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The Underground Railroad, painted by Charles T. Webber, 1891

Opposition in the Northern states to the Fugitive Slave Acts caused the UGRR movement to become deliberate and organized. Despite the fact that their actions were illegal, and with little regard for their own personal safety, people of all races, classes and genders participated in this widespread form of civil disobedience.

The Underground Railroad greatly increased the chances for escape. It was a network of “stations” (homes, carriage houses, barns) owned by Quaker abolitionists as well as freed black men and women and other sympathizers. Freedom seekers traveled at night to avoid being seen and were given refuge at these safe locations during daylight hours. The journey to free soil was long and difficult; they traveled on foot or were often hidden in wagons beneath bags of grain or under fake floorboards to keep from being detected.

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Within the heart of every slave was the irrepressible urge to be free. Many did try to escape the system that they knew was unjust only to be returned and severely punished under the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law that required the return of all runaway slaves. Freedom seekers were also aware that their relatives who stayed behind were at great risk of reprisal. However, by 1850 it is estimated that as many as 50,000 had escaped to the North only to again fear that they could be returned to the South due to the enforcement of the 1850 enhanced Fugitive Slave Law that allowed a federal marshal to arrest any suspected runaway slave in any state and return him/her to the slave owner on nothing more than a sworn testimony. Anyone that aided a freedom seeker could be jailed for up to six months and fined $1,000.

The National Park Service UGRR Network to Freedom and its partners refer to African Americans escaping bondage as 'freedom seekers' rather than 'runaways, fugitives or escapees'. Freedom seeker demonstrates the goals of liberty that UGRR participants dreamed of, strove for, and eventually grasped. URSCC has adopted this terminology.

The Underground Railroad

Underground Railroad Society

of Cass County, Michigan

urscc.org