Frankie Meyer: Underground Railroad helped former slaves gain freedom – Joplin Globe

In honor of February being Black History Month, this column is about myths of the Underground Railroad, a term for the system of networks used by slaves to escape.

Slaves were so valuable that slave owners often had large mortgages on them. Owners even carried insurance on them. Thus, when slaves escaped, owners risked great financial loss. To recover their escaped slaves, owners hired bounty hunters and placed ads in newspapers.

In 1793, President George Washington signed a fugitive slave law that gave slave owners the right to recover escaped slaves. Another law, passed in 1850, required governments and residents in free states to enforce the return of escaped slaves. Severe penalties were given to those who helped the escapees.

Numerous people helped slaves escape bondage. Most did so quietly and in secrecy. Had their names and sentiments become public, bounty hunters would have arrived at their doorsteps with arrest warrants.

Some people who helped were known as abolitionists. They wrote articles and gave speeches expressing their anti-slavery feelings in attempts to raise money for clothing, food and transportation that slaves needed as they fled to freedom. Although abolitionists raised money, they were not a direct part of the Underground Railroad. Out of necessity, people who lived along the Underground Railroad and supplied help were only able to do so by not bringing attention to themselves.

A misconception is that the Underground Railroad consisted of specific trails along which escaped slaves traveled. Instead, the pathways were corridors that constantly shifted. While on the journey to freedom, slaves needed clothing, food and a place to stay, and they needed money for transportation. They also needed directions to the next safe site. Many people along the corridors supplied these types of help. Had escaped slaves used the same trails, they would have been quickly captured by bounty hunters.

While on their freedom journey, escaped slaves slept in churches, barns, homes, caves and tunnels. One misconception is that those who helped often placed lights in their windows and placed quilts with unique designs on their wash lines or porches. That rarely happened. Bounty hunters soon learned about such techniques. Then, too, neighbors watched each other and were aware of unusual people coming and going night after night. Neighbors could collect bounties, too.

Another misconception is about the types of people who helped. Although Quaker families sometimes helped, aid also came from a variety of non-Quaker whites and free blacks, as well as escaped slaves.

Another misconception is that all escaped slaves followed the north star to Canada. Although several traveled there, some went to Mexico, some went out west and a few went to Florida, where the Seminole Tribe allowed them to live in freedom. Sometimes, escapees went to Liberia. Between 1822 and the start of the Civil War, more than 15,000 black Americans relocated to that area of Africa.

Suggestions or queries? Send to Frankie Meyer, 509 N. Center St., Plainfield, IN 46168, or contact: frankiemeyer@yahoo.com.

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Frankie Meyer: Underground Railroad helped former slaves gain freedom - Joplin Globe