Underground Railroad Meaning Thereof:
“The Underground Railroad – Enslaved blacks and their white sympathizers planned secret flight strategies and escape routes for runaways to make their way to freedom. Although it was neither subterranean nor a mechanized means of travel, this network of routes and hiding places was known as the “underground railroad.” Some free blacks like William Still were active “conductors” on the underground railroad, while others simply harbored runaways in their homes. Maps in the Library’s collection show the routes of the underground railroad, and books like this one contain first-person accounts of those who took this perilous route to freedom.” Source: Library of Congress. LOC Link: www.loc.gov/exhibits/african-american-odyssey/free-blacks-in-the-antebellum-period.html#obj8
Above Map – Concord Massachusetts Map of the Underground Railroad Route: “Underground Railroad Map of the United States, ca. 1838-1860”. Source: Library of Congress. LOC Link: https://www.loc.gov/item/75696204/
UGRR – To get a handle on the cruelty of slavery read: “Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad …”.
Book | Source:
Pettit, Eber M., 1800 Or, and W McKinstry. Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad, Comprising Many Thrilling Incidents of the Escape of Fugitives from Slavery, and the Perils of Those Who Aided Them. Fredonia, N.Y., W. McKinstry & son, 1879. Pdf. Source: Library of Congress. LOC Link: https://www.loc.gov/item/10034665/
Excerpts:
“At an early date the moral sense of many of the people of the North was aroused to the enormity of the crime of slavery and measures were taken for its abolition. The first slaves brought to this country were sold from a Dutch vessel at Jamestown, Va., in 1619.”
“It is estimated by a prominent refugee from Kentucky, who made his escape in 1836, that fully thirty-five thousand fugitives have reached Canada from the Slave States.”
“The conductors on this route were some of the noblest, self sacrificing men the world ever saw. No civil penalties dismayed them.”
“Beauty of face and of form had a market value ; a beautiful woman would sell for the price of ten able bodied men, and even Christianity was an article of commerce.”
“A man by the name of Lines lived just over the line in Virginia, who owned more slaves than he could employ, therefore he hired them out, and the wages he received for their labor constituted his income, selling one occasionally to supply any deficiency.”
The Underground Railroad – The Underground Railroad was an informal network of compassionate individuals that worked collectively, risking their lively-hoods, to do the right thing. People who had a soul.
Book | Source:
“The underground rail road. A record of facts, authentic narratives, letters, &c., narrating the hardships, hairbreadth escapes and death struggles of the slaves in their efforts for freedom… ” LOC Source: Still, William. The underground rail road. A record of facts, authentic narratives, letters, &c., narrating the hardships, hairbreadth escapes and death struggles of the slaves in their efforts for freedom. Philadelphia, Porter & Coates, 1872. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/11008368/.
Excerpts:
“In these Records will be found interesting narratives of the escapes of many men, women and children, from the prison house of bondage ; from cities and plantations ; from rice swamps and cotton fields; from kitchens and mechanic shops; from Border States and Gulf States; from cruel masters- and mild masters;—some guided by the north star alone, penniless, braving the perils of land and sea, eluding the keen scent of the blood-hound as well as the more dangerous pursuit of the savage slave-hunter; some from secluded dens and caves of the earth, where for months and years they had been hidden away waiting for the chance to escape; from mountains and swamps, where indescribable suffering from hunger and other privations had patiently been endured.”
“About a month before Wesley left, the overseer, for some trifling cause, attempted to flog him, but was resisted, and himself flogged. This resistance of the slave was regarded by the overseer as an unpardonable offense; consequently he communicated the intelligence to his owner, which had the desired effect on his mind as appeared from his answer to the overseer, which was nothing less than instructions that if he should again attempt to correct Wesley and he should repel the wholesome treatment, the overseer was to put him in prison and sell him.”
“ONE Hundred Dollars REWARD.- Ran away from Richmond City on Tuesday, the 2d of June, a negro man named Wm. N. Tatloe, belonging to Mrs. Margaret Tyler of Hanover county. Said negro was hired to Fitzhugh Mayo, Tobacconist; is quite black, of genteel and easy manners, about five feet ten or eleven inches high, has one front tooth broken, and is about 35 years old.”
Underground Railroad – United States Department of the Interior – Source: https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/underground/srs.pdf
Excerpts:
“The Underground Railroad was perhaps the most dramatic protest action against slavery in United States history. The operations of clandestine escape networks began in the 1500s, and was later connected with organized abolitionist activity of the 1800s. Neither an “underground” nor a “railroad,” this informal system arose as a loosely constructed network of escape routes that originated in the South, intertwined throughout the North, and eventually ended in Canada.”
Compilation of Sites and Structures Associated with the Underground Railroad:
Location: Jonathan Ball Residence, Lexington Road, Concord – “Slaves were brought here to be harbored overnight (currently the home of Concord Art Association).”
Location: White Farm, 144 Clinton Street, Concord – “Was a veritable station on the URR”
In Conclusion – You have to wonder why slavery existed. It was just as bad as the Holocaust where one group of humans selectively chose to ignore the rights of others for the benefit of financial gain or some misguided perception of superiority. The term is “Selective Empathy”. Film Direction Jonathan Glazer, interviewed by Financial Times Journalist Raphael Abraham discussed his film about the Holocaust “The Zone of Interest” how seemingly normal people could value and respect their family and friends but selectively participate in the execution of thousands. He used the phrase “Selective Empathy”. “How we value certain people over others according to race or religion or political allegiance.”
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