Tice davids biography of barack
The Underground Railroad. 403
in the fierce debates upon the admission of California as a free
state, the compromise bill of 1850 was enacted, one of the features
of which was the severe fugitive slave law of that year. This
stirred up the friends of freedom to renewed activity; and when,
in 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska bill repealed the Missouri Com-
promise, and showed the purposes of the slave power to extend
the hated institution into territories, that they might be admitted
as slave states, the impetus became greater. For the first time,
a great political party was organized to resist the encroachments
of slavery. Six years later it obtained control of the national
government. Secession followed, and the war for the preser-
vation of the Union destroyed slavery forever.
Background
For as long as slavery existed in Virginia, enslaved men, women, and children had sought to escape it by running away. In 1643, the General Assembly established stiff penalties for “divers loitering runaways,” who at the time included some enslaved laborers but probably many indentured servants. Laborers continued to flee their masters and enslavers, however, and the assembly admitted in 1669 that its laws had “proved ineffectuall” at stopping them. In 1705, legislators updated and strengthened those laws, punishing enslaved African Americans much more harshly than white servants. If caught running away, for instance, white servants were protected from “immoderate correction.” By contrast, the law declared that if enslaved Blacks were killed during their punishment, “it shall not be accounted felony”; in fact, the law would treat it “as if such incident had never happened.”
With these risks in mind, enslaved African Americans continued to run away. Some fled abusive enslavers or backbreaking work, while many others left in search of family members from whom they had been separated. Virginia runaways in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries tended not to go far. According to the historians Gerald Mullin and Philip J. Schwarz, most stayed within fifty miles of their homes, either because they wanted to remain near family members or because, with slavery still legal in northern colonies, there was nowhere else to go. A few runaways managed to find their way to towns and cities, where they passed as free.
Several things happened after the American Revolution to encourage more enslaved people to run and to run farther. The invention of the cotton gin in the 1790s revolutionized cotton production in the Deep South and created a significant new market for enslaved labor. At the same time, the international slave trade diminished in the United States and was outlawed altogether in 1808. Taking
Quaker Abolitionists
The Quakers are considered the first organized group to actively help escaped enslaved people. George Washington complained in 1786 that Quakers had attempted to “liberate” one of his enslaved workers.
In the early 1800s, Quaker abolitionist Isaac T. Hopper set up a network in Philadelphia that helped enslaved people on the run. At the same time, Quakers in North Carolina established abolitionist groups that laid the groundwork for routes and shelters for escapees.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, established in 1816, was another proactive religious group helping fugitive enslaved people.
What Was the Underground Railroad?
The earliest mention of the Underground Railroad came in 1831 when enslaved man Tice Davids escaped from Kentucky into Ohio and his owner blamed an “underground railroad” for helping Davids to freedom.
In 1839, a Washington newspaper reported an escaped enslaved man named Jim had revealed, under torture, his plan to go north following an “underground railroad to Boston.”
Vigilance Committees—created to protect escaped enslaved people from bounty hunters in New York in 1835 and Philadelphia in 1838—soon expanded their activities to guide enslaved people on the run. By the 1840s, the term Underground Railroad was part of the American vernacular.
How the Underground Railroad Worked
Gateway to Freedom: The Underground Railroad
Most of the enslaved people helped by the Underground Railroad escaped border states such as Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland.
In the deep South, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 made capturing escaped enslaved people a lucrative business, and there were fewer hiding places for them. Fugitive enslaved people were typically on their own until they got to certain points farther north.
People known as “conductors” guided the fugitive enslaved people. Hiding places included private homes, churches and schoolhouses. These were called “stations,” “safe houses,” and “depots.” The people oper The Underground Railroad was the network used by enslaved Black Americans to obtain their freedom in the 30 years before the United States Civil War (1861-1865). The “railroad” used many routes from states in the South, which supported slavery, to “free” states in the North and Canada.The Underground Railroad in Indiana
Sometimes, routes of the Underground Railroad were organized by abolitionists, people who opposed slavery. More often, the network was a series of small, individual actions to help people who were deemed fugitives from the law because they had escaped their enslavement.
A lot of activity on the Underground Railroad happened in states that bordered the Ohio River, which divided slave states from free states. Among the free states was Indiana, whose residents are known as Hoosiers.
Not all Hoosiers were in favor of freeing enslaved people. Some who lived across the river from Kentucky, a slave state, would capture people running away from slavery and return them to the South.
The story of Indiana is the story of all states that played a role in the Underground Railroad.
Operating the Underground Railroad
Contrary to popular belief, the Underground Railroad was not a series of underground tunnels. While some people did have secret rooms in their houses or carriages, the vast majority of the Underground Railroad involved people secretly helping people running away from slavery however they could.
Using the terminology of the railroad, those who went south to find enslaved people seeking freedom were called “pilots.” Those who guided enslaved individuals to safety and freedom were “conductors.” The enslaved people were “passengers.” People’s homes or businesses, where freedom-seeking passengers and conductors could safely hide, were “stations.”
Stations were added or removed from the Underground Railroad as ownership of the house changed. If a new owner supported slavery, or if the home was discovered to be a station on the Underground Ra