Underground Railroad
Uploaded by Admin on Jan 22, 1999
I know you're wondering, what railroad? Well the simple fact is that everybody has heard of the Underground Railroad, but not everyone knows just what it was. Firstly, it wasn't underground, and it wasn't even a railroad. The term "Underground Railroad" actually comes from a runaway slave, who while being chased swam across a creek and was out of the owner's sight. The owner said "...must have gone off on an underground railroad." That man was Tice Davids, a Kentucky slave who decided to live in freedom in 1831. The primary importance of the Underground Railroad was the on going fight to abolish slavery, the start of the civil war, and it was being one of our nation's first major anti-slavery movements.
The history of the railroad is quite varied according to whom you are talking. Slavery in America thrived and continued to grow because there was a scarcity of labor. Cultivation of crops on plantations could be supervised while slaves used simple routines to harvest them, the low price at which slaves could be bought, and earning profits as a bonus for not having to pay hired work.
Slaves turned to freedom for more than one reason. Some were obsessed with being free and living a life where they were not told how to live. Others ran due to fear of being separted or sold from friends and family. Then there were some who were treated so cruely, that it forced them to run just to stay alive. Since coming to America as slaves even back as far back as when the first colonies began, slaves wanted to escape. They wanted to get away from the situation they were forced into. Those who were free were the "whites" who were somewhat separated in values. The North, was a more industrialized area where jobs were filled by newly imported immigrants, making them less dependent on slave labor. The South, however had rich fertile land mostly used for farming. Huge plantations were cleared and needed to be worked. The people of the area tended to be more genteal, and seemed not quite adjusted to hard work, but more of giving orders. The idea of telling people how to do their work just seemed to fit all too well into this scenario.
The railroad didn't have a certain location. Slaves had been running since the 1500's on their own. When the idea caught on...