American civilisation
The Underground Railroad
Context
Click on the different widgets to discover what was the Underground Railroad. Don't forget to complete your worksheet!
Vocabulary toolbox
Conductors
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- Abolitionist: a person who wanted to abolish slavery
- Captive: a slave
- Conductor: a person who helped slaves to escape to freedom
- Escapee: a freedom seeker
- Emancipation: cf Emancipation Proclamation
- Flee: run away
- Passenger: slaves who risked capture
According to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, the preferred term for an enslaved person running away from bondage toward freedom is a “freedom-seeker.” The terms “fugitive,” “escapee,” or “runaway” all suggest that the person fleeing forced labor was somehow at fault for seeking liberation.
Similarly a person who kept slaves as property is a “slave holder” and not a “slave master” or “slave owner,” since the latter two terms connote a relationship of superiority over other human beings. These vocabulary terms and others—such as personal liberty laws, redemption, and manumission—can be found on the "Language of Slavery” page hosted by the National Park Service.
From about 1830 to the beginning of the Civil War, it is estimated that 100,000 slaves escaped from their captivity in southern states through a clandestine system known as the Underground Railroad. While at first arriving in a free state, either to the north, west, or south, was enough to guarantee freedom, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made it necessary for slaves to leave the country entirely, to Canada, Mexico, or Liberia on the west coast of Africa. How did slaves escape to these places? Who operated the network of stops and hideouts along the way?
The Underground Railroad
Lili Radanovic
Created on June 18, 2024
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Transcript
American civilisation
The Underground Railroad
Context
Click on the different widgets to discover what was the Underground Railroad. Don't forget to complete your worksheet!
Vocabulary toolbox
Conductors
Go further
According to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, the preferred term for an enslaved person running away from bondage toward freedom is a “freedom-seeker.” The terms “fugitive,” “escapee,” or “runaway” all suggest that the person fleeing forced labor was somehow at fault for seeking liberation.
Similarly a person who kept slaves as property is a “slave holder” and not a “slave master” or “slave owner,” since the latter two terms connote a relationship of superiority over other human beings. These vocabulary terms and others—such as personal liberty laws, redemption, and manumission—can be found on the "Language of Slavery” page hosted by the National Park Service.
From about 1830 to the beginning of the Civil War, it is estimated that 100,000 slaves escaped from their captivity in southern states through a clandestine system known as the Underground Railroad. While at first arriving in a free state, either to the north, west, or south, was enough to guarantee freedom, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made it necessary for slaves to leave the country entirely, to Canada, Mexico, or Liberia on the west coast of Africa. How did slaves escape to these places? Who operated the network of stops and hideouts along the way?