Editing Underground Railroad (section)

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{{Further|Quakers in the abolition movement}}
[[File:Harriet Tubman.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Harriet Tubman]] (photo H. B. Lindsley), {{circa|1870}}. A worker on the Underground Railroad, Tubman made 13 trips to the South, helping to free over 70 people. She led people to the northern free states and Canada. This helped Harriet Tubman gain the name "[[Moses]] of Her People".{{sfn|Clifford Larson|2004|loc=xvii}}]]
[[File:Levi coffin.JPG|thumb|right|200px|[[Quaker]] abolitionist [[Levi Coffin]] and his wife Catherine helped more than 2,000 enslaved people escape to freedom.]]

Despite the thoroughfare's name, the escape network was neither literally underground nor a railroad. (The first literal underground railroad did not exist [[London Underground|until 1863]].) According to [[John Rankin (abolitionist)|John Rankin]], "It was so called because they who took passage on it disappeared from public view as really as if they had gone into the ground. After the fugitive slaves entered a depot on that road no trace of them could be found. They were secretly passed from one depot to another until they arrived at a destination where they were able to remain free."<ref>{{cite book|title=The soldier, the battle, and the victory : being a brief account of the work of Rev. John Rankin in the anti-slavery cause|location=Cincinnati|publisher=Western Tract and Book Society|year=1870|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ASPC0002367700/page/n96 96]–97|url=https://archive.org/details/ASPC0002367700|first=Andrew|last=Ritchie}}</ref> It was known as a railroad, using rail terminology such as stations and conductors, because that was the transportation system in use at the time.<ref>Blight, David, 2004, p. 3.</ref>

The Underground Railroad did not have a headquarters or governing body, nor were there published guides, maps, pamphlets, or even newspaper articles. It consisted of meeting points, secret routes, transportation, and [[safe house]]s, all of them maintained by [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist sympathizers]] and communicated by [[word of mouth]], although there is also a report of a numeric code used to encrypt messages.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Grave of Old John Brown's Son. It Lies Above the San Gabriel Valley and Overlooks Pasadena. Owen and Jason Brown Lived in the Mountains and Were Guides to Tourists. Uncle James Townsend, a Venerable Quaker, Knew Them Both Well and Their Father|newspaper=[[San Francisco Call]]|date=21 Jun 1896|page=24|via=[[newspapers.com]]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5369067/james-townsend-john-brown/|first=Mary E.|last=Wright|access-date=September 24, 2021|archive-date=September 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925182112/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5369067/james-townsend-john-brown/|url-status=live}}</ref> Participants generally organized in small, independent groups; this helped to maintain secrecy. People escaping enslavement would move north along the route from one way station to the next. "Conductors" on the railroad came from various backgrounds and included [[free people of color|free-born blacks]], white abolitionists, the formerly enslaved (either escaped or [[manumission|manumitted]]), and Native Americans.<ref>{{cite news
|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.org/maps/undergroundrailroad/
|title=The Underground Railroad|date=November 16, 2011|work=National Geographic Society|access-date=August 1, 2017|language=en|archive-date=August 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801160322/https://www.nationalgeographic.org/maps/undergroundrailroad/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Miles|first=Tiya|date=Summer 2011|title=Of Waterways and Runaways: Reflections on the Great Lakes in Underground Railroad History|magazine=Michigan Quarterly Review|volume=L|issue=3|issn=1558-7266|hdl=2027/spo.act2080.0050.320}}</ref> Believing that slavery was "contrary to the ethics of Jesus", Christian congregations and clergy played a role, especially the [[Religious Society of Friends]] ([[Quakers]]), [[Congregational church|Congregationalists]], [[Wesleyan Methodist Church (United States)|Wesleyan Methodists]], and [[Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America|Reformed Presbyterians]], as well as the anti-slavery branches of [[Mainline Protestant|mainstream denominations]] which entered into [[schism]] over the issue, such as the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]] and the [[American Baptists|Baptists]].<ref>{{cite book |title=History of Salem Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan |date=1976 |publisher=Salem Area Historical Society |page=56 |language=English}}</ref> The role of free blacks was crucial; without it, there would have been almost no chance for fugitives from slavery to reach freedom safely.<ref>{{cite book| last=Pinsker| first=Matthew| title=Vigilance in Pennsylvania: Underground Railroad Activities in the Keystone State, 1837–1861| year=2000| publisher=PHMC| location=Lancaster}}</ref> The groups of underground railroad "agents" worked in organizations known as [[vigilance committee]]s.{{sfn|Foner|2015}}

[[Free Negro|Free Black]] communities in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York helped freedom seekers escape from slavery. [[Black church|Black Churches]] were stations on the Underground Railroad, and Black communities in the North hid freedom seekers in their churches and homes. Historian Cheryl Janifer Laroche explained in her book, ''Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad The Geography of Resistance'' that: "Blacks, enslaved and free, operated as the main actors in the central drama that was the Underground Railroad." Laroche further explained how some authors center white abolitionists and white people involved in the antislavery movement as the main factors for freedom seekers escapes and overlook the important role of free Black communities.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Laroche |first1=Cheryl J. |title=Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad The Geography of Resistance |date=2013 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252095894 |pages=1–3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d7gPBAAAQBAJ&q=free+blacks+underground+railroad}}</ref> In addition, author Diane Miller states: "Traditionally, historians have overlooked the agency of African Americans in their own quest for freedom by portraying the Underground Railroad as an organized effort by white religious groups, often Quakers, to aid 'helpless' slaves." Historian Larry Gara argues that many of the stories of the Underground Railroad belong in folklore and not history. The actions of real historical figures such as Harriet Tubman, [[Thomas Garrett]], and Levi Coffin are exaggerated, and Northern abolitionists who guided the enslaved to Canada are hailed as the heroes of the Underground Railroad. This narrative minimizes the intelligence and agency of enslaved Black people who liberated themselves, and implies that freedom seekers needed the help of Northerners to escape.<ref>{{cite web |last=Miller |first=Diane |title=The Underground Railroad in Bleeding Kansas |url=https://www.nps.gov/npgallery/GetAsset/5c8a5ce2-d40d-4a57-bbef-703aac0b479c |website=The National Park Service |access-date=16 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250304001224/https://www.nps.gov/npgallery/GetAsset/5c8a5ce2-d40d-4a57-bbef-703aac0b479c |archive-date=2025-03-04 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gara |first=Larry |title=The Liberty Line The Legend of the Underground Railroad |date=2013 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=9780813143569 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WK48TBgPW-EC&q=folklore}}</ref>