Pictured later as free citizens living in Canada, Samuel and Jane Harper escaped through Kansas on a “train” of eleven “passengers” led by abolitionist “John Brown of Osawatomie”
Cover illustration: The North Star, “lady liberty”, and escape in the night are among the lore of the Underground Railroad. These symbolize heavenly guidance, nurture of freedom, and secret escape.
“Slavery is the next thing to hell. I have seen hundreds of escaped slaves, but i never saw one who was willing to go back and be a slave.” – Harriet Tubman
America’s economy was built on slavery as the millions of Africans chained aboard slave ships arrived in the New World. Of those who survived this travel at sea, an estimated seven million landed in the North American colonies.
By the 1790s, the rising value of cotton had made a national trade in slaves profitable. In 1860, four million people—fifteen percent of the country’s population—lived in slavery. Sold at auction with livestock, many had but one hope for freedom: escape by flight into Canada.
Slaves had always escaped, but by the 1830s, more organized escapes were aided by expanding free black communities, abolitionists in the northern United States, and prohibition of slavery in Canada and the Caribbean. This became a network of support called the Underground Railroad. Sustained by ideals of the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” and from the Bible, “remembering those in bonds as bound with them,” people both black and white established safe houses and routes to freedom.
So compelling was Harriet Tubman’s telling of experiences with slave catchers, reliance on prayer, use of songs as signals, and reaching safe houses that in the popular imagination, much of the Underground Railroad became associated with them and with her. Tubman never imagined that her name would tell the story of escape from slavery, of those who dedicated their lives to abolishing slavery, nor help exemplify freedoms of American life.
Leg irons bolted to ship hulls held slaves captive during months-long voyages. Captives and crew alike were sickened over vile living conditions and died.