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Underground Railroad Homepage
Underground Railroad
Recommended Reading: The Underground
Railroad from Slavery to Freedom: A Comprehensive History (Dover
African-American Books). Description: This pioneering
work was the first documented survey of a system that helped fugitive slaves escape from areas in the antebellum South to
regions as far north as Canada. Comprising
fifty years of research, the text includes interviews and excerpts from diaries, letters, biographies, memoirs, speeches,
and other firsthand accounts.
Recommended Reading: Bound for
Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's
First Civil Rights Movement. Publishers Weekly: Though the Underground Railroad is one of the touchstones of American collective memory,
there's been no comprehensive, accessible history of the secret movement that delivered more than 100,000 runaway slaves to
freedom in the Northern states and Canada.
Journalist Bordewich (Killing the White Man's Indian) fills this gap with a clear, utterly compelling survey of the Railroad
from its earliest days in Revolution-era America
through the Civil War and the extension of the vote to African Americans in 1870. Using an impressive array of archival and
contemporary sources (letters, autobiographies, tax records and slave narratives, as well as new scholarship), Bordewich reveals
the Railroad to be much more complicated--and much more remarkable--than is usually understood. Continued below…
As a progressive
movement that integrated people across races and was underwritten by secular political theories but carried out by fervently
religious citizens in the midst of a national spiritual awakening, the clandestine network was among the most fascinatingly
diverse groups ever to unite behind a common American cause. What makes Bordewich's work transcend the confines of detached
social history is his emphasis on the real lives and stories of the Railroad's participants. Religious extremists, left-wing
radicals and virulent racists all emerge as fully realized characters, flawed but determined people doing what they believed
was right, and every chapter has at least one moment--a detail, a vignette, a description--that will transport readers to
the world Bordewich describes. The men and women of this remarkable account will remain with readers for a long time to come.
Recommended Reading: Passages to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in History and Memory. Publishers Weekly:
Myth and metaphor, the Underground Railroad was also real in the lives of escaping slaves, in the activities (legal and illegal)
of black and white people, free and slave, who aided and abetted them and in the structures in which they found refuge. Bountifully
illustrated with 78 color and 174 black-and-white photos and other images, this collection also comprises highly, readable
essays by 15 distinguished historians. The first section, "Slavery and Abolition," lays a historical foundation with cogent
accounts of slavery in the colonial years and in the 19th century and of the antislavery movement. Continued below…
The Fugitive
Slave Act of 1850, the Civil War, William Still and Harriet Tubman are all carefully treated. Short-term stay escapes and
long-term fugitive communities within slave territory, escape by water, escape into Northern free black communities, escape
to South Florida and escape to Western Canada are all freshly covered, as are "current uses of the Underground Railroad in
modern thought, tourism, and public history." Eddie S. Glaude Jr. discusses the African-American appropriation of the Exodus
story, with the U.S.
being Egypt rather than the Promised Land.
…A coherently arranged collection with two thought-provoking essays exploring the role of history and memory and probing
the current attention to the Underground Railroad that "says much about who we are as well as who we say we want to be."
Recommended Reading:
The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and
First-Hand Accounts. Description:
A "conductor" based in Philadelphia, Still (1821–1902)
helped guide fugitive slaves to safety in the years before the Civil War. He also created this unforgettable history, a collection
of carefully preserved letters, newspaper articles, and firsthand accounts about refugees' hardships, narrow escapes, and
deadly struggles. Over 50 illustrations. "Highly recommended."
Recommended Reading:
Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad (Simon & Schuster). Description:
From the highest hill above the town of Ripley, Ohio, you
can see five bends in the Ohio River. You can see the hills of northern Kentucky and the rooftops of Ripley's riverfront houses. And you can see what the abolitionist
John Rankin saw from his house at the top of that hill, where for nearly forty years he placed a lantern each night to guide
fugitive slaves to freedom beyond the river. Continued below...
In Beyond the River, Ann Hagedorn tells the remarkable story of the participants in the Ripley line of the
Underground Railroad, bringing to life the struggles of the men and women, black and white, who fought "the war before the
war" along the Ohio River. Determined in their cause, Rankin, his family, and his fellow abolitionists -- some of them former
slaves themselves -- risked their lives to guide thousands of runaways safely across the river into the free state of Ohio,
even when a sensational trial in Kentucky threatened to
expose the Ripley "conductors." Rankin, the leader of the Ripley line and one of the early leaders of the antislavery movement,
became nationally renowned after the publication of his Letters on American Slavery, a collection of letters he wrote to persuade
his brother in Virginia to renounce slavery. A vivid narrative
about memorable people, Beyond the River is an inspiring story of courage and heroism that transports us to another era and
deepens our understanding of the great social movement known as the Underground Railroad.
Recommended Viewing: Africans in America: America's
Journey Through Slavery, Starring: Angela Bassett, Jeremy Rabb, Andre Braugher, Eric Foner, and Kemp Harris.
Review: "Everything you
thought you knew about slavery is about to be challenged." So says WGBH about its six-hour series Africans in America, and they are absolutely right. Interviews with historians
and luminaries such as General Colin Powell, dramatic re-creations of important events, and beautiful photography create a
vivid and compelling story of over 400 years of tragedy. Continued below...
Ten million Africans died on the journey to America alone; they and the countless
numbers whose lives were wasted in servitude find a voice in Angela Bassett's outstanding narration. At once scholarly and
moving, Africans in America should be
required viewing for anyone interested in the American condition.
This page offers material and resources for studying the following subjects:
Underground Railroad History, Underground Railroad Definition, Underground Railroad Escape Routes with Map, Underground
Railroad Results, Underground Railroad Timeline, Underground Railroad Details and the Impact on Slavery, Underground Railroad Facts, Underground
Railroad with Photo, Photos, Picture, Pictures, Photograph, and Photographs.
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