Underground Railroad

Traces the failed 1848 escape attempt of more than seventy slaves, an event that galvanized the debate over slavery in Congress, in an account that focuses on the freedom quest of teenage sisters Mary and Emily Edmonson.

The Underground Railroad was the passage to freedom for many slaves, but it was rife with dangers. While there were dedicated conductors and safe houses, there were also arduous nights in the mountains and days in threatening towns. For those who made it to Midnight, the code name given to Detroit, the Detroit River became their Jordan. And Canada became their "land of Canaan," the Promised Land where they could live freely in various black settlements...

A biography of the fugitive slave turned "conductor" on the Underground Railroad describes Tubman's youth in the South, her escape to Philadelphia, her efforts to liberate slaves, and her work for the Union Army.

"The Road to Dawn tells the improbable story of Josiah Henson, a slave who spent forty-two years in pre-Civil War bondage in the American South and eventually escaped with his wife and four young children, travelling 600 miles and eventually settling with his family as a free man across the border in Canada. Once there, Henson rescued 118 more slaves and purchased land to build what would become one of the final stops on the Underground Railroad,...

Follow two abolitionists who fought one of the most shockingly persistent evils of the world: human trafficking and sexual exploitation of slaves. Told in alternating chapters from perspectives spanning more than a century apart, read the riveting 19th century first-hand account of Harriet Jacobs and the modern-day eyewitness account of Timothy Ballard.

"A riveting collection of the hardships, hairbreadth escapes, and mortal struggles of enslaved people seeking freedom: These are the true stories of the Underground Railroad. Featuring a powerful introduction by Ta-Nehisi Coates As a conductor for the Underground Railroad -- the covert resistance network created to aid and protect slaves seeking freedom -- William Still helped as many as eight hundred people escape enslavement. He also meticulously...

Enslaved Virginians sought freedom from the time they were first brought to the Jamestown colony in 1619. Acts of self-emancipation were aided by Virginia's waterways, which became part of the network of the Underground Railroad in the years before the Civil War. Watermen willing to help escaped slaves made eighteenth-century Norfolk a haven for freedom seekers. Famous nineteenth-century escapees like Shadrack Minkins and Henry "Box" Brown were aided...