How the Underground railroad was started
The Underground Railroad was started and run by free blacks, freed slaves, fugitive slaves, and white abolitionists. The name is symbolic for the complicated routes taken and the secret nature of it. Those who traveled on it were called passengers. The homes and shelters provided for the slaves were called stations or depots.
Slavery was started to aid in crop production. African people were forced onto ships and taken to America, on what was called the Middle Passage. They were auctioned as property to plantation owners and forced to work. Slaves were miserable in slavery. They often feigned sickness or destroyed property in protest.
Quakers were among the first to vocally oppose slavery. Levi Coffin and his wife, Catherine, are believed to have helped about 3,000 slaves escape. Their home was called the "Grand Central Station" of the Underground Railroad. That house was in Indiana. They later moved to Cincinnati.
Slavery was started to aid in crop production. African people were forced onto ships and taken to America, on what was called the Middle Passage. They were auctioned as property to plantation owners and forced to work. Slaves were miserable in slavery. They often feigned sickness or destroyed property in protest.
Quakers were among the first to vocally oppose slavery. Levi Coffin and his wife, Catherine, are believed to have helped about 3,000 slaves escape. Their home was called the "Grand Central Station" of the Underground Railroad. That house was in Indiana. They later moved to Cincinnati.