The Underground Railroad during the Civil War (1861-1865)
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2021-12-01T18:28:03+00:00
By 1860, the Underground Railroad was running at full steam. It had been officially started in 1804 but was active as early as 1775. In the early years of the railroad, most slaves settled in northern cities that had free black populations who looked after them once they were free. But as fugitive slave laws were tightened in the 1850s, many slaves chose to move further north to Canada. Slaves also sought refuge in Mexico and Haiti.
By far the most favorable destinations, however, were northern cities like Boston, New York, and Cleveland. During the confusion of the Civil War, over 100,000 slaves found their way to freedom on the Underground Railroad. For example, the four border states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware lost well over half of their slaves by the war's end. Southern states in the Con federacy also suffered increasing losses in the number of slaves who ran away as the Union Army advanced.
As Union troops neared plantations, slaves fled to their positions. Initially, these slaves were returned or held in contraband camps, but by 1863 both practices were abandoned and many runaway slaves began forming towns such as James City near New Bern, North Carolina. Other slaves continued to flee north with the help of conductors of the Underground Railroad such as Harriet Tubman, who made a number of trips into the Confederacy and guided slaves and their families to free states in the North. The Underground Railroad operated until the end of the Civil War in 1865 and over its life helped free hundreds of slaves.
