We all know that railroads are networks of parallel steel rails laid upon beds of gravel and wooden crossties. We also know that a railroad is everything that rolls on those rails, and everything it takes to keep people and cargo moving. Underground means just that: under ground, beneath the surface of the earth. Underground also means hidden, secret, and often illegal. Broadly speaking, railroad describes travel along a prescribed route and underground describes the secrecy necessary for a safe and successful trip.
What Was the Underground Railroad?
The South saw Negroes as property to be bought and sold. Slaveowners justified slavery with their belief that Negroes were not fully human. Otherwise how would so many allow themselves to be captured and enslaved?
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade lasted for more than 300 years
During that time, 12 million Africans were captured, chained, and shipped to the New World. Two million died along the way and were dumped overboard as if they were trash. Five million slaves were sent to Brazil, four million were scattered across the Caribbean Islands, and between 400,000 and 500,000 were delivered to the U.S. It’s no coincidence that these numbers correlated highly with the number of square miles of field crops that needed to be cultivated and harvested year after year.
North and South Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky were tobacco states
Cotton was grown in the Carolinas and Georgia and South Carolina grew lots of rice. All of these crops required labor intensive and back-breaking work, often called stoop labor. For plantation owners, slave labor was the solution.
Then Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin
His ingenious device combed 50 pounds of cotton a day while slaves picked clean only a pound or two because the seeds stuck so ferociously (you’ll know it if you’ve done it) to the cotton. It comes as a surprise to many to learn that Whitney pioneered the idea of interchangeable parts, too.
Almost overnight, cotton became the primary crop across the Southern states
Exports of raw cotton grew tenfold in only a few years. A man named Arkwright (some say) had invented a machine (drawing shown below) that spun cotton into thread several years before. With an almost endless supply of cotton now coming from the Southern states, the cotton craze was on in wool-weary England.
Leaving any and all moral issues out of it, as slaveowners did, slavery was a practical solution that kept labor costs down
As far as the Southern states were concerned, the right to own slaves must be defended at all costs. If the slaves were somehow freed, plantation overlords would go broke having to pay people a day’s wages for a day’s work.
Every Caucasian was not a Negro-hating monster
Those with strong moral compasses detested the very idea of one man owning another. Called abolitionists, they wanted the United States to put an end to the cruel inhumanity of slavery. The South saw them as property to be bought and sold at will; the North saw Negroes as human beings seeking refuge and freedom.
Legalized kidnapping?
The Fugitive Slave Acts were a pair of federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway enslaved people within the territory of the United States. Enacted by Congress in 1793, the first Fugitive Slave Act authorized the seizure and return of escapees to their owners and imposed penalties on anyone who aided in their flight.
Bounty hunters came north to capture escaped slaves because slaveowners paid rewards for bringing them back. Some bounty hunters didn’t stop with capturing slaves. There was more money to be made by kidnapping free Negroes and selling them to slave traders than there was in returning them to their owners, and easier, too
Widespread resistance to the 1793 law led to the passage of yet another Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed police to arrest suspected fugitives, required runaway slaves to be returned to the owners — even if they were now in Free States, and for good measure, tacked on even harsher punishments for interfering in their capture.
It was a time of great territorial expansion
In the five years leading up to 1850, five states had been admitted to the Union: Florida and Texas as slave states and Iowa, Wisconsin, and California as free states. By 1863, Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, and Nevada had all joined the Union as free states. West Virginia entered as a special case with a plan for gradual abolition.
The rapidly growing country was faced with the decision to admit new states to the Union as free states or slave states
The United States Congress spent seven months debating The Compromise of 1850, rewriting it several times before finally approving it. One of the authors was Senator Henry Clay.
Today’s Henry Clay Center* on the campus of the University of Kentucky was “Established to educate current and future leaders in the value and tools of civill discourse and compromise.”
Known in his day as The Great Compromiser, Clay’s way of settling the dispute was for all to agree that future states would be admitted to the Union two at a time. One would be a free state and the other a slave state. This pleased the South, under increasing pressure to abolish slavery. Critics said the Compromise of 1850 did no more than put off having to confront the issue.
The tension between peace and justice
When the spirit of compromise is pure, the outcome is morally acceptable. When the compromise is political, morality is set aside by those who treat Negroes as inhuman. Philosophy professor Avishai Margalit says in his book, On Compromise and Rotten Compromises, that compromises for the sake of peace sometimes come at the expense of justice.
Wait – haven’t we seen this before?
The Compromise of 1850 superseded the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The legislation agreed to 30 years before was intended to balance the South’s insistence that slavery be expanded to new states as they were admitted to the Union with the North’s belief that only free states should be admitted. Trade-offs were made and borders defined.
As is the case with so many compromises, concessions were made here and there (okay, you get Maine but we get Missouri) and when the act was passed, neither side was satisfied. It was a temporary resolution, put on the back burner where it began to boil over in the years leading up to the Civil War.
Southern landowners were faced with increasing numbers of runaway slaves
Their solution was to pay rewards to bounty hunters who went North to capture fugitive slaves and return them to their owners. The most monstrous of these thugs-for-hire specialized in capturing free Negroes and selling them to slave traders because it paid better.
Most Northerners were fed up the Southerners’ calculated cruelty
Bit by bit, they built a network that made it possible for more Negroes in slave states to escape the South and come to the free states in the North. Harriett Tubman was a former slave and social activist. After escaping to the free North, she risked her life to return again and again into slave territory to help others escape via the Underground Railroad. Tubman was also a nurse, laundress, social activist, suffragette, and Union spy. It is unclear if Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the face of the $20 bill in 2030.
The Underground Railroad had three main routes
The western railroad went to Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. The northern railroad went to Canada by way of Detroit and the Northeastern railroad went to New England. All along the way were shelters, food, and clothing.
Routes went to 14 Northern states and Canada
Standard railroad terminology was used as a code. Passengers, cargo, baggage, and parcels all indicated northbound travelers. Stations were safe houses along the way. Conductors led escaped slaves to churches, schools, and private homes operated by stationmasters.
Have Fun With History sums up the Underground Railroad this way:
“This remarkable movement, marked by courageous conductors, safe houses, and coded communication, defied the oppressive institution of slavery and became a symbol of resistance and hope. Its legacy endures as a testament to the power of collective action, compassion, and determination in the pursuit of justice and equality.”
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*The Henry Clay College Student Congress is a transformative two-week summer program tailored for undergraduates, meticulously designed to cultivate essential personal character skills vital for future leaders in the realms of public policy, politics, diplomacy, and contemporary leadership. The summer program in public policy selects fifty-one rising college seniors, representing each state and the District of Columbia, to learn about the dynamics of the policy process through an experiential and immersive curriculum. Students engage with lawmakers, academics, government relations experts, policy advisors and other leaders to explore the challenges of formulating comprehensive public policy. Reading Henry Clay: The Essential American was the stimulus for my writing Why Do We Need an Informed Electorate?
Bonus
The River Jordan was one bit of coded terminology not taken from the railroads
Some say it was a code word for the Ohio River, which was bordered on the North by free states. Theologians remember that the River Jordan was where God parted the waters so the Israelites could reach the Promised Land on the other side. Did you also know that the River Jordan was where John the Baptist did his best work?
The parting of the River Jordan’s waters is not to be confused with the other parting of the waters
That one happened when the Israelites were trapped between Pharaoh’s advancing army and the shore of the Red Sea. Moses stretched out his hand and split the waters so the Israelites could escape from Egypt and slavery. In hot pursuit, Pharaoh’s entire army drowned when the waters returned after the Israelites were safe on the other side. The picture below is Charlton Heston, not Moses.
