Underground+Railroad

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[|**R**R****] __**Introduction**__

The Underground Railroad was a systematic chain of houses that slaves used to escape from the south to the north or even Canada. The Railroad was not actually a railroad and no part of it was underground but it was kept absolutely secret and none of the locations of the safe houses were given away. Finally, even though there was a nation wide manhunt for the escaped slaves, some were not caught because of their desperation. History of the Railroad The idea of having an escape was put into action in 1787. It was most likely started by a group of abolitionist Quakers. The main Quaker was a man named Isaac T. Hopper who wanted to free slaves. From 1810 to about 1850the south lost almost 100,000 slaves. But only about 2,000 slaves escaped each year. Then the slave masters got ideas on how to keep their slaves with them. The most poplar idea was employing a bounty hunter. These people would hunt down the slaves in the north and then bring them back for the reward of the capture. Now, this meant that escaping slaves had to make it all the way to Canada to be completely free. On the railroad, a very simple code was used. Conductors, were guides, or people like Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman was well known as moses because she led over 300 people to freedom. Stations were the safe houses where the slaves slept for the night. Most of these safehouses were the homes of many white abolitionists or often quakers. If a lantern was left lit, then that meant that the coast was clear but if there wasn't a lantern then the house was unsafe. Passengers or cargo, were the slaves who were trying to escape. //**__Routes of the Railroad__**// The railroad had many routes that the slaves could choose to follow that led to many states as well as Mexico, Canada, and some even led overseas. The most popular route was one that went through Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and up across Lake Erie into Canada. For all, this trip was trecherous, exhausting, dangerous, and mentally depleting. For some it was successful and worth the risk, and for others they would rather spend their life in captivity, rather than attempt the escape, be caught, and tortured. But either way, The Underground Railroad was one of the greatest escape tools of all time. __**Bibliography**__ "The Underground Railroad." __PBS__. feb 26 2008. PBS. 11 Mar 2008 . unknown, "Underground Railroad." __wikipedia__. feb 272008. wikipedia. 11 Mar 2008 . "Underground Railroad." __National Geographic__. feb 26 2008. National Geographic. 11 Mar 2008 . "Aboard the Underground Railroad." __National Parks Service__. feb 26 2008. National Parks Service. 11 Mar 2008 . "Underground Railroad." __Spartucus__. feb 27 2008. amazon/spartucus. 11 Mar 2008 . Watkins, Richard. __Slavery__. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
 * __Conclusion__**