Underground Railroad Thesis

The Underground Railroad was apart of American history that led us to how present day America is. It was a terrible and shameful time period that included the institution of slavery. The Underground Railroad played a big role in the destruction of slavery all together. The Underground Railroad started towards the end of the 18th century, and consisted of lots of complications and risks to get to freedom. Each person who helped with the Underground Railroad had different tasks and responsibilities, such as the famous Harriet Tubman.
The Underground Railroad was started supposedly because of the fugitive slave, Tice Davids, a runaway from Kentucky that stayed in a house in Ohio with an abolitionist. People thought Tice Davids should be punished
The Underground Railroad wasn’t actually underground or a railroad, but it was a secret system that slave owners or whites that were for slavery didn’t know about to transport fugitive slaves to freedom. The people of the Underground Railroad used the same terms as a railroad would to communicate with each other. The places where slaves would eat and rest were called stations, and the “depots” were run by the “station masters” who were people that contributed money or goods. The “conductor” of the railroad was responsible for the moving of fugitives from one station to the next. Conductors sometimes would even pretend to be slaves on a plantation to help the fugitive slaves North. If a conductor was caught trying to help a slave escape, they could be fined a fine that was hundreds or even thousands of
She helped lots of other people make the trip to the North for freedom. Harriet Tubman knew when she was little that she was going to escape slavery one day. She made the trip North to Philadelphia, following the stars and only knowing of two northern states because she wasn’t educated. She saved her money and found work, and decided she would never again return to slavery. Harriet didn’t help many people at first, because the trip to the North was very hard for not being able to use the main roads the others could. The way Harriet found her way to freedom was very dangerous and consisted of swamps, forests, and mountains. Harriet Tubman wanted to help other slaves get to freedom, like she had done, so she started helping others with the similar route she took. Throughout Harriet’s lifetime, she helped over seven hundred slaves to freedom. Harriet Tubman made many trips to the South, and earned her nickname, “Moses”, for her leadership. Frederick Douglass once said, “I know of no one who has willingly encountered more pains and hardships to serve our enslaved people than Harriet