skip nav
Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.				Escape to Freedom Background: The Underground Railroad During the 1800s, over one hundred thousand slaves sought freedom by running away from their owners. These brave Black Americans followed secret routes known as the Underground Railroad as they traveled north toward free states and Canada or south to Mexico. A slave using a mortar and pestle. view larger   Free Blacks, Whites, Native Americans and former slaves acted as "conductors" by helping the runaways. Most who helped were ordinary people such as storekeepers, housewives, carpenters, ministers, farmers and teachers. Members passed coded messages to runaways through songs, stories, and signs such as notches in trees.   Some people, called "agents" worked to free the slaves by making them new clothes, collecting money for food and medicine, teaching them to read and write or making speeches to convince people that slavery was wrong. Safe houses where runaway slaves could rest for a few days before moving on were known as "stations." Slaves traveling on the Underground Railroad were called "passengers." "Conductors" helped guide slaves to freedom.   Everyone who participated in the Underground Railroad was very brave. Slaves who tried to escape risked punishment, being caught and returned to slavery, or even being killed. The people who helped slaves also faced great danger, but they continued to help because they believed slavery was wrong.   The most famous conductor, Harriet Tubman, was a former slave who risked her freedom by returning to the South hundreds of times to lead slaves safely northward. You can read about Harriet Tubman when she was a little girl who dreamed of freedom in Minty written by Alan Schroeder. back to Slave Life and the Underground Railroad back to top
	Home | Copyright © 2002 Smithsonian National Museum of American History | All photographs by Smithsonian Institution.