Slavery
How to get out & inspiration to persevere
Instructions for FREEDOM
As a bonded darkie you are wondering, "how do I escape the bondage of this 'peculiar institution' here in the Black Belt (Deep South: from South Carolina & Georgia to the south west states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana) ?
Why you can't stay in the South
You want to stay here in the Black Belt of course, but that is not going to gain you any sweet freedom. There is no efficient or successful way to do so from the familiarity of the South.
Since slave revolts have such a low success rate.
Gabriel Prosser (1800) and Denmark Vesey's (1822) revolts brought about
suppression
retribution
through means of leaked information even though they both had a considerable amount of followers
Nat Turner (1831)
only actual slave insurrection in the South in the 1800s (killed 60 white men, children, & women)
over 100 blacks executed
instilled fear in whites of
slave conspiracies
renewed violence
- Therefore in order to GET freedom, you have to leave, and head towards it. You can escape to Canada (“Heaven”) for assured freedom or to north for “risky” freedom.
- It WILL be harder for you coming from the Deep South to escape. Since you will most likely not receive any help from the underground railroad until you reach a free northern state.
General Information
Leave the plantation in the middle of the night and avoid being caught by your overseer
Head northward to find the people and places of the underground railroad and avoid slave catchers and dogs along the way
how to determine north?
north star(big dipper and little dipper; tip of the little dipper and the brightest star)
birds flying north after winter
moss on trees (grows on the north side of tree trucks) = compass during day or cloudy nights
how to avoid slave catchers and dogs effectively?( if done right, no more flogging for you!!)
go through a stream to cover scent and make a place to hide until they pass or go the other way
pay attention to avoiding the traps and snares set
run at night
hide during day
take all possible food with you before you leave
fear and be aware of the sound of dogs
What is the Underground Railroad
secret aid to escaping slaves, provided by abolitionists in the years before the American Civil War
people who helped
Brave people helped slaves on Underground Railroad
provide shelter
money or transportation donated
few went into south to guide to freedom
most workers=
free blacks
escaped slaves
but help from white Northerners
Examples of people who assist the runaways on the railroad
Harriet Tubman
William Still
Frederick Douglass
Recommended Route
Escape Route-
Start: Deep South- Mobile, Alabama
Destination: Ontario, Canada → specifically Owen Sound, Ontario
Route
Mobile, Alabama
The Tensaw, Alabama, and Tombigbee rivers all flow into Mobile Bay
Fulton, Mississippi,
follow “The Trace Road”
Maysville, Kentucky
cross the Ohio River
Ripley, Ohio
Milford, Ohio
Xenia, Ohio
Erie, Pennsylvania
Hamburg, NY
Niagara Falls, Ontario
Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada