The Underground Railroad- Post 2

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What is the underground railroad?  The underground railroad is a system where people help runaway slaves get to the North and to Canada, this organized system started at the end of the 18th century. When the system was first created the people helped a slave owned by George Washington escape to the North and he referred to the situation by calling the organization a "society of Quakers, formed for such purposes," the system then grew and around 1831 was named the "Underground Railroad." They named it that after the steam railroads which had just come into play in that time period. The organization also used terms in railroading to represent certain things for example homes and businesses where slaves stayed and ate were called "Stations" and "Depots," these places were run by "Stationmasters," the people who helped out by bringing food and money were "Stockholders," and the people responsible for moving the slaves from one station to another were the "Conductors."  The system was very organized but was alot of hard work for the slaves, they had to escape from their owner and for those who had a conductor posing as a slave they would be guided in the right direction, the slaves could only move at night and travel 10 to 20 to each station where they stoped to rest and eat but they had to hide so they wouldn't get caught.  As the slaves rested they station would send a message to the next station alerting them that a slave would be coming to them.  For the less fortunate slaves who didnt have the luxury of having a conductor guide him they had rely on their own resources to find their way.  Also some slaves would travel by boat that the organization had to pay for.  They also paid to improve the appearance of the slaves so they wouldn't be recognized, the money form this was donated by individuals and various groups, including vigilance committees. Vigilance committes were held in the larger towns like New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, also instead of soliciting the money for those purposes the committees helped slaves settle in communities and sent out letters of recommendation to help them find jobs. Their were many noble people who worked in the Underground Railroad like John Fairfeild a son of a slaveholding family who made many daring rescues, Levi Quaker who assisted more than 3,000 slaves, and of course Harriet Tubman who made 19 trips to the South and escorted over 300 slaves out to freedom.
   

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html