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The Underground Railroad: A Path To Freedom

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It was a cold night in the small shed we were forced to sleep in. It was dirty, smelly, and dark. The only thing we had to drink was a bottle filled with only about thirty-two ounces of rain water. Some other slaves were nibbling on small pieces of bread that had bits of mold on them. Slaves weren't treated fairly at all. But they should've been. The first slave ship was in Jamestown, VA in August of 1619. Slavery was around for a very long time and didn't really end until December 6, 1865. That was when the thirteenth Amendment was signed. There's a lot of background behind the underground railroad. The underground railroad was something many slaves used to escape to freedom, and there were a lot of ways that they would travel around. Wickham …show more content…

Ross Rosenfeld in The Underground Railroad: A Path to Freedom claims that mainly conductors and station masters would help the slaves. The station masters would often supply slaves with food, water, and clothes/shoes. One of the station masters was Thomas Garrett, who helped almost 2,700 slaves in about forty years of his life. Harriet Tubman was another very popular person. She would take other slaves through many woods, swamps, and long rivers. Two other famous men were abolitionists, Fredrick Douglass and William H. Seward. The two men were actually very close to Harriet Tubman. Though, there were many other famous people. Also, the slaves that were running would look for flags hung (normally) on houses or barns. According to Ross Rosenfeld in The Underground Railroad: A Path to Freedom, whoever owned the building would hide the slaves in either their attic, or basement until the slaves were ready to take off to their next destination. The people that hid the slaves were abolitionists. Abolitionists were people who respected and treated the "slaves" equally. They wanted to abolish/destroy slavery. It was just as dangerous for abolitionists, because what they were doing was against the law. In conclusion, during the time of slavery, the underground railroad was probably the most useful, and successful ways for slaves to escape to freedom. There are many people that are very known, and talked about a lot

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