By : Ian Barnes

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD1810-1850

Harriet Tubman- Escorted over 300 slaves to freedom and took 19 trips to slave plantations.

John Fairfield- A son of a slaveholding family who tried to set his slaves free with many daring attempts and was killed by saving blacks from their plantations.

Levi Coffin- A Quaker man who saved over 3,000 slaves from death and overworking.

Isaac T. Hopper- Organized the first few paths to freedom for slaves.

Important People Of The Railroad

Continued…William StillGerrit SmithSalmon ChaseDavid Ruggle Thomas Garrett William PurvisJane Gray SwisshamWilliam Wells BrownFredrick Douglass

Henry David Thoreau Lucretia MottCharles Langston Susan B. AnthonyOver 3,000 white and

free blacks served as stationmasters and other helpers on the underground railroad for the search for freedom for slaves.

The underground railroad was the effort to rescue blacks held in slavery. This effort was run by free blacks and white men and women.

If you were a slave, it would start as you leaving your plantation, and following directions to a series of checkpoints and “stations” where there were safe havens that “stationmasters” would give up their home and care for you and let you rest. As you went from station to station, you would have to be very careful in which house you went to, and the homes with the right place to go had a small lantern hung up so the slaves would know that that place was a safe place.

The underground railroad wasn’t really a railroad at all, or underground! It was different ways to get out of your plantation so you could get to freedom.

What was it about?

Continued…The underground railroad wasn’t given its

name until 1840.Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, New York,

Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, California, Oregon and Maine were all against slavery and were the safe states for runaway slaves to be.

The Underground Railroad was in slave states in the south where there were jobs needed but no one wanted to do them, then slavery came to the southern states.

The northern states such as Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, California, Oregon and Maine (northern states) were all against the slavery.

Where was the Underground Railroad?

1810-1850 was the date of the underground railroad.

1787 was when Isaac T. Hopper began to organize a system for hiding and aiding fugitive slaves, later named the underground railroad.

By 1850, 100,000 slaves were helped to freedom.

1850- over 3,000 helpers on the underground railroad helped save thousands of slaves from death at plantations and work camps.

Special Dates for the Underground Railroad include…

The underground railroad was needed for hundreds of thousands of slaves in the southern states because of death of thousands of people there, and the children were even being worked from when they could walk.

Slaves weren't considered people when slavery was used because they were considered property in slave states and the northern states wanted the slaves to be able to be free and have rights just like any other people like they were.

Why was the underground railroad used anyway?

If the underground railroad hadn't come along and saved thousands of slaves, then I believe that we could have still had slaves 50-100 years after and wouldn’t have to have a civil war. The underground railroad was a huge help to the country by giving it new laws and seeing all people as equals and working out our country's flaws.

If the underground railroad didn’t happen…what would it be like today?