How Did the Underground Railroad Work?

In the 19th century, many slaves ran away from their owners. They were assisted by abolitionists and had a network of secret routes and safe houses. Some routes of the underground railroad went to Mexico or overseas. This was a protest against slavery and reached it peak from 1830 to 1865.

While the underground was working, thousands of black slaves were freed by escaping to Canada. Smaller numbers of blacks went to Mexico and the Caribbean. The underground railroad was a secret endeavor and turned out to be very effective. In fact, it intimidated slave owners, who were angered because they saw it as theft of their property and it damaged their livelihood.

Secret Routes But No Formal Structure

There was no formal structure to the workings of the railroad. It was just many people who were willing to help slaves escape. There were secret routes had needed to remain secret and communication of the location of safe houses that had to be made carefully. Because of all the secrecy, most conductors never kept track of how many slaves they helped, and if they did, they eventually destroyed the evidence.  

A Quiet Force Aganst Slavery

Working on the railroad was an interesting way to show that you were against slavery. There was no violence, no parades, or impassioned speeches, just the actions of many people who believed that human bondage was wrong. The underground railroad and the way it worked served to be a major force in the abolition of slavery.  

Beginnings of the Railroad

People were assisting the slaves to freedom as early as 1786. A group of Quakers helped a group of slaves from Virginia. The next year, a Quaker teenager began organizing a system to aid and hide runaways. From then, it grew into a large network to help the flight of slaves to freedom.

In 1831, a runaway named Tice Davids took refuge with a white abolitionist named John Rankin. The slave owner was chasing him to the Ohio River when Davids disappeared, which made the owner wonder if he had “gone off on some underground road.” The success of this escape gave many slaves the courage to try it for themselves. Soon the system of assisting slave refugees came to be known as the underground railroad.  

Slave Trade History

Slavery of the African people started in the 1440s when Portugal began engaging in slave trade with West Africa. This was most likely done to have workers for the sugar plantations in the Atlantic Islands. Western European nations had a well-established system of slave trade with the Americas and the Caribbean by the 16th century.  

The period of slave trading lasted until the 1880s. Literally millions of people were sold into slavery from East, West, and Southwest Africa during this time. Slaves were brought to North America to work on the tobacco, rice, sugar, and indigo plantations. All 13 colonies had sanctioned the enslavement of African workers by 1755.

Fugitive Slave Act

In spite of a growing abolitionist movement, the U.S. Constitution allowed slavery. The Fugitive Slave Act was put into effect in 1793, which called for the return of runaway slaves and even threatened freed African Americans. It also made it a crime to help a slave that was running away.

The Act was strengthened in 1850 with higher fines and harsher punishments. Before then, slaves that were caught were usually killed or tortured in a public display to warn other slaves. After 1850, a white person who armed a slave could actually be executed. 

Anti-slavery groups formed political parties, like the Free Soil Party and the Republican Party, who introduced Abraham Lincoln to the nation. Slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865 with the passing of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.