Harriet Jacobs
The “Underground Railroad” was neither underground nor a railroad, but was in fact a term used to describe a network of secret routes, hiding places, and people who helped slaves escape from the South and gain their freedom in the Northern United States or Canada. The term Underground Railroad was in common use by the 1840’s and was thought to have originated in the 1830’s. The website National Underground Railroad Freedom Center offers three suggestions on the origination of the term:
“One story says that in 1831 a fugitive slave named Tice David escaped from Kentucky to safer ground in Sandusky, in northern Ohio. When David 's master looked in vain for him in Ripley, just across the Ohio River, he is said to have commented, "The nigger must have gone off on an underground railroad." Another version explains that the term came into use among slave hunters in Pennsylvania who experienced similar frustrations. Yet a third story places the origin in Washington DC, in 1839, when a fugitive slave, after being tortured, allegedly claimed that he was to have been sent north, where "the railroad ran underground all the way to Boston." (Blight)
No one can say for sure the exact origin of the term, but it was commonly used by the 1840’s and is a part of American history.
Harriet Jacobs was one of the more than 100,000 slaves who used the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom, and Jacob’s story of slavery, and escape to freedom is both inspiring and tragic. Jacob’s escape from the bondage of slavery was a two part process that lasted 17 years and can be broken up into; her immediate escape from the plantation and Dr. Norcom, and her time in the North.
Harriet Jacobs was born a slave on February 11, 1813 in Edenton North Carolina, and died a free woman on March 7, 1897 in Washington D.C. at the age of 84. Jacobs was described in a poster offering a reward for her capture as; “an intelligent, bright, mulatto girl, named Harriet, 21 years of age. Five feet, four
“One story says that in 1831 a fugitive slave named Tice David escaped from Kentucky to safer ground in Sandusky, in northern Ohio. When David 's master looked in vain for him in Ripley, just across the Ohio River, he is said to have commented, "The nigger must have gone off on an underground railroad." Another version explains that the term came into use among slave hunters in Pennsylvania who experienced similar frustrations. Yet a third story places the origin in Washington DC, in 1839, when a fugitive slave, after being tortured, allegedly claimed that he was to have been sent north, where "the railroad ran underground all the way to Boston." (Blight)
No one can say for sure the exact origin of the term, but it was commonly used by the 1840’s and is a part of American history.
Harriet Jacobs was one of the more than 100,000 slaves who used the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom, and Jacob’s story of slavery, and escape to freedom is both inspiring and tragic. Jacob’s escape from the bondage of slavery was a two part process that lasted 17 years and can be broken up into; her immediate escape from the plantation and Dr. Norcom, and her time in the North.
Harriet Jacobs was born a slave on February 11, 1813 in Edenton North Carolina, and died a free woman on March 7, 1897 in Washington D.C. at the age of 84. Jacobs was described in a poster offering a reward for her capture as; “an intelligent, bright, mulatto girl, named Harriet, 21 years of age. Five feet, four
Cited: Blight, David. Where does the term Underground Railroad come from? | National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. 2012. Web. 24 March 2013. Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl. Dover Edition . Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc, 2001. Print.