Books in Footsteps to Freedom: The Underground Railroad series

Free at last! Hopeful African Americans began the long journey to build their lives from scratch as U.S. law declared all slaves free in 1865. But many whites fought bitterly against change. Signs above water fountains, restrooms, and other public places clearly separated "WHITES" from "COLOREDS," while the Ku Klux Klan terrorized the night. Leaders like Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King, Jr. stood up to the ugly reality of racism in America. Laws and hearts slowly changed to make the American Dream a possibility for all of its citizens. Today, the United States celebrates the rich history, music, and art of the black community. But with holdovers of hatred, pride, and prejudice, has the country achieved true equality?

The nightmare for enslaved Africans began on the Middle Passage--the journey across the ocean to America. Chained together by their hands and feet, the people were crammed into a ship's dark belly, sometimes for weeks. When they arrived, they were sold at auction like so much cattle. Then, for generations, they faced bondage at the hands of cruel masters, forced to work sunup to sundown planting and harvesting crops, cleaning houses, or performing other tasks that would boost the white man's profits. Refused basic civil rights and often torn from their families, the slaves looked for ways to find freedom and better their lives. Flight was risky--even with the help of the Underground Railroad. For many, it was the only option.

The Underground Railroad A Record Narrating the Hardships, Hair-breadth Escapes and Death Struggles of the Slaves in their efforts of Freedom William Still Like millions of my race, my mother and father were born slaves, but were not contented to live and die so. My father purchased himself in early manhood by hard toil. Mother saw no way for herself and children to escape the horrors of bondage but by flight. Bravely, with her four little ones, with firm faith in God and an ardent desire to be free, she forsook the prison-house, and succeeded, through the aid of my father, to reach a free State. Here life had to be begun anew. The old familiar slave names had to be changed, and others, for prudential reasons, had to be found. This was not hard work. However, hardly months had passed ere the keen scent of the slave-hunters had trailed them to where they had fancied themselves secure. In those days all power was in the hands of the oppressor, and the capture of a slave mother and her children was attended with no great difficulty other than the crushing of freedom in the breast of the victims. Without judge or jury, all were hurried back to wear the yoke again. But back this mother was resolved never to stay. She only wanted another opportunity to again strike for freedom. In a few months after being carried back, with only two of her little ones, she took her heart in her hand and her babes in her arms, and this trial was a success. Freedom was gained, although not without the sad loss of her two older children, whom she had to leave behind. Mother and father were again reunited in freedom, while two of their little boys were in slavery. What to do for them other than weep and pray, were questions unanswerable. For over forty years the mother's heart never knew what it was to be free from anxiety about her lost boys. But no tidings came in answer to her many prayers, until one of them, to the great astonishment of his relatives, turned up in Philadelphia, nearly fifty years of age, seeking his long-lost parents. Being directed to the Anti-Slavery Office for instructions as to the best plan to adopt to find out the whereabouts of his parents, fortunately he fell into the hands of his own brother, the writer, whom he had never heard of before, much less seen or known. And here began revelations connected with this marvellous coincidence, which influenced me, for years previous to Emancipation, to preserve the matter found in the pages of this humble volume.

The Underground Railroad was not a transportation system with metal tracks and whistling trains that zipped along a grid of tracks through tunnels below the ground. Instead, this system was an organized network of people who--in utmost secrecy--helped others escape the bonds of slavery. The routes to freedom were filled with danger, but the risks were worth it. Climb aboard to travel back in time and find out how this system of "passengers," "conductors," and "stationmasters" saved thousands of lives and helped change the nation.

The Underground Railroad - A Record - William Still... The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century enslaved people of African descent in the United States in efforts to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists, both black and white, free and enslaved, who aided the fugitives. Various other routes led to Mexico or overseas. An earlier escape route running south toward Florida, then a Spanish possession, existed from the late 17th century until shortly after the American Revolution. However, the network now generally known as the Underground Railroad was formed in the early 19th century, and reached its height between 1850 and 1860. One estimate suggests that by 1850, 100,000 slaves had escaped via the "Railroad". British North America (present-day Canada), where slavery was prohibited, was a popular destination, as its long border gave many points of access. Most former slaves settled in Ontario. More than 30,000 people were said to have escaped there via the network during its 20-year peak period, although U.S. Census figures account for only 6,000. Numerous fugitives' stories are documented in the 1872 book The Underground Railroad Records by William Still, an abolitionist who then headed the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee.