Escaping Slavery
Attempts to escape slavery had been happening since the late 1600s, but activity was highest between 1820 and 1860. Enslaved people, the vast majority African American, took an enormous risk trying to escape. They were afraid of being sold into the deep South because of excessive workloads and extreme physical abuse, and because they had no ties to the South. Many had been separated from their families; some had children taken away and sold.
There are no firm estimates of how many people escaped to the North, but some say it was a small percentage. Many were captured and returned to the South due to the Fugitive Slave Laws of 1793 and 1850, which allowed enslavers to go to the Northern states – or send slave hunters – to capture their property. News of the treatment of enslaved people became more widely known and the circulation of books such as Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Uncle Tom’s Cabin amplified that knowledge. More and more people began to support abolition, or ending slavery. Until slavery was finally abolished, the Underground Railroad offered a chance at freedom.
