Underground Railroad 3
Captured from their homes in Africa, then shipped to America under extremely poor conditions, and then sold to the highest bidder, this was part of the average slave's life. This was the sort of life slaves lead in their new foreign homeland. Put to work and forced to live with these new conditions of America, these slaves had no other choice, but to do as told as those that chose not to listen were made examples of what would happen if there was rebellion. There was no mercy for the slaves and their families as they had captured, and forced to live a life under the control of the White man. With concentrated slavery in America, Blacks wanted to break free from the white ownership so a few escaped by way of The Underground Railroad. What Blacks did not know was that a life in Canada would not be what they expected. Canada was not the paradise that Blacks expected it to be.For the many African Americans who lived in the Slave States prior to and during the American Civil War, the Underground Railroad provided them the opportunity and assistance for escaping slavery and finding freedom. One of the most curious characteristics of the Underground Railroad was its lack of formal organization. No one knows exactly when it started, but
there are cases of isolated help given to runaway slaves as early as the 1700s. By the early 19th century, there were organized flights to freedom. Quaker abolitionists in Pennsylvania and New Jersey provided much of the early help. Underground operations generally relied heavily on secret a code that was railroad jargon that alerted "passengers" when travel was safe. Runaways usually commuted either alone or in small groups, and were frequently assisted by African American and White "conductors" who risked their lives and property to escort refugees to freedom. Celebrated conductors of the Underground Railroad included James Fairfield, a White abolitionist who went into the Deep South and rescued enslaved African Americans by posing as a slave trader. In 1849, Harriet Tubman escaped from the Eastern Shore of Maryland and became known as "Moses" to her people when she made 19 trips to the South and helped deliver at least 300 fellow captives and loved ones to liberation. African American abolitionist John Parker of Ripley, Ohio, frequently ventured to Kentucky and Virginia and helped transport hundreds of runaways by boat across the Ohio River. Perhaps the closest the underground came to being formally organized was during the 1830s when African American abolitionists William Still, Robert Purvis, David Ruggles, and others organized and stationed vigilance committees throughout the North to help bondsmen to freedom. The intention of the vigilance committees was not to lure or personally guide runaways to freedom, but to offer whatever assistance they needed to reach their destinations. The Africville hardships that blacks had to face when coming into Canada were just some examples of the hardships at the end of the Underground Railroad. The people of Africville put their effort into building and expanding Halifax. In return, the White people repaid them by polluting their water, putting up dumpsites and "soon after, Africville's residents were relocated and the community destroyed." The dreams and the hopes of the Blacks for freedom in their minds came true when they
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Approximate Word count = 1408
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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