underground railroad

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The Pre-American Civil War anti-slavery resistance movement dedicated to assisting escaped slaves in reaching safe territory
a group of people in the US who illegally helped slaves to become free by helping them to escape to the northern US and Canada, in the period before the Civil War. One of its best-known members was Harriet Tubman. Secret system in northern U.S. states to help escaping slaves. Its name derived from the need for secrecy and the railway terms used in the conduct of the system. Various routes in 14 states, called lines, provided safe stopping places (stations) for the leaders (conductors) and their charges (packages) while fleeing north, sometimes to Canada. The system developed in defiance of the Fugitive Slave Acts and was active mainly from 1830 to 1860. An estimated 40,000 to 100,000 slaves used the network. Assistance was provided mainly by free blacks, including Harriet Tubman, and philanthropists, church leaders, and abolitionists. Its existence aroused support for the antislavery cause and convinced Southerners that the North would never allow slavery to remain unchallenged
secret system of escape routes used by slaves to reach the free states in the North (before the American Civil War)
abolitionists secret aid to escaping slaves; pre-Civil War in US
underground railroad