A Journey to Freedom

Rena Davis

Professor Samuel Moki

Introduction to African American Studies

13 February 2015

A Journey To Freedom

Imagine, sitting at home at the dinning room table with your spouse and kids enjoying dinner and talking about your day. Suddenly, within seconds it seems, that your world comes crashing down as your family is ripped from you so brutally. You are forced from your home, your country and brought to a new world. You undergo years of torture and dehumanizing acts of violence in support of another’s wealth and prosperity. You form new bonds only for it too to be ripped from your arms. What would you do to be free?

For approximately 75,000 African Americans the price for freedom, though high, was well worth the risk. When the knowledge of freedom for African Americans in the North and Canada reached the South hope was once again renewed that one-day they too could be free if only they could make their way to North. In this need the Underground Railroad was born to guide southern slaves to the northern states.

The Underground Railroad, though not an actual railroad, was a system created to guide slaves to freedom. With the use of railroad terminology and moving under the cloak of night the name was born. The guides, known as conductors, were former slaves or white abolitionists that wanted to help those trapped in the torment of the South migrate to the North. The most notable conductor, Harriet Tubman, born a slave, was a member of the free black community. The free black community aided with abolitionists like Quaker Thomas Garrett actively assisted slaves in their escapes to freedom.

The journey to freedom was not an easy one but it was a journey worth embarking upon. Making their journey on foot, these African Americans faced many hardships traveling with limited food, minimal access to shelter or medical care, and constantly looking over their shoulders for slave catchers, sheriffs, as well as civilian lynch mobs. Slave owners would post...