The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses that aided slaves in escaping to free states, Canada, and Nova Scotia. With the help of freed, free-born, and enslaved blacks, white abolitionists, certain religious congregations, such as Quakers and Reformed Presbyterians, and Native Americans, an estimated 1,000 slaves escaped per year via the "Railroad".
What did runaway slaves escape to when they were free from bondage? What sort of life did the world offer for a free black person during the early to mid-19th century? What about for those individuals' children and their children--what does the history of slavery do to generations? How do we remember? How do we forget? What is it like to be black and an American today?
As you think about the above questions, consider this quote from Fredrick Douglas: "The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion."
The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses that aided slaves in escaping to free states, Canada, and Nova Scotia. With the help of freed, free-born, and enslaved blacks, white abolitionists, certain religious congregations, such as Quakers and Reformed Presbyterians, and Native Americans, an estimated 1,000 slaves escaped per year via the "Railroad".
What did runaway slaves escape to when they were free from bondage? What sort of life did the world offer for a free black person during the early to mid-19th century? What about for those individuals' children and their children--what does the history of slavery do to generations? How do we remember? How do we forget? What is it like to be black and an American today?
As you think about the above questions, consider this quote from Fredrick Douglas:
"The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion."