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
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 became a major point of controversy after its passage by Congress But Harriet Tubman continued her work despite the increased danger Beginning in 1851 she made several trips back to Maryland and Virginia to guide other fugitive
slaves including members of her family north In 1856 Tubman made three excursions south The last in October of that year found Tubman finishing one rescue mission and about to return to dangerous territory to begin another rescue mission as a guide on the Underground Railroad
