THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 1810-1850 By : Ian Barnes THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 1810-1850

Important People Of The Railroad Harriet Tubman- Escorted over 300 slaves to freedom and took 19 trips to slave plantations. John Fairfield- A son of a slaveholding family who tried to set his slaves free with many daring attempts and was killed by saving blacks from their plantations. Levi Coffin- A Quaker man who saved over 3,000 slaves from death and overworking. Isaac T. Hopper- Organized the first few paths to freedom for slaves.

Continued… William Still Gerrit Smith Salmon Chase David Ruggle Thomas Garrett William Purvis Jane Gray Swissham William Wells Brown Fredrick Douglass Henry David Thoreau Lucretia Mott Charles Langston Susan B. Anthony Over 3,000 white and free blacks served as stationmasters and other helpers on the underground railroad for the search for freedom for slaves.

Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglass and Levi Coffin.

What was it about? The underground railroad was the effort to rescue blacks held in slavery. This effort was run by free blacks and white men and women. If you were a slave, it would start as you leaving your plantation, and following directions to a series of checkpoints and “stations” where there were safe havens that “stationmasters” would give up their home and care for you and let you rest. As you went from station to station, you would have to be very careful in which house you went to, and the homes with the right place to go had a small lantern hung up so the slaves would know that that place was a safe place. The underground railroad wasn’t really a railroad at all, or underground! It was different ways to get out of your plantation so you could get to freedom.

Continued… The underground railroad wasn’t given its name until 1840. Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, California, Oregon and Maine were all against slavery and were the safe states for runaway slaves to be.

Where was the Underground Railroad? The Underground Railroad was in slave states in the south where there were jobs needed but no one wanted to do them, then slavery came to the southern states. The northern states such as Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, California, Oregon and Maine (northern states) were all against the slavery.

Map Of the underground railroad routes

Special Dates for the Underground Railroad include… 1810-1850 was the date of the underground railroad. 1787 was when Isaac T. Hopper began to organize a system for hiding and aiding fugitive slaves, later named the underground railroad. By 1850, 100,000 slaves were helped to freedom. 1850- over 3,000 helpers on the underground railroad helped save thousands of slaves from death at plantations and work camps.

Why was the underground railroad used anyway? The underground railroad was needed for hundreds of thousands of slaves in the southern states because of death of thousands of people there, and the children were even being worked from when they could walk. Slaves weren't considered people when slavery was used because they were considered property in slave states and the northern states wanted the slaves to be able to be free and have rights just like any other people like they were.

If the underground railroad didn’t happen…what would it be like today? If the underground railroad hadn't come along and saved thousands of slaves, then I believe that we could have still had slaves 50-100 years after and wouldn’t have to have a civil war. The underground railroad was a huge help to the country by giving it new laws and seeing all people as equals and working out our country's flaws.

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