How many runaway slaves

Many enslaved persons who were able chose escape, however. In Alabama and throughout the rest of the South, enslaved people did so for many reasons. Some tried to rejoin family members living on a nearby properties.

Others wanted to avoid the harsh working conditions in the fields during the growing season, while still others desired to escape cruel owners and brutal punishments. An overseer with a reputation for treating slaves harshly likely caused some slaves to seek freedom, if only for a few days away from the plantation. Of course, the main reason to flee was to escape the oppression of slavery itself. To assist their flight to freedom, some escapees hid on steamboats in the hope of reaching Mobile , where they might blend in with its community of free blacks and slaves living on their own as though free.

Others headed northward on steamboats to reach free territory and free states. The Alabama legislature, in an effort to curb this type of activity, passed an act in the Alabama Code of that penalized slave owners or masters of vessels who allowed slaves onboard without a pass. Other slaves seeking freedom relied upon canoes. Some runaways pretended to be free blacks, Native Americans, or whites. Escaped slaves possessing forged free papers ran the risk of being caught if their physical appearance did not match the description in the forged papers.

In one instance, an escaped slave encountered by authorities in Greene County in claimed to be a Native American; unable to convince authorities that he was free, he was arrested. In another example, a man named London Fenderson was incarcerated as a runaway slave in Mobile. His status as a slave could not be settled until a Mobile city court judge found evidence that Fenderson had in fact been a slave.

Runaway slaves who were caught typically were whipped and sometimes shackled. Some masters sold recovered runaway slaves who repeatedly defied their efforts at control. Kidnapping of enslaved workers was as much a problem for some owners as were individuals persuading slaves to leave their owners and go to a free state, an illegal act in Alabama.

In one instance, a man kidnapped about 60 slaves owned by the State Bank in Tuscaloosa County and took them to Florida, where they were forced to work on a plantation. After the trial, Burns was taken back to cruelty of the south which he thought he had escaped from.

While he was enduring his return to slavery, abolitionists were working to raise funds and within a year of his trial they had enough money to buy his freedom.

Accessed Frederick Douglass was another fugitive slave who escaped slavery. He escaped not on the Underground Railroad, but on a real train. He disguised himself as a sailor, but this was not enough. Luckily, the train conductor did not look closely at the papers, and Douglass gained his passage to freedom. Unfortunately, not all runaway slaves made it to freedom. But, many of those who did manage to escape went on to tell their stories of flight from slavery and to help other slaves not yet free.

He shipped himself in a three foot long by two and a half foot deep by two foot wide box, from Richmond, Virginia to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When he was removed from the box, he came out singing. Underground Railroad conductors were free individuals who helped fugitive slaves traveling along the Underground Railroad. Conductors helped runaway slaves by providing them with safe passage to and from stations.

They did this under the cover of darkness with slave catchers hot on their heels. Many times these stations would be located within their own homes and businesses. The act of harboring fugitive slaves put these conductors in grave danger; yet, they persisted because they believed in a cause greater than themselves, which was the freeing of thousands of enslaved human beings. These conductors were comprised of a diverse group of people. They included people of different races, occupations and income levels.

There were also former slaves who had escaped using the Underground Railroad and voluntarily returned to the lands of slavery, as conductors, to help free those still enslaved. If a conductor was caught helping free slaves they would be fined, imprisoned, branded, or even hanged. Jonathan Walker was a sea captain caught off the shore of Florida trying to transport fugitive slaves to freedom in the Bahamas.

Its branded palm shall prophesy, 'Salvation to the Slave! Harriet Tubman, perhaps the most well-known conductor of the Underground Railroad, helped hundreds of runaway slaves escape to freedom. She never lost one of them along the way. As a fugitive slave herself, she was helped along the Underground Railroad by another famous conductor…William Still. John parker is yet another former slave who escaped and ventured back into slave states to help free others.

He conducted one of the busiest sections of the Underground Railroad, transporting fugitive slaves across the Ohio River. His neighbor and fellow conductor, Reverend John Rankin, worked with him on the Underground Railroad.

Both of their homes served as Underground Railroad stations. Conductors of the Underground Railroad undoubtedly opposed slavery, and they were not alone. Abolitionists took action against slavery as well.

The organization created the Declaration of Anti-Slavery in which they gave reasons for the construction of the society and its goals.

The society distributed an annual almanac that included poems, drawings, essays and other abolitionist material. Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave who became a famous abolitionist. Why did some fugitives return willingly to their plantations? Enumerate the instances of courage, quick-thinking, aid, and luck that influenced the successful escapes.

What factors led to failed escapes? Why did some enslaved persons choose not to attempt an escape or a second escape? How do successful runaway slaves describe their lives in freedom before ?

What challenges remained? What acts and attitudes of slave resistance are represented in the runaway advertisements?

In the ads, how do the slaveholders exhibit a veiled respect for their runaway slaves? What attitudes toward slavery in general emanate from the slaveholders' ads for runaways? Why does Anthony Chase take the unusual step of writing a letter to explain his escape?

Why does he insist that his wife is innocent in his escape? Why do you think Jeremiah Hoffman send money to Chase's owner to compensate her for loss of property? Compare the narratives of John Little and his wife, especially on the details of their escape and on their lives as farmers in Canada.

What does each emphasize? Analyze the similarities and differences in their escapes, the audience for their published memories, and their attitudes toward life as free people. Why is the selection of a new name so important to William Wells Brown after his escape? Why does he choose "Wells Brown"? Why does he keep "William"? Compare the nineteenth- and twentieth-century narratives. Consider tone, audience, time span between enslavement and narrative, attitude toward their former slaveholders, and their judgment of their own lives as former slaves and later freemen.

Determine the range of attitudes toward running away voiced by the African Americans interviewed in the s.