The Underground Railroad was a loose network of secret routes, safe houses and helpers that assisted enslaved people in escaping from the American South to free states and to Canada. It was neither underground nor a railroad, but used the language of railways, with guides called conductors and safe houses called stations. Black and white abolitionists, among them Harriet Tubman, who made repeated journeys to lead others to freedom, William Still and Levi Coffin, risked their safety to run it. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 increased the danger, and many travellers went on to Canada. Estimates of how many escaped vary, but it was probably tens of thousands.
Before and after
- 18th centuryAgrippina
- c. 1800sRise of nationalism
- 18th centuryLate modern period
- 1800Voltaic pile
- from 1800 to 1863Underground Railroad
- 7 January 1800Birth of Millard Fillmore
- 18 January 1800Founding of Bank of France
- from 20 April 1800 to 4 June 1800Siege of Genoa
- 24 April 1800Founding of Library of Congress
More in Wars, politics & history
- from 24 June 1812 to 14 December 1812French invasion of Russia
- from 24 April 1846 to 2 February 1848Mexican-American War
- from 18 August 1866 to 10 May 1871Unification of Germany
- from 24 April 1877 to 3 March 1878Tenth Russo-Turkish War
- from 1 August 1894 to 17 April 1895First Sino-Japanese War
- from 8 October 1912 to 30 May 1913First Balkan War
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 18th century.