The Underground Railroad - A Reference Guide

Full of true stories more dramatic than any fiction, The Underground Railroad: A Reference Guide offers a fresh, revealing look at the efforts of hundreds of dedicated persons-white and black, men and women, from all walks of life-to help slave fugitives find freedom in the decades leading up to the Civil War. The Underground Railroad provides the richest portrayal yet of the first large scale act of interracial collaboration in the United States, mapping out the complex network of routes and safe stations that made escape from slavery in the American South possible. Kerry Walters'' stirring account ranges from the earliest acts of slave resistance and the rise of the Abolitionist movement, to the establishment of clandestine "liberty lines" through the eastern and then-western regions of the Union and ultimately to Canada. Separating fact from legend, Walters draws extensively on first-person accounts of those who made the Railroad work, those who tried to stop it, and those who made the treacherous journey to freedom-including Eliza Harris and Josiah Henson, the real-life "Eliza" and "Uncle Tom" from Harriet Beecher Stowe''s Uncle Tom''s Cabin .>

List of contents

Chronology of Events
Introduction The Underground Railroad: Legend and Reality
Chapter 1. Resisting Ol' Massa: Modes of Slave Defiance
Chapter 2. Following the Drinking Gourd: Fleeing Servitude
Chapter 3. Riding the Liberty Line: Underground Railroad Routes
Chapter 4. Laying the Track above Ground: Overt Defiance and Rescues
Chapter 5. Crossing into Canaan: The Underground Railroad's Canadian Terminus
Conclusion The End of the Line
Biographies: Personalities of the Underground Railroad
Appendix: Primary Documents of the Underground Railroad
Annotated Bibliography
Index

Product details

• Authors: Kerry Walters
• Publisher: Abc Clio Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 09.03.2012
• EAN: 9781598846478
• ISBN: 978-1-59884-647-8
• No. of pages: 240
• Series: Guides to Historic Events in A; Guides to Historic Events in America
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; USA, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Slavery, HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877), HISTORY / Military / United States, HISTORY / United States / 19th Century, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, United States of America, USA, History of the Americas, Slavery & abolition of slavery, Early modern warfare (including gunpowder warfare), Slavery and abolition of slavery, c 1860 to c 1869, Civil wars, American Civil War, HISTORY / Military / Early Modern Warfare (1500-1800)