps.gov/hatu/learn/management/index.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Its sister park, the [[Harriet Tubman National Historical Park]] in [[Auburn, New York|Auburn]], New York, was established on January 10, 2017, and focuses on the later years of Tubman's life as well as her involvement with the Underground Railroad and the [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolition movement]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Harriet Tubman National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)|url=https://www.nps.gov/hart/index.htm|access-date=June 10, 2020|website=www.nps.gov|language=en|archive-date=June 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610054259/https://www.nps.gov/hart/index.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

==International Underground Railroad Month==

The month of September was designated International Underground Railroad Month, because September was the month [[Harriet Tubman]] and [[Frederick Douglass]] escaped from slavery.<ref>{{cite web |title=International Underground Railroad Month |url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/undergroundrailroad/international-underground-railroad-month.htm |website=The National Park Service |access-date=18 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=September is Underground Railroad Month in Maryland |url=https://www.somdnews.com/news/state/september-is-underground-railroad-month-in-maryland/article_7cecbb74-6add-11ef-95fb-a7670ec183af.html |access-date=18 September 2024 |agency=Southern Maryland News |date=2024}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
[[File:2023 Ohio American Innovation Dollar.jpg|thumb|The Underground Railroad is memorialized on the reverse of the 2023 Ohio [[American Innovation dollars|American Innovation dollar]]]]

===Inspirations for fiction===
* ''[[The Underground Railroad (novel)|The Underground Railroad]]'' is a 2016 novel by [[Colson Whitehead]]. It won the 2016 National Book Award and the 2017 [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/colson-whitehead|title=The 2017 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Fiction|website=pulitzer.org|language=en|access-date=April 10, 2017|archive-date=April 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170411091928/https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/colson-whitehead|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''[[The Underground Railroad (TV series)|The Underground Railroad]]'' is a 2021 [[streaming television]] limited series, based on Whitehead's novel.
* ''[[Underground (TV series)|Underground]]'' is an American television series that premiered in 2016, on [[WGN America]].

===Literature===
* [[David Walker (abolitionist)|David Walker]] (1829) ''Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World''
* [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] (1852) ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]''
* [[Caroline Lee Hentz]] (1854) ''[[The Planter's Northern Bride]]''
* [[William M. Mitchell]] (1860) [[s:The Under-Ground Railroad|The Under-Ground Railroad]]<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=The Under-Ground Railroad |last=Mitchell |first=William |year=1860 |publisher=W. Tweedie |scan=Index:The Under-Ground Railroad.djvu}}</ref>
* [[Sarah Hopkins Bradford]] (1869) ''Scenes in the Life of [[Harriet Tubman]]''; (1896) ''Harriet Tubman, Moses of Her People''
* [[Barbara Smucker]], (1977) ''[[Underground to Canada]]''

===Music===
Underground Railroad was a company created by [[Tupac Shakur]], Big D the Impossible, Shock G, Pee Wee, Jeremy, Raw Fusion and Live Squad with the purpose of promoting and helping young black women and men with creating records, allowing them to initiate and develop their musical careers.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRdVJzMhwzg|title = 2Pac Full UNSEEN Interview (1992) Speaks on Police Brutality|website = [[YouTube]]| date=January 20, 2018 |access-date = January 29, 2022|archive-date = January 29, 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220129032503/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRdVJzMhwzg|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url = https://medium.com/@2pac/2pacalypse-now-1991-biography-part-2-cdc5d38b57fc|title = 2Pacalypse Now 1991 Biography, Part 2|date = December 19, 2016|access-date = January 29, 2022|archive-date = January 29, 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220129032502/https://medium.com/@2pac/2pacalypse-now-1991-biography-part-2-cdc5d38b57fc|url-status = live}}</ref>

===Comics===
In ''Big Jim and the White Boy'', [[David F. Walker]] and Marcus Kwame Anderson's upcoming graphic novel retelling of [[Mark Twain]]'s ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'', Big Jim and Huck become Underground Railroad agents as they journey through Civil War-era United States to rescue the former's enslaved family.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Walker|first1=David F.|last2=Anderson|first2=Marcus Kwame|date=October 15, 2024|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/621145/big-jim-and-the-white-boy-by-david-f-walker-and-marcus-kwame-anderson/|title=''Big Jim and the White Boy: An American Classic Reimagined''|publisher=[[Random House|Ten Speed Graphic]]}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|United States}}
{{Div col}}
* [[Ausable Chasm]], NY, home of the North Star Underground Railroad Museum
* [[Caroline Quarlls]] (1824–1892), first known person to escape slavery through Wisconsin's Underground Railroad
* [[Fort Mose Historic State Park]]
* [[Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History]] near [[Dresden, Ontario]]
* [[List of Underground Railroad sites]]
* [[Tilly Escape]]
* [[Timbuctoo, New York]]
{{colend}}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

=== Sources ===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite news |last=Bird |first=Tyson |date=January 28, 2021 |title=The Little Known History of Texas' Underground Railroad |url=https://texashighways.com/culture/history/the-little-known-history-of-texas-underground-railroad/ |access-date=2021-07-05 |website=Texas Highways |language=en-US |archive-date=May 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519021827/https://texashighways.com/culture/history/the-little-known-history-of-texas-underground-railroad/ |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book|title=Passages to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in History and Memory|date=2004|publisher=Smithsonian Books|isbn=1-58834-157-7|editor=Blight, David W.|editor-link=David W. Blight|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/passagestofreedo0000unse}}
* {{cite book|last=Bordewich|first= Fergus M.|author-link=Fergus Bordewich|title=Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America|date=2005|publisher=Harper Collins|isbn=0-06-052430-8|url=https://archive.org/details/boundforcanaanun00bord}}
* {{cite book|first=William W.|last=Brown|author-link=William Wells Brown|title=Narrative of William W. Brown, a fugitive slave|location=Boston|year=1848|edition=2nd|publisher=The Anti-slavery Office|url=https://archive.org/details/ASPC0001881300/page/n1/mode/1up}}
* {{Cite news |last=Burnett |first=John |date=February 28, 2021 |title=A Chapter In U.S. History Often Ignored: The Flight Of Runaway Slaves To Mexico |language=en |work=Georgia Public Broadcasting |url=https://www.gpb.org/news/2021/02/28/chapter-in-us-history-often-ignored-the-flight-of-runaway-slaves-mexico |access-date=2021-07-08 |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709195907/https://www.gpb.org/news/2021/02/28/chapter-in-us-history-often-ignored-the-flight-of-runaway-slaves-mexico |url-status=live}} (heard on ''[[All Things Considered]]'')
* {{cite book|last=Calarco|first=Tom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RyEoBnpKYygC|title=People of the Underground Railroad: A Biographical Dictionary|date=2008|publisher=[[Greenwood Press]]|isbn=978-0313339240|location=[[Westport, Connecticut|Westport]], Connecticut|access-date=June 23, 2020|archive-date=July 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729123339/https://books.google.com/books?id=RyEoBnpKYygC|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last1=Calarco|first1=Tom |author1-mask=1|last2=Vogel|first2=Cynthia|last3=Grover|first3=Kathryn|last4=Hallstrom|first4=Rae|last5=Pope|first5=Sharron L.|last6=Waddy-Thibodeaux|first6=Melissa|date=2011|title=Places of the Underground Railroad: A Geographical Guide|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury Academic]]|doi=10.5040/9798400697135|isbn=978-0313381461}}
* {{cite book|title=Traveling the Underground Railroad: A Visitor's Guide to More Than 300 Sites|date=2000|publisher=Citadel Press|isbn=0-8065-2093-0|last=Chadwick |first= Bruce|url=https://archive.org/details/travelingundergr00chad}}
* {{Cite news |last=Contreras |first=Russell |date=September 16, 2020a|title=Story of the Underground Railroad to Mexico gains attention |language=en-US |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/story-of-the-underground-railroad-to-mexico-gains-attention/2020/09/16/2db8daa8-f82f-11ea-85f7-5941188a98cd_story.html |access-date=2021-07-07 |issn=0190-8286}}
* {{cite news |last=Contreras |first=Russell|author-mask=1|date=September 17, 2020b|title=Story of the Underground Railroad to Mexico gains attention |language=en-US |work=Sentinel Colorado |url=https://sentinelcolorado.com/uncategorized/story-of-the-underground-railroad-to-mexico-gains-attention/ |access-date=2021-07-03 |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709183145/https://sentinelcolorado.com/uncategorized/story-of-the-underground-railroad-to-mexico-gains-attention/ |url-status=live}}
* {{Cite news |last=Crable |first=Margaret |date=February 1, 2021 |title=USC Dornsife historian uncovers the Underground Railroad that ran to Mexico > News > USC Dornsife |url=https://dornsifelive.usc.edu/news/stories/3393/slaves-escape-via-underground-railroad-to-mexico/ |access-date=2021-07-05 |website=Dornsife, University of Southern California |language=en |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709185029/https://dornsifelive.usc.edu/news/stories/3393/slaves-escape-via-underground-railroad-to-mexico/ |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Foner |first=Eric |author-link=Eric Foner |title=Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. |year=2015 |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/gatewaytofreedom0000fone_a5t8/page/6/mode/2up |isbn=978-0-393-35219-1}}
* {{cite book|last=Forbes|first=Ella|year=1998|title=But We Have No Country: The 1851 Christiana Pennsylvania Resistance|publisher=Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers|isbn=978-0965330817}}
* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/ivegothomeinglor00smar|url-access=registration|title=I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad|last2=Osei|first2=Kwasi|publisher=Farrar, Straus & Giroux|year=2007|isbn=978-0-374-16481-2|first1=Karolyn Smardz|last1=Frost}}
* {{cite book |last=Griffler |first=Keith P. |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xLKGinEZxygC |title=Front Line of Freedom: African Americans and the Forging of the Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=0-8131-2298-8 |access-date=November 20, 2015 |archive-date=July 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200709150206/https://books.google.com/books?id=xLKGinEZxygC |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book|title=Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad|date=2004|publisher= Simon & Schuster|isbn=0-684-87066-5|last=Hagedorn|first=Ann }}
* {{cite book |title=Fleeing for Freedom: Stories of the Underground Railroad As Told by Levi Coffin and William Still |date=2003 |publisher=Ivan R. Dee Publisher |isbn=1-56663-546-2 |last1=Hendrick |first1=George |last2=Hendrick |first2=Willene |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/fleeingforfreedo00geor }}
* {{citation |last1=Hendrick |author1-mask=1|first1=George |last2=Hendrick |first2=Willene |author2-mask=1|title =Black refugees in Canada: accounts of escape during the era of slavery |url =https://books.google.com/books?id=AoFl4pNZzNgC |year =2010|publisher =McFarland & Co |isbn =9780786447336 |access-date =November 20, 2015 |archive-date =July 9, 2020 |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20200709145147/https://books.google.com/books?id=AoFl4pNZzNgC |url-status =live }}
* {{cite book|last=Hudson |first=J. Blaine|title=Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in the Kentucky Borderland|date=2002|publisher=McFarland & Company|isbn=0-7864-1345-X|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/fugitiveslavesun0000huds}}
* {{cite book |last=Hudson |first=J. Blaine|author-mask= 1|title=Encyclopedia of the Underground Railroad |date=January 9, 2015|publisher=McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers |isbn=9781476602301 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AKRI-GNca6oC |access-date=May 28, 2021 |archive-date=April 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220425214455/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Encyclopedia_of_the_Underground_Railroad/AKRI-GNca6oC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Maroon |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|title=Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance|date=2014|publisher= University of Illinois Press|location= Urbana, Illinois|last=LaRoche|first=Cheryl Janifer}}
* {{Cite news |date=October 25, 2018 |first=Becky |last=Little |title=Forgotten History: Mexico accepted slave migrants fleeing the U.S. |language=en-US |work=Vallarta Daily News |url=https://www.vallartadaily.com/forgotten-history-mexico-accepted-slave-migrants-fleeing-the-u-s/ |access-date=2021-07-08 |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709185257/https://www.vallartadaily.com/forgotten-history-mexico-accepted-slave-migrants-fleeing-the-u-s/ |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |last=Little |first=Becky |author-mask=1|title=The Little-Known Underground Railroad That Ran South to Mexico |url=https://www.history.com/news/underground-railroad-mexico-escaped-slaves |access-date=2021-07-03 |website=HISTORY |date=January 29, 2021 |language=en |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709182027/https://www.history.com/news/underground-railroad-mexico-escaped-slaves |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book|last=Potter|first= David M.|author-link=David M. Potter|title=The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861|url=https://archive.org/details/impendingcrisis00pott|url-access=registration|date=1976|isbn=0-06-131929-5|publisher=Harper & Row}}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/opugrr.htm|title=Operating the Underground Railroad|website=[[National Park Service]]|access-date=January 29, 2007|archive-date=December 26, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161226091541/https://cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/opugrr.htm|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite news|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html|title=Part 4: 1831–1865 Narrative, The Underground Railroad|work=Africans in America c. 1780–1862: Judgment Day|publisher=[[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]|access-date=September 17, 2017|archive-date=June 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622122605/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html|url-status=live}}
{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last=Blackett|first=R.J.M.| date=2013 |title=Making Freedom: The Underground Railroad and the Politics of Slavery|location=Chapel Hill|publisher= [[University of North Carolina Press]]|isbn=978-1-4696-0877-8}}
* {{cite book|last=Bolton|first=S. Charles| date=2019|title=Fugitivism: Escaping Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1820–1860|publisher=[[University of Arkansas Press]]|isbn=9781682260999}}
* {{cite book|last=Clifford Larson|first=Kate |date=2004|title=Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero|location= New York|publisher= Ballantine Books|isbn= 0-345-45627-0|author-link=Kate Larson (historian)}}
* {{cite book |url=https://www.shockfamily.net/underground/index.html |title=Stories of the Underground Railroad |date=1941 |last=Curtis|first=Anna L. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331000922/https://www.shockfamily.net/underground/index.html |archive-date=March 31, 2012 }} (Stories about Thomas Garrett, a famous agent on the Underground Railroad)
* {{cite book |last=Diemer |first=Andrew K.|title=Vigilance: The Life of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |year=2022 |isbn=9780593534380}}
* {{cite book |title=I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad|url=https://archive.org/details/ivegothomeinglor00smar|url-access=registration|first1=Karolyn Smardz |last1=Frost |place=New York |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=2007|isbn = 9780374531256}}
* {{cite interview|last= Jones|first= Leesa Bailey|interviewer= Brooks, Ellen|title= Leesa Jones Interview|work= State Archives of North Carolina (Oral History)|date= January 7, 2020|location= Washington, N.C|url= https://digital.ncdcr.gov/digital/collection/p16062coll48/id/3/rec/1|access-date= February 27, 2021|archive-date= April 15, 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210415025538/https://digital.ncdcr.gov/digital/collection/p16062coll48/id/3/rec/1|url-status= dead}}
* {{cite book|title=The Underground Railroad: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, &c., Narrating the Hardships, Hair-Breadth Escapes and Death Struggles of the Slaves in Their Efforts for Freedom, As Related by Themselves and Others, or Witnessed by the Author|url=https://archive.org/details/undergroundrailr00lcstil|last=Still|first= William|author-link=William Still|location=Philadelphia |date= 1872|publisher=Porter & Coates}} (Classic book documenting the Underground Railroad operations in Philadelphia).
** {{cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15263 | title=Public domain ebook at Project Gutenberg}}
** {{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/DKC0088/page/n5 | title=Book at Internet Archive| date=1872}}
** {{librivox book | title=The Underground Railroad | author=William Still}} <!-- author: template extracts the last word in the name only -->
* {{cite book|last=Strother|first=Horatio T.|date=1962|title=The Underground Railroad in Connecticut|publisher=[[Wesleyan University Press]]}} {{isbn|9780819560124}}.
* {{cite book|last= Turner|first=Glennette Tilley|date=2001|title=The Underground Railroad in Illinois|publisher=Newman Educational Pub.|isbn=978-0938990055}}
* {{cite book|editor-last= Walker|editor-first=Timothy Dale|date=2021|title=Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad|publisher=[[University of Massachusetts Press]]|isbn=978-1625345936}}
* {{cite book|last=Whitehead|first=Colson|author-link=Colson Whitehead|date=2016|title=[[The Underground Railroad (novel)|The Underground Railroad]]|publisher=[[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]]|isbn=978-0-385-54236-4}}; winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017 for its poetical, mythical reflection on the meaning of the Railroad in American history.

===Folklore and myth===
* {{cite web |url= https://www.historyofquilts.com/underground-railroad.html |website= historyofquilts.com |title= Documentary Evidence is Missing on Underground Railroad Quilts |access-date= December 15, 2004 |archive-date= May 14, 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110514184559/https://www.historyofquilts.com/underground-railroad.html |url-status= dead }}
* {{cite web|url=https://historiccamdencounty.com/ccnews11.shtml |website=Historic Camden County|title=New Jersey's Underground Railroad Myth-Buster: Giles Wright is on a Mission to Fine Tune Black History}}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.quilthistory.com/ugrrquilts.htm|website=quilthistory.com|title=Putting it in Perspective: The Symbolism of Underground Railroad quilts|access-date=December 15, 2004|archive-date=February 4, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130204013739/https://www.quilthistory.com/ugrrquilts.htm|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite web|website=Womenfolk.com|url=https://www.womenfolk.com/quilting_history/abolitionist.htm|title=Underground Railroad Quilts & Abolitionist Fairs|access-date=December 15, 2004|archive-date=October 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011102719/https://www.womenfolk.com/quilting_history/abolitionist.htm|url-status=dead}}

==External links==
{{sisterlinks|d=Q868393|c=Category:Underground Railroad|n=no|q=no|b=no|v=no|voy=Underground Railroad|m=no|mw=no|s=no|wikt=no|species=no}}
{{Library resources box|onlinebooks=yes|label=the Underground Railroad}}
* [https://www.nps.gov/subjects/undergroundrailroad/index.htm Underground Railroad] – National Park Service
** [https://www.nps.gov/subjects/undergroundrailroad/language-of-slavery.htm/index.htm Underground Railroad: Language of Slavery]
* [https://www.antislaverystudies.org Underground Railroad Studies]
* [https://www.fergusbordewich.com/underground-railroad-timeline.html Underground Railroad Timeline] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250525170128/http://www.fergusbordewich.com/underground-railroad-timeline.html |date=May 25, 2025 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060715052736/https://www.fourr.org/ Friends of the Underground Railroad]
* [https://www.freedomcenter.org National Underground Railroad Freedom Center]
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20190515073420/https://www.ugrri.org/ Underground Railroad Research Institute at Georgetown College]}}
* [https://www.worldcat.org/profiles/BECHS/lists/651523?view=&count=100&se=ts&sd=asc&qt=sort_ts_asc%20target= Underground Railroad in Buffalo and Upstate New York]: A bibliography by The [[Buffalo History Museum]]
* [https://www.newspapers.com/topics/civil-war/underground-railroad/ Newspaper articles and clippings about the Underground Railroad at Newspapers.com]

{{Underground Railroad| state=uncollapsed}}
{{History of slavery in the United States}}
{{African American topics}}
{{American Civil War |expanded=Origins}}
{{Harriet Tubman}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Underground Railroad| ]]
[[Category:18th-century establishments in the United States]]
[[Category:1865 disestablishments in the United States]]
[[Category:Abolitionism in the United States]]
[[Category:Secret places in the United States]]
[[Category:Events of National Historic Significance (Canada)]]
[[Category:Fugitive American slaves]]
[[Category:British North America]]
[[Category:Canada and the American Civil War]]