The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad - the UGRR - started in the 1820s as a loose and secretive association of abolitionists dedicated to smuggling slaves from the southern states of America to Canada. By the 1840s, the UGRR had become a well-organized network of routes and safe houses, but its real importance lay not so much in the number of slaves rescued - the total was small - but rather in the psychological effect it had on those involved in the smuggling. The movement of a single runaway might involve hundreds of people, if only in the knowledge that a neighbour was breaking the law. To the extent that white Americans could be persuaded to accept even the most minor role in the Railroad, the inclination to compromise with institutional slavery was undermined, though the psychology of racism remained intact: like Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom, the freed negroes were supposed to be humble and grateful, simulating childlike responses to please their white parent-protectors.
Your Tip for Uncle Toms Cabin
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Uncle Toms Cabin - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Uncle Toms Cabin - visit the main Uncle Toms Cabin forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Uncle Toms Cabin webguide section below! Thanks.
| 
