![]() Map of Underground Railroad routes to modern day Canada | |
Founding location | United States |
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Territory | United States, and routes to British North America, Mexico, Spanish Florida, and the Caribbean |
Ethnicity | African Americans and other compatriots |
Activities |
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Allies | |
Rivals | Slave catchers, Reverse Underground Railroad |
Part of a series on |
Forced labour and slavery |
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The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and from there to Canada.[1] The network, primarily the work of free African Americans (and some whites as well),[2] was assisted by abolitionists and others sympathetic to the cause of the escapees.[3] The slaves who risked capture and those who aided them are also collectively referred to as the passengers and conductors of the Railroad, respectively.[4] Various other routes led to Mexico,[5] where slavery had been abolished, and to islands in the Caribbean that were not part of the slave trade.[6] An earlier escape route running south toward Florida, then a Spanish possession (except 1763–1783), existed from the late 17th century until approximately 1790.[7][8] However, the network generally known as the Underground Railroad began in the late 18th century. It ran north and grew steadily until the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln.[9] One estimate suggests that, by 1850, approximately 100,000 slaves had escaped to freedom via the network.[9]
'A network of houses and other places abolitionists used to help enslaved Africans escape to freedom in the northern states or in Canada ... ' —American Heritage Dictionary