by Mia Levenson
The Underground Railroad was a highly organized system, managed by benevolent white abolitionists and Quakers, that hundreds or thousands of enslaved people used to escape the Deep South and find refuge in Canada — right?
That’s what I was taught. But it’s wrong. Not only is this version of the account inaccurate, it transforms the real history of the Underground Railroad into an American tall tale.
Where did the legend of the Underground Railroad come from?
In 1889, historian Wilbur Siebert published a study that included stories he’d collected in interviews with anyone he could find with a memory of the network. But an overreliance on the reminiscences of his fellow whites meant that most of what he published emphasized the work of white abolitionists; the enslaved people and the freedmen who assisted them went largely unnamed and unrecognized.
Meanwhile, many in the American South were pushing a narrative known as the “Lost Cause,” which claimed that the Civil War was a heroic venture fought to preserve Southern values, effectively minimizing and even eliminating the role of slavery. In that context, Siebert’s collection of white-driven Underground Railroad stories and other lore allowed many to, as historian David Blight puts it, “place themselves, and their ancestors, in precisely the kind of narrative they desired.”
So what was the Underground Railroad, actually?
What we know about those who fled slavery is that they were mostly younger men, and almost all made their escapes by themselves or with a single companion. Christmastime was popular for escape attempts, because enslaved people were routinely given passes to visit family on other estates, and because it was the end of harvest season. Not all were land-based escapes; approximately 14 percent of all runaways used waterways because of the relative freedom that awaited them in urban settings like port cities.
Although there had long been some measure of cooperation and coordination in these escapes between freedmen, abolitionists, and fugitives from slavery, a more formal network arose with the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. This federal law made it illegal to aid fugitives in evading recapture; created special federal commissioners who could act independently of state and local laws; and created incentives for those commissioners who ruled in favor of slaveholders.
In response to the Fugitive Slave Act, local Vigilance Committees sprang up in larger towns and cities of the north, most prominently in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. They solicited money, provided food and lodging, and helped fugitives settle into a new community once they’d reached safer territory. This runs contrary to the idea that the actions of those who worked on the Underground Railroad were secretive. In fact the opposite was true; many in the North were better able to be vocal about abolitionist activities, and they decidedly were —so they could raise funds and recruit for the cause.
While the names of famous white abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and Levi Coffin may sound familiar, lesser known is William Still, a freedman who kept detailed records of fugitives and safe houses during the 19th century. His published work, The Underground Railroad Records, provides us with a much more historically accurate picture of the Underground Railroad as compared to Siebert’s study.
William Still worked as a clerk for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and recorded the rescue of 649 fugitives sheltered in Philadelphia. His work and that of many free people who helped to manage the escape of the enslaved generally goes unrecognized today. But as an Ohio abolitionist recounted in 1837, describing the transfer of an fugitive couple to a stagecoach bound for Canada, “Such matters are almost uniformly managed by the colored people. I know nothing of them generally till they are passed.”
Many fugitive slaves relied on their own wits and skills to escape. As one Illinois abolitionist remarked in 1896, “I do not know of any fugitives ever being transported by anyone, they always had to pilot their own canoe, with the little help that they received.”
The takeaway: What we commonly think of as the Underground Railroad consisted more of individuals who occasionally coordinated with others, rather than a codified system of escape.
The Underground Railroad was also, unfortunately, not terribly extensive. A highly optimistic (and frequently cited) estimate for the number of people who escaped slavery in the South between 1810 and 1850 is 100,000. If that sounds like a lot, remember that at this time there were roughly 4 million individuals living in slavery in the United States.
What historians have also found is that far more enslaved people ran away within the South than made it to liberty in the North or Canada.
The Underground Railroad was also not simply system for transferring of fugitives from one location to another. The danger of slave catchers was never far, and operators on the railroad provided a measure of safety and security. Lewis Hayden, an African-American abolitionist and freedman active outside of Massachusetts, was known for maintaining a stock of weapons in case of an encounter with one of the U.S. Marshals charged with enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. By the 1840s, African Americans in Northern communities were well known for dealing with slave catchers violently when necessary, with stories circulating out of places like Utica, N.Y. and Boston, pointedly illustrating that anyone trying to recapture fugitives in those communities would be chased briskly out.
When Wilbur Siebert conducted his initial study, he claimed that there were at least hundreds, if not thousands, of white abolitionists who assisted and aided fugitive slaves. There are several issues with this claim, the first being that escapees were by and large distrustful of whites — they would have been cautious about trusting someone who had the power to return them to their master.
Let’s also invoke the Fugitive Slave Act again: That federal law made it illegal to assist those escaping slavery. Charles Torrey, an abolitionist working in Maryland, died in prison after being convicted of helping free enslaved people in Baltimore. Abolitionists were frequently met with violence in the South — and in the North as well, at the hands of those in the North concerned that the immediate abolition of slavery would disrupt social order. The institution of slavery was so ingrained in the national psyche that in 1836, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a gag rule that prohibited all discussion of abolitionists’ petitions to the House on the topic of restrictions or repeal— an absolute suppression of free speech.
Even in the North, there were institutional barriers that protected slavery. Garrison, a staunch believer in the immediate end to slavery, remarked in regard to the abolitionist movement that he led out of Boston, “We did not anticipate that, in order to protect Southern slavery, the free states would voluntarily trample under foot all law and order, and government, or brand the advocates of universal liberty as incendiaries and outlaws. … It did not occur to us that almost every religious sect, and every political party would side with the oppressor.”
Abolition was an unpopular and precarious stance for white Americans, one that frequently resulted in ostracization and even death threats. While those who were unswayed by the potential dangers should be celebrated, it would be a mistake to assume that there was a massive community of white individuals willing to make these sacrifices.
And so as you watch The Underground Railroad Game, I encourage you to consider how you learned about this piece of American history, and the way in which it was taught. Whose version of history are we really telling? How are we communicating the lessons of the past onto the next generation? What can we gain from deconstructing these mythologies?
Reading and resources:
The Underground Railroad: A Record, by William Still
Slavery and Emancipation in the Nation’s Capital, by Damani Davis
The Perilous Lure of the Underground Railroad, by Kathryn Shulz
Who Really Ran the Underground Railroad, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America’s First Civil Rights Movement, by Fergus M. Bordewich
Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad, by Eric Foner
Passages to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in History and Memory, edited by David Blight
Underground Railroad in Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia by William J. Switala
The Maryland State Archives also has a host of resources, including a database of primary records as well as a general pamphlet regarding the history of slavery in Maryland.
