Henry "box" Brown

Henry "Box" Brown was born in 1815 in Louisa County, VA. While living on a plantation at the time of his enslavement, he married a fellow slave, as well as had a baby girl.  In 1849 the three of them were sold to a owner in NC.  While living in NC, he decided to make a daring escape for freedom.  His plan was to mail himself in a box with the help of a tobacconist.  He was put into a box and shipped to Philadelphia.  In Philadelphia a man named James McKim received a package containing Henry.  Was was deemed one of the most daring escapes in the Antebellum era.

Codes of the Underground Railroad

• Stations = Homes and businesses where slaves could rest and eat
• Stationmasters = Those that ran the stations
• Stockholders = Contributors of money to the “Underground Railroad”
• Conductor = In charge of moving slaves safely from one place to another

These codes were needed to keep the Underground Railroad a secret and insure the safety of freed slaves.  It was very high risk on both sides.  The Stationmasters had to keep a low profile, because if caught they would be killed or hurt. And if the slaves were caught, they would be forced back into slavery.

The Underground Railroad Pennsylvania

The Underground Railroad was not actually a railroad or under ground/  In fact is was homes, institutions, and routes the slaves traveled to freedom.  Pennsylvania being the first free state north of the Mason-Dixon line provided a lot of points to freedom.  The trail goes through other northern counties like reading, PA.  Which in itself had a very important role in the Underground Railroad.  Reading had stations where slaves should stop, and be ushered further north .  I think it is so cool to live  in a state that plan a major role in history.  I wish i could spend a back and see how everything was done, and how the Underground Railroad operated.

Negative cultural impact from the slave trade

The slave trade had a huge negative impact on African-American families.  The trauma of loosing family members, removing members from the social framework that depended on them for living.  The stress that it put upon others is unreal.  Psychological disorders that came from this is off the charts.  The people that for taken and put into the slave trade had roles in the community had had an impact on others.  If you remove a man who is well known for trading.  Who are you going to trade with now that he was taken. It is sad that this had to happen.  I'm grateful that today we do not live in a society that excepts slave trade.

The Hiding Spaces

Conductors had to become very creative with hiding runaway slaves, especially in their own homes. If they were caught, they would be punished, along with all of the runaway slaves.

Here is one example of a hiding space, it was located in Reverend Alexander Dobblin's home in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In 1810, he created sliding shelves that doubled as a hiding space for slaves in the crawl space behind them.

Floor boards, secret rooms, behind cupboards, and barns hid fugitives as they awaited transportation to the next town. Wagons with hidden compartments underneath hay or produce transported slaves. These hiding spaces were temporary and usually very cramped and uncomfortable. Below are examples of a wagon with a hidden compartment and a house in Cincinnati, which had a secret room under the floor. 

-Emily

The meaning of the song "I've been working on the railroad"

I've been working on the railroad
All the livelong day
I've been working on the railroad
Just to pass the time away

Can't you hear the whistle blowing
Rise up so early in the morn
Can't you hear the captain shouting
Dinah, blow your horn

Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow your horn
Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow your horn

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
Someone's in the kitchen I know
Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
Strumming on the old banjo, and singing

Fie, fi, fiddly i o
Fie, fi, fiddly i o
Fie, fi, fiddly i o
Strumming on the old banjo

Some people believe that this song was created by African-Americans who were working on the railroad at the time.  Often, the workers or slaves would sing a song to pass the time.  There are a lot of different opinions about this song and where it came from.  I believe in my own opinion that it was made while working on the rail road. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkQQbRqLoCI

Quilt Codes

      The African Americans found other resourceful ways to convey codes to other slaves and runaways as well. This was done through what is called a "quilt code". A "quilt code" is various geometric patterns commonly found in American patchwork quilts. These were used to convey messages in connection with the Underground Railroad.
     But even among Code proponents, the patterns’ meanings, how the quilts were used, and who used them is a matter of debate: as of mid-2005 at least 15 contradictory versions of the Code were circulating. Some proponents claim the Code as part of their family oral history, but none can point to an ancestor who used it to escape to the North or even participated in the Underground Railroad.

The link below is to a website that explains what each block on the quilt meant.

http://home2.fvcc.edu/~cgreig/final/blocks.html

-Emily

Music_Hidden Messages

Music was not just a cultural aspect for the African American slaves. Music was also used to covey secret messages to other runaways about the Underground Railroad. Songs such as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"  and "Go Down Moses" contained secret messages detailing escape routes for runaways. Another popular song was "Follow the Drinking Gourd" which referred to following the Big Dipper.  Again this song was also a description for escaping. These songs were also used to boost the morale of the slaves and give them hope. It was also a way to make more slaves aware of passages to escape. The messages were passed around through singing, in which the slave keepers would not know they were telling others how to escape. To anyone who was not a conductor or runaway, the songs simply seemed like songs. Below are listed two slave songs that helped guide runaways to escape, "Follow the Drinking Gourd" and "Wade in the Water." 




"Follow The Drinking Gourd"
(song lyrics)

The riverbank makes a very good road
The dead trees show you the way
Left foot, peg foot, traveling on
Follow the drinking gourd

When the sun comes back and the first quail calls
Follow the drinking gourd
For the old man is waiting to carry you to freedom
If you follow the drinking gourd



"Wade in the Water"

(song lyrics)


Chorus: Wade in the Water, wade in the water children.
Wade in the Water. God's gonna trouble the water.

Who are those children all dressed in Red?
God's gonna trouble the water.
Must be the ones that Moses led.
God's gonna trouble the water.

Chorus.

Who are those children all dressed in White?
God's gonna trouble the water.
Must be the ones of the Israelites.
God's gonna trouble the water.

Chorus.

Who are those children all dressed in Blue?
God's gonna trouble the water.
Must be the ones that made it through.
God's gonna trouble the water.
Chorus.











Harriet Tubman used the songs for other messages as well. Sometimes, she would have to leave a group that she was leading to get food or other resources. She would tell them to hide and wait for her signal. If she came back and sang one song two times, they would know it was safe to come out of hiding.


_Emily

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass is a well known American American, and famous abolitionists, Frederick was born in 1818 as Frederick.  After the death of his mother Augustus Washington Bailey..  Frederick moved in with his aunt and grandparents in Maryland. Frederick only saw his mother a handful of times before she passed.  He was sent off to Baltimore, to work for the shipwright Hugh Auld in 1825. He stayed for seven years, and during this time he learned how to read. Down the road he said "Going to live at Baltimore, laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity."
 In 1832 he was sent back to the country, and a bad man named "Slavebreaker" was now in control. This hurt Frederick a lot, he even said.  I was "broken in body, soul, and spirit."  Even through all this hardship and pain, Frederick planed an escape.  On Sept. 3rd he did so.  He landed in New Bedford, MA, and met a man by the name of will Lloyd Garrison, also an abolitionist. Garrison lead Frederick to speak at an Anti-Slavery meeting in MA, and after hearing his story, Frederick became the new spokesman for the next three years.
Frederick moved to Rochester, NY in 1848 and was the founder of the paper "The North Star"  Frederick helped promote the rights of African-Americans and women.

Harriet Tubman

   

    Harriet Tubman (1820-1913) is one of the most famous Conductors of the Underground Railroad. She was an American bondwoman who escaped from slavery in the South. Tubman became a leading abolitionist before the American Civil War. She was born a slave in 1820, Harriet successfully escaped in 1849. Many of her family members had not escaped, she returned many times to that plantation to help her family and many other slaves escape. This was a large risk, but she was willing to help the others at all costs. Because Harriet Tubman was born in Maryland and that was where where her family was, that was the target area of slaves she herself helped. Through her help as a conductor, about half of the African-American people on the eastern shore of Maryland were free. She was an inspiration to many of the slaves and free blacks as well. Tubman also inspired other conductors to join the cause, which helped expand the Railroad itself.  

       Tubman was also well known for her help in the Civil War. She joined the Union army as a cook and nurse. She was an armed scout and spy as well. Harriet Tubman was the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war. She guided the Combahee River Raid. This liberated more than 700 slaves in South Carolina.

-Emily

Dairy page

The life of a slave or even runaway was awful. You were treated poorly as a slave, but you were treated just as bad free. Being black you did not have many freedoms. For the people who believed that the blacks deserved the freedom and rights that the whites did, their life was rough as well. Some people were just as desperate to help the slaves, as the slaves were to escape. The Underground Railroad "conductors" were risking everything to help these slaves, they risked being caught and punished by the authories as well as their fellow neighbors. It was a very risky business. I found a link which contains dairy pages of a fugitive slaves' story. These stories are so important to our history, we get to see a personal account of the life these people were living. Nothing is covered up, you learn the ups, the downs, how these people were able to survive. These journal entries date back to June 1855, just five years after the Fugitive Slave Act. The Fugitive Slave Act made it illegal for anyone to help or harbor escaping slaves. This diary would have put the conductor at risk, if he was caught.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/09/10/william_still_his_diary_recorded_details_of_slaves_escaping_on_the_underground.html



_Emily

Underground Railroad Activity

The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses that were used by 19th century slaves who escaped to free states. The people who aided runaway slaves were known as abolitionists, both black and white, free and enslaved. It is estimated that by 1850, 100,000 slaves had escaped due to the Underground Railroad.


The link below is a game by National Geographic, the game allows you to be a slave and make your own decisions to see how long you could have survived as a slave.

"You are a slave. You belong to a farmer who owns a tobacco plantation on the eastern shore of Maryland. Six long days a week you tend his field. But not for much longer . . . What will you do? Make your choices well as you embark on your journey to freedom."


http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/media/underground-railroad-journey-freedom/?ar_a=1


_Emily