Editing Underground Railroad (section)

====Traveling conditions====

[[File:4271695318-marymeachum.jpg|thumb|Mary Meachum was an Underground Railroad agent in St. Louis, Missouri]]

Although the freedom seekers sometimes traveled on boat or train,<ref>Bordewich, Fergus, 2005, p. 236</ref> they usually traveled on foot or by wagon, sometimes lying down, covered with hay or similar products, in groups of one to three escapees. Some groups were considerably larger. Abolitionist [[Charles Turner Torrey]] and his colleagues rented horses and wagons and often transported as many as 15 or 20 people at a time.<ref>{{cite book| last=Torrey| first=E. Fuller| author-link=E. Fuller Torrey|title=The Martyrdom of Abolitionist Charles Torrey| year=2013| publisher=Louisiana State University Press| location=Baton Rouge}}</ref> Free and enslaved black men occupied as mariners (sailors) helped enslaved people escape from slavery by providing a ride on their ship, providing information on the safest and best escape routes, and safe locations on land, and locations of trusted people for assistance. Enslaved African-American mariners had information about slave revolts occurring in the Caribbean, and relayed this news to enslaved people they had contact with in American ports. Free and enslaved African-American mariners assisted [[Harriet Tubman]] in her rescue missions. Black mariners provided to her information about the best escape routes and helped her on her rescue missions. In [[New Bedford, Massachusetts]], freedom seekers stowed away on ships leaving the docks with the assistance of Black and white crewmembers and hid in the ships' cargoes during their journey to freedom.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Underground Railroad: New Bedford Massachusetts |url=https://npshistory.com/publications/nebe/brochures/underground-railroad2.pdf |website=The National Park Service |access-date=13 September 2024}}</ref>

Enslaved people living near rivers escaped on boats and canoes. In 1855, [[John Berry Meachum|Mary Meachum]], a free Black woman, attempted to help eight or nine slaves escape from slavery on the [[Mississippi River]] near St. Louis, Missouri to the free state of Illinois. To assist with the escape were white antislavery activists and an African American guide from Illinois named "Freeman." However, the escape was not successful because word of the escape reached police agents and slave catchers who waited across the river on the Illinois shore. Breckenridge, Burrows and Meachum were arrested. Prior to this escape attempt, Mary Meachum and her husband John, a former slave, were agents on the Underground Railroad and helped other slaves escape from slavery crossing the Mississippi River.<ref>{{cite web |title=Slave Stampedes on the Southern Borderlands |url=https://housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/stampedes/meachum-1855/ |website=National Park Service Network to Freedom |date=June 20, 2019 |publisher=Dickson College |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Underground Railroad Handbook.jpg|thumb|Enslaved people living near rivers and the [[Chesapeake Bay]] escaped from slavery using canoes and boats.]]

Routes were often purposely indirect to confuse pursuers. Most escapes were by individuals or small groups; occasionally, there were mass escapes, such as with the [[Pearl incident|''Pearl'' incident]]. The journey was often considered particularly difficult and dangerous for women or children. Children were sometimes hard to keep quiet or were unable to keep up with a group. In addition, enslaved women were rarely allowed to leave the plantation, making it harder for them to escape in the same ways that men could.<ref>{{cite journal| last1=Blackett| first1=Richard| s2cid=154049844| title=The Underground Railroad and the Struggle Against Slavery| journal=History Workshop Journal| date=October 2014| volume=78| issue=1| page=279| doi=10.1093/hwj/dbu012}}</ref> Although escaping was harder for women, some women were successful. One of the most famous and successful conductors (people who secretly traveled into slave states to rescue those seeking freedom) was [[Harriet Tubman]], a woman who escaped slavery.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0120/p19s02-bogn.html |title=The most famous abductor on the Underground Railroad |last=Wellington |first=Darryl Lorenzo |date=January 20, 2004 |work=Christian Science Monitor |access-date=January 9, 2012 |archive-date=September 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180907110326/https://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0120/p19s02-bogn.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/underground-railroad|title=Underground Railroad – Black History |website=history.com|access-date=August 1, 2017|archive-date=December 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215130905/https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/underground-railroad|url-status=live}}</ref>

Due to the risk of discovery, information about routes and safe havens was passed along by word of mouth, although in 1896 there is a reference to a numerical code used to encrypt messages. Southern newspapers of the day were often filled with pages of notices soliciting information about fugitive slaves and offering sizable rewards for their capture and return. [[United States Marshals Service#History|Federal marshals]] and professional [[bounty hunter]]s known as [[slave catcher]]s pursued freedom seekers as far as the [[Canada–United States border|Canada–U.S. border]].{{sfn|Potter|1976|p=133}}

[[Fugitive slaves in the United States|Freedom seekers]] (runaway slaves) foraged, fished, and hunted for food on their journey to freedom on the Underground Railroad. With these ingredients, they prepared one-pot meals (stews), a West African cooking method. Enslaved and free Black people left food outside their front doors to provide nourishment to the freedom seekers. The meals created on the Underground Railroad became a part of the foodways of Black Americans called [[soul food]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Soul Food Got Its Start From Freedom Seekers Surviving Off The Land |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/soul-food-freedom-seekers-surviving-off-the-land/ |access-date=20 June 2024 |agency=CBS News |date=2022}}</ref>