The Benefits Of The Underground Railroad

Without some abolitionists who helped in running the Underground Railroad, many slaves might not have been able to gain their freedom. Many people didn't help on the Underground Railroad. According to the Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History, “The secretive nature of the operation makes it difficult to ascertain how many fugitive slaves used the Underground Railroad; the most common estimate is 100,000. Because of the great dangers faced in assisting slaves, no more than 3,000 people actually ran the Railroad, but the knowledge of its existence stirred Northern sympathy toward the plight of the slaves” (“Underground Railroad”). Many people rather were afraid to help so the few people who did were seen as extremely brave people. These people became instrumental to the work of the railroad. Additionally,
Economic History also states, “Code-named in railroad terminology for secrecy, the elements of the system consisted of various routes (lines), hiding places (stations), and assistants (conductors) who helped to transport escapees (packages or freight) along the way” (“underground railroad”). Although, the railroad eventually became well-known the secrecy was kept with help to all of the previous runaways who had developed the code terminology as they has been running away, and helped to keep the railroad a major secret. Many runaways became major abolitionists and would not stop helping slaves to escape until slavery had been brought to an end. The actions of abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass were instrumental to work on the Underground Railroad.
Primarily, Harriet Tubman was an extremely