11 DANGEROUS CROSSING 12 THE FINAL PUSH 13 FREE AT LAST Epilogue Timeline Glossary Critical Thinking Using the Common Core Internet Sites Further Reading Selected Bibliography Index About the Author Copyright Back Cover
FOREWORD Enslaved black people in the Americas had been risking their lives trying to escape their bonds almost since the first African slaves arrived in Jamestown Virginia in 1619 And for many years there were people opposed to slavery who were willing to help these people in their journey to freedom By the 1840s a system of safe houses had developed in the United States where fugitive slaves from
the South could be hidden and protected on their journey north to free states This secret network came to be called the Underground Railroad Although it was neither underground nor a railroad its members borrowed the language of train travel Those working on the railroad were agents Some agents were conductors who guided their cargo of fugitive slaves from station to station The safe houses were owned or operated by other agents who were called stationmasters The final destination of most fugitives was the relative safety of northern states where slavery had been banned Some would travel farther north to the greater safety of Canada Enslaved people escaped by foot or any other type of transportation available
Among the many fugitive slaves who reached freedom in this period was a determined young woman named Harriet Tubman In September 1849 she left her husband and family in Dorchester County Maryland and fled north probably with the assistance of agents on the Underground Railroad Work on the Underground Railroad grew more dangerous in 1850 when Congress passed a new Fugitive Slave Act The Slave Act said that runaway slaves found in the North had to be returned to their owners It also created new punishments for those who assisted fugitives
