Slaves were being bought and sold in the United States The government was letting it happen People were taken from Africa They were forced to work on plantations in the South Many people thought this was wrong Abolitionists were against slavery They wanted to free the slaves Slaves escaped They ran away from the slave states in the South They ran to the free states in the North They ran to Canada Some ran to Mexico The Underground Railroad helped fugitive slaves It was a secret system It had safe houses It had hiding places It had secret roads It was formed in the late 1700s It was most popular around the 1850s 4 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
FLASH FACT During the Civil War the Mason-Dixon line was the border between Southern and Northern states Vocabulary slaves SLAYVZ people who are stolen from their homes and forced to do work plantations plan-TAY-shuhnz big farms abolitionists ab-uh-LISH-uh-nists people who fought against slavery slave states SLAYV STAYTS states that allowed slavery free states FREE STAYTS states that did not allow slavery fugitive FYOO-jih-tiv runaway system SIS-tuhm organizational plan safe houses SAYF HOUS-iz houses that provide protection 5
FLASH FACT Fugitive slaves faced many hardships Vocabulary codes KOHDZ messages in a secret language conductors kuhn-DUHKT-urz people who act as guides agents AY-juhnts people who help others stations STAY-shuhnz buildings where passengers come and go passengers PAS-uhn-jurz people who travel 6
People passed notes to the slaves They sent secret codes They did this in songs They did this by marking trees They helped guide slaves from place to place They were called conductors Some people were agents They made clothes They collected money They taught slaves to read and write The safe houses were called stations Slaves were called passengers The Underground Railroad was dangerous business Helping slaves was against the law When caught people were punished It was especially risky for fugitive slaves Slaves could get killed For many freedom was worth it The Underground Railroad saved over 100,000 slaves 7
