The way that salves communicated to each other was in code. they would not met and say that they were running away. Harriet let he people know that she was running away, by singing to them before she left. Her biography written originally in 1886, gives a quote of many songs she sane, including the one she sang before leaving her plantation. "When dat ar ole chariot comes, I"m gwine to lebe you, I"m bound for the promised land, Frien"s, I"m gwine to lebe you."3 They started off with her late one night, but went back home after losing courage. Harriet"s escape was based on a great deal of chance and luck. She was fortunate to get a ride with a couple who happened to be abolitionists and were willing to help her travel north. Harriet arrived in Philadelphia and met William Still, a free Pennsylvanian black man, and a station master for the underground railroad. (The code name for the route used to help slaves escape to the north.) Harriet found a job here where she was able to support herself and rescue other slaves via the underground railroad.4 .

             The first people Harriet helped escape from the south was her sister, Ann Bowley and her two children from Baltimore, Maryland to Pennsylvania. She sent them a message to board a boat to Bodkin"s point and from there she guided them to Pennsylvania.5 She help over 300 slaves escape from the south, on 19 trips, bringing along a loaded revolver to give those who were afraid of being caught, giving them some courage by threatening them with it. She would not go back and she did not lose any of her passengers while she worked on the underground railroad. When she returned to the south, after her attempt to rescue her husband, she was presented with a large number of passengers, on the underground railroad to guide north. It was after the fugitive slave law had been passed(after 1850), but despite the circumstances she did refuse them. She used a sedative on a baby, to make the chances of the baby being heard less, and safely got them all to Frederick Douglass house in Pennsylvania.