The Underground Railroad

Lily W.

Submitted in partial fulfillment
Of the Masterworks requirements
At Island Pacific School

June 16, 1999

Advisory Committee
Kellie R., B.A.
Ross C., M. Lib. Sc.
Dr. Patrick D., Ph.D.

I’m on my way to Canada
That cold and distant land
The dire effects of slavery
I can no longer stand-
Farewell old master,
Don’t come after me.
I’m on my way to Canada
Where coloured men are free.
~ "The Free Slave"
-By abolitionist George W. Clark

"I look at slavery as the most horrid thing on earth."
- William Henry Bradley, ex-slave

"It is the wickedest thing a man can do to hold a slave-the
Most unconscionable sin a man can do."
- Isaac Williams, ex-slave

"What! Mothers from their children riven!
What! God’s own image bought and sold!
AMERICANS to market driven,
And bartered as the brute for gold!
Speed on the light to those who dwell
In Slavery’s land of woe and sin,
And through the blackness of that hell,
Let Heaven’s own light break in."
- John Greenleaf Wittier, on slavery

"My idea of slavery is, that it is one of the blackest, the
wickedest things that ever were in the world."
- Nancy Howard, ex-slave

"If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong."
- Abraham Lincoln

My Masterworks project is on the Underground Railroad. I chose this topic because ever since I have been introduced to it, I have found it interesting. I think that it is so fascinating that a bunch of people, all throughout the country, just got together to create a network to help the slaves find freedom. I think also that the fact that I have always found history intriguing, the way everything changes, the cultures, and other details, also influenced my choice to do my project on the Underground Railroad.

I hope that through reading my paper, you will gain a fuller understanding on the details of the Underground Railroad, and the time of slavery before it. Also I hope that through reading this paper you will appreciate the importance of all the people who put forth their efforts to help runaway slaves. The slaves themselves also need recognition for their bravery for seeking freedom and in building a new life once they had found freedom.

It was secret organization of thousands of men and women, both black and white, who helped slaves escape to freedom. These people worked together to guide the runaway slaves north to freedom along a secret network of trails, roads, houses barns, and any other place that a fugitive could hide in. The routes led from the slave states in the U.S. to Canada and freedom. This was the Underground Railroad. The history of the Underground Railroad dates back the 1500’s when the Europeans began bringing Africans over to America to be slaves.

When the Europeans came to the Americas, mainly South and Central America, they met the native peoples. It was learned that some of them had magnificent gold ornaments and treasures. As the rumor spread of the gold, Britain, France, Holland, Portugal, and Spain flocked to the New World, as the Americas were called. The Europeans began to build cities, dig gold mines, and clear land for farming. They first enslaved the natives to do this work, but the majority of them had either fled or been killed in the invasion, or died of a disease that they had caught from the Europeans. Those that still remained knew the land well and were able to rebel or escape easily. The Europeans were left with a lot of work that needed to be done, but hardly anyone to do it for them. (Gorrell 7)

The Europeans then decided to import slaves from Africa. Millions of slaves were brought to the New World. The Africans would not be as familiar with the land as the natives were and would find it difficult to escape. Their dark skin would be easily recognized and mark them as slaves. (Gorrell 7)

Slave ships that came from Africa first arrived in the New World during the early 1500’s. They landed mainly in South and Central America where the Spanish and Portuguese had set up colonies. (Gorrell 8) Spain and Portugal already had many black slaves working in their country, so when the Spanish colonized the Americas, they brought with them masses of blacks from Africa to be slaves. (Bramble) In the 1600’s the slave trade spread into North America, where the French and English had established colonies. (Gorrell 8)

The slaves from Africa had been sold into slavery by either slave traders, who ambushed and captured them, or by fellow Africans. The many African tribes often had rivalries against one another and it was not uncommon for one tribe to hold slaves from another tribe. Slave traders would offer goods, like cloth, gin, rum, guns, gunpowder, iron and copper, in exchange for captured slaves. Sometimes a tribe would be forced to enter in the slave trade to make up for the loss of their relatives who were captured by the enemy tribe. They would then get guns and other tools to protect themselves against the enemies. So, the Africans were forced into selling other Africans into slavery. (Gorrell 11)

Sometimes whole villages would be attacked to get slaves. Those who resisted would be murdered and the others, many of them children, would be taken away to become slaves. A few people, who were usually young children, would sometimes be snatched away while nobody was looking. (Gorrell 11,12)

Once the Africans had been captured, they were chained, shackled and made to march to the coast in a procession called a "coffle." If anyone resisted or was too weak to continue, they were whipped. Some died on the way because they had been beaten, or from grief, illness, and exhaustion. The survivors, who reached the coast, were placed in a pen on shore until a ship came to take them away. (Gorrell 12)

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On the ships they were packed in as tightly as possible. They were kept in shackles and to the captains they were just another cargo. The slaves in the middle of the ship could only sit up while the ones on the side could only lie down. The people that died were thrown overboard. During the trip to America, slaves were sometimes brought up on deck. There, they were forced to exercise, so that they would live long enough to be sold. Those that refused would be whipped. The voyage to the Americas could last six weeks or longer. (Gorrell 13,14)

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The men were chained together, or put into leg-irons, and packed as tightly in to the hold as the captains thought possible, while the women and children would be locked below or let out on the deck. Most often there was very little headroom, so one could not sit up straight. On the ships there was little fresh air, no toilets, and very little food and water. Many people died from diseases like smallpox and dysentery that spread rapidly. Others took their own lives by starving themselves, hanging themselves, or finding a chance to jump overboard. (Gorrell 14) It is estimated that one third of the captives died on the ships before they reached America. So four million people, who had been captured, never lived to see their destination. (Bramble)

Some slaves did manage to escape, though. In 1839, the captives on the Spanish slave ship Amistad, the name means friendship, revolted and killed the captain and three sailors. The rest of the crew were ordered to sail back to Africa, but the sailors tricked them and continued to sail to the US instead. After a legal battle that went to the Supreme Court, the Africans were freed in 1841 and allowed to return to Africa. (Gorrell 14, 15)

Once the ships reached America, the captives that had survived the voyage were herded out of the holds and freshened up. Those that looked too thin were fattened up, and those that had grey hairs, had the unsightly hairs plucked out, or coloured to make them look younger. If a slave looked like they had a disease or injury, they might have their sores and scars covered with paint. (Gorrell 17)

The slaves were forced to sing, dance and pretend to be happy while they were put up for sale. They were then closely inspected by ladies and gentlemen, who were looking for strong, healthy bodies. Once the buyers had settled on a price, they took their new slaves home. Families were split up and sold to different people. Slaves’ names were replaced with names that suited their owners. They were no longer people anymore; they were possessions. (Gorrell 17)

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By 1760 there were nearly 400,000 blacks of African descent in the North American colonies. In the northern colonies slavery was not profitable because there were only small farms and short growing seasons. Also, the winters there were very harsh. The majority of the 100,000 blacks living in the northern colonies, including Canada, were freemen, who had somehow managed to acquire their freedom. Most slaves in the north were household slaves. In the southern colonies of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia there were 300,000 slaves working on the plantations there. In the south, the economy depended entirely of the work of the slaves. (Bramble)

The white slave owners believed that their race was superior to the Africans’. Because of this, the slave owners also believed that his slaves could be treated like animals: fed scraps, housed in shacks, and worked under the whip. Some slave owners even said that blacks didn’t have a soul. All slave owners were not all the same. Some were brutal people who whipped and over-worked and underfed their slaves until they died, while others were kind and treated their slaves with consideration and worried about their slaves’ welfare. Still, in North America blacks were ultimately believed to be something less than real human beings. (Gorrell 21)

Slave owners worried about keeping their slaves "in their place." Household slaves sometimes would have close relationships with their owners, but outdoor slaves were treated with suspicion. All slaves were expected to be humble to their masters, and in some states they could not leave the property without written permission. They could be stopped and searched at any time. Usually, they were not allowed to meet together because they could plot a rebellion. There were also often not allowed to have any musical instruments because they could use them to send messages. Slave owners were also careful to make sure that their slaves never learned to read and write because they could read in a book or newspaper about freedom and equality. Also, if they could read a write, they could communicate across far distances and maybe plot a revolt. Many slave owners were often scared that their slaves might rebel and ruin their life that depended on slavery. (Gorrell 21, 23)

Some slaves resisted slavery in small ways by working slowly, pretending to be sick, or deliberately doing something wrong. Slaves sometimes learned secretly how to read and passed the skill on. Slaves were often accused of stealing, but sometimes it was the only thing they could do in order to survive. (Gorrell 23)

Some slave rebelled openly against their owners and were beaten or killed as a punishment. Others tried to escape and hide. Some slaves made their way to small islands off the Atlantic coast. There they formed new societies that were partly based on their African traditions. Others fled and found refuge with the native peoples. The Seminole Indians of Florida often gave shelter to the runaways and sometimes intermarried with them. Some slaves fled their masters, took up new names and hid among free blacks. Some slaves had saved up enough money, by doing extra work, to buy their freedom and others had been freed as a reward for good service. Some slave owners said in their wills that their slaves would be free once their owner died. (Gorrell 24)

By the mid 1600’s, 10,000 had been imported to America from Africa, and by the 1700’s, the slave trade had reached a peak of 60,000 per year. (Bramble, 1988) In the year 1800, there were 893,602 slaves living in the United States. Of that number only 36,505 were living in the northern states. (Encarta 95) When the slave trade ended in 1820, some 12 million slaves had been shipped to America. (Bramble)

There had always been some whites who were against slavery and wanted it abolished, but in the 1700’s more and more people began to feel the same way against slavery. People were beginning to think for themselves. They no longer relied on the Church to decide what was right and wrong. (Gorrell 30)

In 1775, the thirteen British colonies of North America rebelled against England and went to war. They wanted to create an independent country that was not ruled by a king or queen, but by democracy. They declared "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." This, however, did not apply to slaves. (Gorrell 32)

In most colonies black slaves were not treated with dignity and were denied "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." These slaves were unhappy and wanted to escape. Luckily, some white colonists were sympathetic towards them and wanted to help them.

Early opposition to slavery in the United States was mainly in Pennsylvania. The colony of Pennsylvania was dominated by "Quakers." Quakers were members of the Religious Society of Friends. They believed that all people were equal in the sight of God. The Quakers had "Meetings" instead of churches. One Meeting, in 1688, spoke out against slavery: "to bring men hither, and rob or sell them against their will, we will stand against." Many Quakers were troubled by slavery and wanted it ended. In 1776, the Philadelphia Meeting pledged to disown any members who continued to own slaves. (Gorrell 33)

When the American colonies began to fight for their independence, the British were determined to end the rebellion. To do this, they needed lots of soldiers. They promised freedom to any American slaves who ran away from their owners and fought with the British Army. This brought thousands of black slaves to the British side. Some free blacks also joined the British. The British lost the war, though, so their promise was hard to keep. The Americans wanted their slaves back. Most of the runaways were freed, but the rest became slaves again. (Gorrell 35)

After the American Revolution, the northern states began to move closer towards the abolition of slavery. People who spoke out against slavery were called abolitionists. They believed that slavery was clearly against the principles that the new country had been built on. Also, to the northerners giving up their slaves was only a small inconvenience. The northern states, one by one, outlawed slavery in their state, and in 1807 the United States made it illegal to import any slaves into the country. Slaves were smuggled illegally into the country, though. (Gorrell 37)

The abolitionists were less successful in the southern states. The southerners depended on slavery. Their economy and way of life was centered on the slaves. Laws were passed, though, that gave the slaves slightly betters conditions, but the south had no intention of giving up slavery. (Gorrell 38)

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Slave owning had been banned in England, but it was legal for the English to be part of the slave trade. The abolitionists wanted this changed, but there was a heavy opposition because thousands of British sailors were employed in the slave trade. They brought slaves to the slave owners in the British colonies. Finally, in 1807, the Parliament banned all trading and shipping of African slaves. Then in 1833, the British Parliament passed the Abolition Act that declared that "slavery shall be and is hereby utterly and forever abolished and declared unlawful throughout the British colonies, plantations, and possessions abroad." (Gorrell 41)

The Abolition Act had little effect on Canada as most of the slaves had already gained freedom. In 1793, the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe, had passed an act that would gradually eliminate slave owning. It said that any slave who entered the territory, by choice or by force, would become free on the spot, and children born to slaves would become free when they turned twenty-five. In 1803, Lower Canada made an anti-slavery decision. Slavery was unpopular where it still remained in Canada. (Gorrell 41)

The American Constitution of 1787 stated that any slaves that escaped to a free state had to be returned to their masters. In 1793, the U.S. Congress passed a new law, the first Fugitive Slave Act, which said that it was a crime for anyone in the U.S. to help runaway slaves or prevent their arrest. (Gorrell 44)

The United States declared war on Britain in 1812 and attacked Canada. The British offered land and freedom to American blacks who would fight for the British. About two thousand black people, mostly escaped slaves, took them up on their offer. Many of the escaped slaves feared that if the British lost the war, they would end up in slavery again. England won the war and the blacks got their freedom. When they claimed the land promised to them, however, they found that it was too poor for them to make a decent living off of it. (Gorrell 44 )

In 1819, the American government requested that Canada help the United States in the returning of any slaves who had escaped to Canada. They also asked if the Americans could pursue runaways into Canadian territory to recover them. The Canadians refused. They insisted that any slave who reached Canada would be free. So all American slaves had to do was just get to Canada and they would be free. (Gorrell 45)

Ever since 1793, when the Upper Canadian government said that if any slave entered the territory, they would become free, slaves had been making there way across the border. It wasn’t that simple though. There were many paths to follow throughout the northern states, but there were few places to get across the Great Lakes, which usually had to be crossed in order to reach Canada. The slave hunters were well aware of that and kept a look out around the shore and the towns it that area. They also watched the ships that sailed across the lakes in case a runaway was hiding there. In some places it was possible to swim across the lake and in winter it was sometimes possible to walk across the ice to freedom. (Gorrell 57)

Most slaves who had the opportunity to run away to freedom chose not to. There were great risks involved. What happened if you got caught? Your master could torture you. What happened if you couldn’t make it? What if you don’t like Canada? What about my family? Many slaves who ran away had to leave their families behind. Is freedom worth that much risk? All of these questions were probably going through a slave’s mind when they were trying to make the decision. Some had lots of courage and decided to take the risks, but most didn’t. Historians estimate that only a fraction fled slavery. (The Underground Railroad)

Every slave that ever escaped probably had help from another person. Sometimes the help was very little. Someone along the road might give directions or a bit of food. A town dweller might tell a runaway which road was safer to take. Other times people gave more substantial help like offering a hiding place or a rowboat ride across a river. Even though there was a punishment for anyone caught helping a runaway, people still lent a hand and helped the fugitive slaves on their journey to freedom. (Gorrell 57, 58)

Word spread among the slaves that it was possible to escape, and that freedom could be found in the north. The people who were helping the runaways began to become more organized. If a family let slaves rest in their cellar, they would know of a safe place further down the road where the slaves could stay. People living near a river, who noticed that slaves were often caught at a certain spot along the river might have someone watch out for runaways and warn them of the danger. (Gorrell 59)

The people helping the fugitive slaves got to know who was to be trusted and who wasn’t and they became more confident. They began to plan ahead, planning together, and looking for safer routes and ways to guide fugitives north. Slowly a network to rescue and help slaves began to form. It was a secret network of people who put themselves in danger to do what they knew was right. It wasn’t a formal organization; it had no one leader, no official existence, but it became a legend, known only to those involved. This legend became known as the Underground Railroad. (Gorrell 59)

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The Underground Railroad was an informal organization made up of thousands of men and women who were against slavery. These people guided the fugitive slaves north to freedom along an intricate network of secret routes that lead from the United States to Canada. (Francis 704)

The first people to help the slaves escape from the South were usually black slaves, who secretly led black fugitives from one plantation to another until they were out of the South. Once the fugitives had crossed the Ohio River and had reached the North, they were passed into the hands of Quakers and others willing to help the slaves. They believed that all people were equal in the sight of God and that slavery should be abolished. They played a significant role in the escape network of the Underground Railroad. (Hamilton 33, 34)

There were about ten to twenty miles between each Underground Railroad stop. A Friend, as the Quakers were called, might lead a fugitive slave from one stop to the next. The Friend would knock on the door and the person behind the door would ask, "Who’s there?" The Quaker would reply "A Friend, with a friend." This meant that it was a Quaker with a fugitive slave. Once the password had been given, the door would open and the fugitive rushed inside to be hidden. (Hamilton 33)

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It was clear that by 1820, abolitionists were building an extensive communications network to coordinate their efforts better. After 1830, it had become customary to use railroad terminology to communicate to one another. "Conductors" were those who led the slaves towards freedom. The "passengers" or "cargo" were the fugitive slaves. "Stations" were transfer points or temporary hiding places. These could be barns, attics, cellars, or church belfries. The "Station Keepers" or "Station Masters" were the people who helped the slaves and ran the stations. The "lines" or "tracks" were referring to the complicated web of escape routes. "Stock Holders" were those who contributed money and supplies to the cause. The final destination points were called "terminals." The use of these terms contributed to the belief that trains were carrying the slaves underground from the slave states in the South to Canada in the North. (Francais 708) A lantern on a hitching post means a safe house. If you were a slave travelling with out a Friend, you would knock on the door and whisper "a friend of a Friend." (The Underground Railroad)

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Songs were also used to relay messages. The slave owners liked to hear their slaves singing religious music, because they believed that slaves who found comfort in God would less likely be troublemakers. The Slaves took advantage of this. Many religious songs had double meanings. A slave who sang about "crossing over to the Promised Land" could be referring to crossing the Ohio River into the free North, and someone humming "Go Down Moses" could be passing the message to other slaves that Harriet Tubman was in the neighborhood. (Gorrell 84, 85)

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She was born a slave in Maryland and escaped in 1849 when she was twenty-eight years old. One day she learned that she was going to be sold, and that she might never see her family again. That night, she packed up and left. She asked a neighbouring white woman if she could help her, and the lady gave her directions to a house. This house was a station on the Underground Railroad. From there on she sent from station to station until she reached the free state of Philadelphia. She returned south to make 19 more trips to guide more than 300 slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad. She became known as the Moses of her people, or the Black Moses. (Gorrell 81-83)

She was born to liberal clergyman, Lyman Beecher, and married the Reverend Calvin Ellis Stowe, who was an opponent of slavery. She was a writer and an abolitionist, who was the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which was published in 1852. In the United States alone 500,000 copies were sold in the first five years and it was translated into over 20 more languages. It secured the North’s antislavery movement and played an important factor in the coming of the American Civil War. (Encarta ’95)

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Henry Brown was born a slave in Virginia and later decided to escape to freedom. Since he was treated like a white man’s property, he thought that he would travel like a white man’s property. Brown had a carpenter make him a fabric lined wooden box that was just large enough for him to sit in. He climbed in the box with only a few biscuits, a small amount of water, and a tool to bore wholes into the box, so he could get some fresh air. The box was then nailed up, and shipped to Philadelphia. His trip took twenty-six hours, and for some time he traveled on his head. He was known as Henry "Box" Brown from then on. (Gorrell 79)

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Levi Coffin

Levi Coffin was a Quaker who worked as a storekeeper. He also worked as an abolitionist and Underground Railroad worker. He became known as the "President of the Underground Railroad" because in 40 years he helped more than 3,000 slaves reach freedom via the Underground Railroad. (Francais 707) The Coffin home was a very important station on the Underground Railroad because it was the intersection of three different escape routes. Because of this Levi and Catherine Coffin’s home has been known as the "Grand Central Station." In 1844, Levi Coffin took a trip to Canada to see how the escaped slaves were doing in the new land. After the trip he began to collect money for them. Levi Coffin had a significant role in the Underground Railroad operation. (Gorrell 112)

Dr. Alexander Milton Ross, from Belleville, Ontario, was on of the more famous Canadian conductors. In 1855, when he was 23 years of age, Ross decided to embark on a trip that would take him into the southern states. He would spread the word about Canada and how the slaves could get there. Ross used his interest in birds to cover up his Underground Railroad activities. To each slave who was determined to escape, he gave a few dollars, a pocket compass, a knife, a pistol, and as much meat and bread as they could carry. Alexander Ross would then explain their route and tell the slaves that they were only to travel at night and to rest in a safe spot during the day. His efforts were applauded by President Lincoln and by John Greenleaf Wittier. Wittier dedicated one of his poems to Ross. (Francais 706)

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John Graves Simcoe was the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. He was appointed in 1791 as Lieutenant Governor and was firmly opposed to slavery and tried to abolish it in Upper Canada. He supported efforts to prohibit the importation of slaves to the British Colonies. There were slave holding government members, however, and as a result the Act of 1793 was a compromise. The Act stated that the status of people who were currently slaves was not altered, but their children would become free at birth. Also, slaves could not be imported into the colony any more. This Act would gradually eliminate slavery in Upper Canada. (Francais 705)

Frederick Douglass was born a slave in Maryland, and when he was only eight or nine years old, his mother died. Douglass never knew who his father was. He taught himself to read and write, and when he was twenty-one, he escaped. The only details of his escape he would reveal was that he had disguised himself as a sailor and that he had used a friend's identification papers. While he was a child he was beaten and starved. This made him a fierce abolitionist. He also ran an anti-slavery paper called the North Star. Douglass’s house was some times used as an Underground Railroad station. (Gorrel 90, 94)

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Rev. William King

Reverend William King was a Presbyterian minister who established the Elgin settlement in 1849. Within 10 years it became Canada’s most successful self-supporting all-black settlement. It was located outside of Chatam and had a population of 1,200 people. It was once noted by John Little, a former slave, that "the fugitives are as thick as blackbirds in a cornfield" on the Elgin settlement. (Francais 707)

Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809 and grew up in poverty. He was mainly self-educated, and while he was teaching himself, he had many jobs and travelled to many different places. Lincoln continued to travel after he had entered politics, and sometimes he wouldn’t say what his name was. One slave named Mingo White said that Lincoln stayed the night and observed how the slaves were treated. He reported that when Lincoln returned to the North, he wrote his master a letter. This letter said that the master was going to have to free his slaves, and that everybody was going to be made to, and that the North would see to it that this would happen. In the letter Lincoln also told the master to go into his bedroom and look on the head of the bedstead and there he would see his name. On the headrest Lincoln had carved "A. Lincoln."

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States of America, and in 1861 the Civil War began. In 1862 Lincoln issued that Emancipation Proclamation that freed many slaves. The remainder of slaves in the U.S. were freed in 1865, when the South lost the war against the North. Five days after freeing the slaves, John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln to death. (Gorrel 118, 119)

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By 1862, the Northern States had many Underground Railroad stations. The Civil War was going between the North and the South. This war was mainly fought over the issue of slavery in the United States. The South had broken off from the North and tried to form their own country. The Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865, and during that time the Underground Railroad’s workers were trying to get as many slaves to freedom as possible. Now, there were double the amount of workers as had been a few years earlier. (Hamilton 132)

One million dollars worth of slave "property" was lost every week from South Carolina. Other States were also complaining that they were losing millions in "property" that had escaped. The slaves just vanished and then turned up on the Union side. They just kept pouring in. (Hamilton 132, 133)

Slaves that lived in the states bordering the Union States, simply put down their work, packed up, and left. The slaves, around 500,000 of them, streamed into the Union camps full of hope for freedom. (Hamilton 133)

In April 1862 Congress freed slaves in the District of Columbia and paid the slave owners as much as $300 for each slave of theirs freed. Then, in June 1862 the congress abolished slavery in all territories. Abraham Lincoln, the President at the time, issued the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862. He warned the South that if it doesn’t return to the Union, then in one hundred days, on the first of January 1863, all slaves in the Confederacy would be free. The South didn’t return to the Union and on the first day of January 1863, the Proclamation was issued. (Hamilton 133, 134)

The Proclamation freed about three million slaves from the rebellious areas. Around three million slaves in the states that were bordering the North were not affected by the Proclamation and were not freed. These states, Missouri, Kentucky, and counties of Virginia, Maryland and Delaware were not involved in the rebellion. (Hamilton 135)

"Jubilee." This was the word most slaves used for emancipation. Representatives of the Union Army read the official word to the Southerners by the thousands. Both blacks and whites assembled on street corners, plantations, in schools, churches, and in farmyards all across the Southern states to hear the news. Other times a slave owner would tell his slaves of the Emancipation Proclamation. Jubilee celebrations were held all over America, as slaves heard of their freedom. (Hamilton 138, 141)

The majority of the four million black slaves in the United States remained in slavery until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution on December 18, 1865. Finally, all of the black people who were enslaved became free, and Slavery was abolished in the United States of America. (Hamilton 144)

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Black communities were established in many towns and cities in Canada. Black farming areas were also established. Even though the blacks faced prejudice against them in Canada, they were still free and had legal rights. While some of their white neighbors were helpful and sympathetic towards them, some were racist and made that clear. Most, however, were indifferent, and were willing to tolerate the blacks, although they weren’t eager to mix with their black neighbours too closely. (Gorrell 122)

Making a new life in a new and different land wasn’t easy. Once they arrived in Canada they had to find a place to live, build a house and get used to their new way of life. Often it wasn’t that simple. Most slaves arrived with nothing, so they lived their first few years in poverty. Sometimes, because of economic pressure, fugitives were refused a chance to buy land, and others were forced off land that they had already worked hard to clear. In some cases the white people heavily opposed to blacks settling near them and would burn or tear down the black’s houses. Most of the blacks who had escaped to find freedom in Canada were poorly educated or had had no education at all. This made them in an even more difficult position. (Gorrell 121, 122, 125)

Even though whites didn’t often treat the new black settlers very fairly, the law saw that they had equal rights. They had the right to own land, vote, send their children to school, and had the same right in court as the white people. They could put someone is jail for taking their racism too far. The fact that the blacks had rights before the law encouraged blacks to stay even though they faced racial prejudice. (Gorrell 124)

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Since the 1500’s, when the Europeans first began importing Africans to the New World, to 1865, when all of the slaves were freed, great changes have occurred. The idea of slavery has changed from something that was right to something that was undeniably wrong. The Underground Railroad and its workers were part of that long process. The people working on The Underground Railroad were against slavery and helped to spread the idea that slavery was wrong and convince others that it was. The Underground Railroad is a significant piece of the American and Canadian histories, as well as the history of world slavery. It was a turning point in history that effected many lives and today is part of many families’ history.

Adapted from North Star to Freedom, by Gena K. Gorrel

Bramble, Linda. Black Fugitive Slaves in Early Canada. Ontario: Vanwell Publishing Limited, 1988.

Encarta ’95, CD-ROM. N.p., Microsoft Corporation, 1992

Francais, Daniel. Horizon Canada, Volume 3. Quebec: Centre for the Study of Teaching Canada Inc., 1987.

Francais, Daniel. Horizon Canada, Volume 10. Quebec: Centre for the Study of Teaching Canada Inc., 1987.

Gorrel, Gena. North Star to Freedom. Toronto: Stoddart Publishing Co. Limited, 1996.

Hamilton, Virginia. Many Thousand Gone. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1993.

Harriet Tubman. (Feb. 1998): n. pag. Online. Internet. 8 Feb. 1998.
Available: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/anti-slavery/05310221_e.html

Lasky, Kathryn. True North. New York: The Blue Sky Press, 1996.

The Blacks, Anti-slavery. (Feb. 1998): n. pag. Online. Internet. 8 Feb. 1998.
Available: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/confederation/h18-2050-e.html

The Underground Railroad. (Feb. 1999): n. pag. Online. Internet. 22 Feb. 1999. Available: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/j1.html