The Many Myths of Slaves and the Underground Railroads — Transcript

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1. 0:04here's what most of us have heard about
2. 0:06the Underground Railroad in the mid 19th
3. 0:09century it's a highly organized
4. 0:11well-oiled machine a covert network of
5. 0:13roots snaking all over the South into
6. 0:16the north the railroad's masterminds are
7. 0:19white abolitionists who out Fox slave
8. 0:22patrols with a cloak and dagger Maze of
9. 0:24lantern lit tunnels hidden compartments
10. 0:27and secret passageways once the Runway
11. 0:30slaves reach a Northern State their
12. 0:32worries are
13. 0:34over and by the time the Civil War
14. 0:36flares up in 1861 more than 100,000
15. 0:40African-Americans have punched their
16. 0:42ticket to
17. 0:46freedom the truth has seceded from that
18. 0:49recap starting with the idea that the
19. 0:51Underground Railroad is a unified
20. 0:53national network it's not this seamless
21. 0:57Network where you're being handed off
22. 0:59from Station to station and you go
23. 1:01effortlessly from the south to the north
24. 1:04that is not the case we should think of
25. 1:06many
26. 1:08networks and we should think of many
27. 1:10methods of
28. 1:11escape the Underground Railroad has no
29. 1:14Central organization it's made up of
30. 1:17local anti-slavery groups that work for
31. 1:19a common purpose but don't coordinate
32. 1:22their efforts it's just sort of Word of
33. 1:24Mouth networks that this place would be
34. 1:27okay to stop or this person sympathetic
35. 1:29to our problem half the people who are
36. 1:30involved in it they don't know each
37. 1:32other at all they're just all willing to
38. 1:34help and all these courageous helpful
39. 1:36volunteers are scattered across
40. 1:38slavery's Heartland the American
41. 1:42South it's just the opposite the
42. 1:45Underground Railroad only operates in
43. 1:47the north slaves who try to escape in
44. 1:49the South are entirely on their
45. 1:53own they Brave a perilous Journey
46. 1:56Through The Heart of Dixie during which
47. 1:58many are caught returned and punished
48. 2:01only the lucky few make it all the way
49. 2:03to the Northern
50. 2:05Territory and even with the help of the
51. 2:08Underground Railroad in the north
52. 2:10runaway slaves are still far from
53. 2:14safe if you get to the northern states
54. 2:17even though slavery is outlawed there's
55. 2:19a Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 which says
56. 2:21that any person who looks like a slave
57. 2:24or who has a slave that's captured has
58. 2:26to be sent back the Fugitive Slave Law
59. 2:28deputizes all of
60. 2:30America and says it is your obligation
61. 2:34as a citizen to help bring people and
62. 2:38deliver them back into slavery you have
63. 2:40no choice and so being recaptured and
64. 2:43taken back into slavery is always a
65. 2:46threat that's why the final destination
66. 2:48for most fugitive slaves is across the
67. 2:50border into Canada where slavery has
68. 2:53been illegal since 1833 and they
69. 2:55navigate their way there through the
70. 2:57underground railroad's amazing variety
71. 2:59of secret tunnels and
72. 3:02passageways the Underground Railroad
73. 3:04wasn't full of tunnels and secret hiding
74. 3:07places where slaves stayed mostly it was
75. 3:10people trying to figure out a place they
76. 3:12could stay for the night and then a
77. 3:13route to get to the next
78. 3:15place so you might put somebody up in
79. 3:17your
80. 3:18barn simple strategies like that help
81. 3:21keep fugitive slaves one step ahead of
82. 3:24the northern bounty hunters always on
83. 3:26the lookout for Runaways