Escaping Slavery 101
Tomas Reyes 4th Period
- Escape the plantation. This is the hardest step to do, and should be done with great caution. Try running away during the night, about an hour or two after everyone else is asleep to not get caught by the overseer, as this would result in a flogging.
- Next, you can do one of two things to start going the correct path. You can take note of where the sun sets, and then knowing that the sun sets in the west, go north from there. You can also find the north star is the night and head towards that.
- Your next job, however hard, is to escape the black belt by using the underground railroad.
- Find a river to help get slave dogs off of your scent, then using one of the routes labeled below. The safe houses along these paths will have one lit lantern on the porch, just go up to the house and say "I have a delivery for you", they will give you food, water, and a safe place to sleep.
- Make your way to the city of Columbus, Ohio, and then you can take a train to Cleveland. Then, talk to the port master there, and tell him you have a "delivery from down South", he will give you passage to Buffalo, New York
- You can then cross over the border and again, look for the one lit lantern, continuing North, until you reach Toronto.
- You will be safe in Toronto, and find the blacksmith, he can give you fake documents and a job. Good luck, and remember, don't rebel against the South like Denmark Vesey or Nat Turner, just keep your job in Toronto.
Map of Underground Railroad paths
March 1, 1834
“A Colored Female”
Liberator
Black Abolitionist Archives, Doc. No. 00765 Page 1
DEAR FRIENDS, − These monthly assemblies, I believe, are not confined to any par-
ticular class or sex: they are to improve the mental condition of all who feel disposed to participate in the knowledge of piety, truth and justice: and it is my sincere wish, that through the many exertions which have been made for our moral improvement, pride and prejudice may ere long cease. But it is with feelings of sorrow that I say things of this character too strongly exist among ourselves. With all the persecutions and difficulties which we have had to encounter, we are estranged one from another. Tell me, my friends, are these things to last much longer? Must I reluctantly say, that persecutions of a deeper dye will be the only means of blot- ting them from the page of memory? Heaven forbid! What heart has not already keenly felt the stings of our persecutors? Let me earnestly entreat of you all, when kneeling beside your couch at even, invoking blessings from our Supreme Benefactor, not to forget the slaves. The cruel manner in which they are chained, driven, and sold like beasts of the field, should ever excite in us feelings of sympathy. Yes, my friends, what tongue can express, what heart conceive their unceasing suffering? Often has my blood changed to icy chillness, my heart throbbed with sorrow and compassion, when reading or hearing of their extreme wretchedness; and I would exclaim within myself, ‘What can be done to relieve them?’ fear, nothing − nothing to close this scene of misery. Yet I will not despair. God is all-sufficient − his hand is ever ready to succor the weak and needy; and may the prayers of our zealous and ever dear advocates ascend like sweet incense to the throne of grace, and their labors diffuse light and knowledge throughout the world.