Underground Railroad
These were the code names for the hiding places—such as houses, churches, or schools—where enslaved people stayed while escaping.
What are stations (safe houses)?
These state laws were designed to control the daily lives of enslaved people and prevent rebellions.
What are slave codes?
This group of people, primarily in the North, believed slavery was un-Christian and were the first to help form the abolitionist movement.
Who are the Quakers?
To avoid being caught during the day, enslaved people on the Underground Railroad typically traveled at this time.
What is at night?
Most enslaved people worked long days, typically lasting this many hours, from sunup to sundown.
What is 14 hours?
This term describes the people who guided enslaved passengers along the secret routes to freedom.
Who are conductors?
Passed in 1850, this federal law required runaway enslaved people found in free states to be returned to their southern owners.
What is the Fugitive Slave Act?
These men were paid money to track down escaped enslaved people and return them to the South for rewards.
Who are slave hunters?
While most routes led north, some enslaved people in the Deep South escaped to these two southern locations.
What is Mexico and Florida?
Enslaved children were generally considered ready for full-time fieldwork by this age.
What is age 10?
Escaped enslaved people often used this biblical name to refer to the Ohio or Mississippi Rivers.
What is the River Jordan?
Under the 1850 law, law enforcement officials were fined this amount if they did not arrest a suspected runaway.
What is $1,000?
In 1849, a man named Henry Brown famously escaped by having himself shipped to Philadelphia inside one of these.
What is a storage crate or wooden box?
To stay hidden from slave hunters, fugitives sometimes used these to change their appearance.
What are disguises?
When rented out to other masters, enslaved people were required to wear these for identification.
What are identification tags?
Enslaved people frequently called this northern destination the "Promised Land" because they would be safe there from capture.
What is Canada?
To prevent escape, many southern states passed laws making it illegal to teach enslaved people these two skills.
What is reading and writing?
Slavery was legally protected and defended because slaveholders ran these three important offices in the federal government.
What are the White House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court?
This famous station in Indiana, owned by Levi Coffin, was so successful that a slave hunter called Coffin the "President" of the Underground Railroad.
What is the Levi Coffin House?
On plantations, this method of punishment was a constant presence if the overseers felt the enslaved were not working hard enough.
What is a whip?
What is whipping?
This formerly enslaved woman became a famous conductor, escaping herself and then returning to help many others find freedom.
Who is Harriet Tubman?
These special officials were paid $10 for sending a person back to slavery but only $5 for freeing them, creating a "legal form of bribery."
Who are special commissioners?
This African American man and his family escaped from slavery. He later wrote about the poor housing conditions they were forced to live in.
Who is Josiah Henson?
These were the three main ways—besides walking—that Henry "Box" Brown traveled during his 27-hour journey to Philadelphia.
What are a train, a boat, and a wagon?
These restraints were often used to punish enslaved workers, specifically those who attempted to run away.
What are heavy iron leg shackles or chains?