UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. National Park Service has summarized the existence of the Underground Railroad as the following:

                          The Underground Railroad—the resistance to enslavement through escape and flight, through the end of the Civil War
                          refers to the efforts of enslaved African Americans to gain their freedom by escaping bondage. Wherever slavery 
                          existed, there were efforts to escape. At first to maroon communities in remote or rugged terrain on the edge of 
                          settled areas and eventually across state and international borders. These acts of self-emancipation labeled slaves 
                          as "fugitives," "escapees," or "runaways," but in retrospect "freedom seeker" is a more accurate description. Many 
                          freedom seekers began their journey unaided and many completed their self-emancipation without assistance, but each 
                          subsequent decade in which slavery was legal in the United States, there was an increase in active efforts to assist 
                          escape.

                          The decision to assist a freedom seeker may have been spontaneous. However, in some places, especially after the 
                          Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the Underground Railroad was deliberate and organized. Despite the illegality of their 
                          actions, people of all races, class and genders participated in this widespread form of civil disobedience. Freedom 
                          seekers went in many directions – Canada, Mexico, Spanish Florida, Indian territory, the West, Caribbean islands and 
                          Europe. (1)

Map courtesy of the National Park Service

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Sources:

1. "Underground Railroad," National Park Service, Online: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/undergroundrailroad/what-is-the-underground-railroad.htm