Harriet Tubman And The Underground Railroad

Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad I am sure everyone has heard about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad at least once in their life; most people have learned about it in elementary or middle school. When I first learned about it, I always thought it was an actual railroad that was underground. Eventually, I learned that that was not true; it was just a metaphor. “It was symbolically underground as the network’s clandestine activities were secret and illegal so they had to remain “underground” to help fugitive slaves stay out of sight,” (Harriet Tubman, 2017). There was also a lot of terminology they used that were related to railroads. The homes where the slaves would stay were called “stations,” the people who owned
She learned that the slaves should escape their masters on Saturdays for two reasons- one being that Sundays are usually their off days and won’t notice they are gone until Monday, and two being that the fliers about runaways would not be published until Monday as well. Another strategy of hers was always to travel at night and rest during the day, mostly because of the obvious reason, which is to not be seen as easily. Harriet always traveled in the fall and spring seasons because they had longer nights compared to Summer. She also always followed the North star to get to her destinations. Whenever it was a cloudy night, she would not give up; she just followed the moss growing on the North side of the dead tree trunks. In addition to having secret strategies, Harriet and the slaves also used secret code language to communicate with the Underground Railroad supporters that were trying to help them. Some of the main supporters of Harriet were Frederick Douglass, Lucretia Mott, William Lloyd Garrison, and Martha Coffin Wright. When Harriet would send letters to the supporters, they contained the secret code language just incase they landed into the wrong hands. They would also use the code language in songs as well because most of the slaves could not read or write. Within the songs, there were hidden messages that they could actually understand.
Her father was a free man, but her mother was not free. This trip was one of the most challenging ones because her parents were 70 years old at the time, so they could not walk long distances. Like all of her setbacks, Harriet did anything she could to overcome this one. She improvised and got a carriage to transport her mother and father to Canada. Upon their arrival, they settled in St. Catharines. Harriet Tubman moved to St. Catharines to take care of them, but ended up relocating to Auburn, New York because her mother did not appreciate the harsh winter weather of Ontario. Harriet Tubman’s last and final trip back to Maryland was to rescue her sister, Rachel and her two kids, only to find out that she passed away when she got there. Unable to find Rachel’s kids, Tubman was not going to go home alone. She ended up rescuing the Ennals