Slavery: The Underground Railroad

The underground railroad was used during the 1840’s by many African Americans. The underground railroad was a series of hidden underground tunnels and safe houses for African Americans. The reason that the railroad was created and existed was because at this time, the slaves (African Americans) were treated extremely badly by their owners/masters (white Americans). The goal in taking the underground railroad was to reach safety which was considered “North” and “Canada” at the time. The reason that slaves would want to escape to northbound was because in the North slavery wasn’t as bad and cruel as it was in the south. This is because the South is mainly plantations and they often over worked slaves to death and tortured them. While in the North

When the underground railroad was formed, it gave a lot of the slaves hope and they began to fight for something that they all believed in. There was resistance on the plantation on which they worked as well. We saw that slaves were sabotaging fields by destroying the plants, breaking tools, and slowing down the speed at which they worked. Slaves were refusing to have children, so that their children wouldn’t be forced to live the life that they do currently. And lastly, we saw slaves beginning to form together and stand together as one to fight for equal

The people behind the underground railroad were not always African Americans. In fact, several white families were aiding slaves in their escape because they believed that slavery should be abolished. So, we saw that for the first time in history people of color and white came together and shared the same beliefs. The goal was to reach the North because slavery was kept a very minimum there when compared with the South. This shows that the North and the South were already semi divided at the time. This division between North and South would lead to the Civil War and the emancipation of all slaves in the South. Had it not been for this underground railroad it’s possible that the emancipation would never have come. The underground railroad itself is a symbol for what they were fighting for. It represented equal rights, equal treatment, and equal opportunities for African Americans. The underground railroad was the first sign of hope that slaves had, had in a very long time. The underground railroad was a passageway to civil