USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Hiding places included private homes, churches and schoolhouses. These were called “stations, ” “safe houses, ” and “depots.” The people operating them were called “stationmasters.” There were many well-used routes stretching west through Ohio to Indiana and Iowa.

Detailed explanation-2: -Freedom seekers used several means to escape slavery. Most often they traveled by land on foot, horse, or wagon under the protection of darkness. Drivers concealed self-liberators in false compartments built into their wagons, or hid them under loads of produce.

Detailed explanation-3: -The goal of most fugitive slaves was Canada, but some found freedom in Mexico and on the islands in the Caribbean Sea. After the Civil War, many returned to the United States.

Detailed explanation-4: -Our Headlines and Heroes blog takes a look at Harriet Tubman as the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad. Tubman and those she helped escape from slavery headed north to freedom, sometimes across the border to Canada.

Detailed explanation-5: -fugitive slave, any individual who escaped from slavery in the period before and including the American Civil War. In general they fled to Canada or to free states in the North, though Florida (for a time under Spanish control) was also a place of refuge.