The Underground Railroad was a path that slaves took when they escaped their plantations.
The Underground Railroad was formed in the late 1700s. They would use this secret route that took them north so they would not get caught by slave catchers. If they were caught by slave catchers, they would return them to their masters in the south. The slaves that tried to escape on the Underground Railroad and got caught, would be punished by being whipped or killed.
The most famous slave who used this, was Harriet Tubman. She used to hide and bring other slaves to the north using the Underground Railroad. Many slaves used the Underground Railroad to go all the way to Canada. In Canada, they would be free from slavery. They also thought of Canada
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These safe houses were for runaway slaves trying to get north to freedom. In the safe houses the slaves could sleep and eat. Harriet and the other slaves knew which houses were safe because all of the safe houses would hang a quilt on the front porch. If the house had the quilt hanging on the porch, they knew they could trust the people living there.
The Underground Railroad was not used until the 1830s. The Underground Railroad was most popular in the 1850s-1860s. There were three people who started the Underground Railroad. They were John Fairfield, Levi Coffin,and Harriet Tubman. The reason they called it the Underground Railroad was because Harriet Tubman had brought many slaves through the Underground Railroad and she had never lost one. Some slaves got very sick or injured on the Underground Railroad and some even died on it. Nobody knows for sure how many slaves died on the Underground Railroad.
Harriet and the other slaves knew the way north because Harriet knew that on the routes the moss grew on the north side of the trees. Every year over 1000 slaves escaped from there plantation using the Underground Railroad. All of the slaves would sing to let the other slaves know when they could go to the Underground