Editing Underground Railroad (section)

====Assistance====
Some journeyed on their own without assistance, and others were helped by people along the southern Underground Railroad.{{sfn|Little|2021}} Assistance included guidance, directions, shelter, and supplies.{{sfn|Bird|2021}}

Black people, black and white couples, and anti-slavery German immigrants provided support, but most of the help came from Mexican laborers.{{sfn|Bird|2021}}{{sfn|Contreras|2020b}} So much so that enslavers came to distrust any Mexican, and a law was enacted in Texas that forbade Mexicans from talking to enslaved people.{{sfn|Burnett|2021}} Mexican migrant workers developed relationships with enslaved black workers whom they worked with. They offered guidance, such as what it would be like to cross the border, and empathy. Having realized the ways in which Mexicans were helping enslaved people to escape, slaveholders and residents of Texan towns pushed people out of the town, whipped them in public, or lynched them.{{sfn|Bird|2021}}{{sfn|Contreras|2020b}}

Some border officials helped enslaved people crossing into Mexico. In [[Monclova]], [[Mexico]] a border official took up a collection in the town for a family in need of food, clothing, and money to continue on their journey south and out of reach of slave hunters.<ref name="Leanos" /> Once they crossed the border, some Mexican authorities helped former enslaved people from being returned to the United States by slave hunters.{{sfn|Burnett|2021}}

Freedom seekers that were taken on ferries to Mexican ports were aided by Mexican ship captains, one of whom was caught in Louisiana and indicted for helping enslaved people escape.{{sfn|Crable|2021}}

Knowing the repercussions of running away or being caught helping someone runaway, people were careful to cover their tracks, and public and personal records about fugitive slaves are scarce. In greater supply are records by people who promoted slavery or attempted to catch fugitive slaves. More than 2,500 escapes are documented by the Texas Runaway Slave Project at [[Stephen F. Austin State University]].{{sfn|Bird|2021}}