Runaways And The Abolition Movement: The Underground Railroad

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the work created by courageous agents such as
David Ruggles, Calvin Fairbank, Josiah Henson, and Erastus Hussey. The
identity of others that also contributed to this effort will never be fully
recognized. Though scholars estimate that Underground Railroad conductors
assisted thousands of refugees, the total number of runaways whom they
aided to freedom will never be known simply because of the movement's
secrecy. Conductors usually did not attempt to record these figures, and
those who did only calculated the number of runaways whom they personally
helped. Moreover, these estimations should consider that some runaways
never took part in the underground system and therefore used other creative
methods to attain liberty. The shortage of evidence indicates that scholars
probably will never fully learn the real significance of the Underground
Railroad. Indeed, the few journals that have survived over the years
suggest that the true heroes of the underground were not the ...

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Muscogee who provided them protection. Eventually
this group of peoples became known as the "Seminoles" (a Native American
word meaning runaway). Hundreds of African refugees from the Carolinas and
Georgia customarily sought asylum with the Seminoles and freed African
communities such as the Garcia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (Fort Mose) and
the Negro Fort (Fort Gadsden). According to historian John Blassingame, "by
1836 there were more than 1,200 maroons living in Seminole towns"
(Buckmaster 1992: 18; Thompson 1987: 284-85; Gara 1961: 28-29; Preston
1933: 150; Deagan 1991: 5; Blassingame 1979: 211).
In the British North America and later the United States,
antislavery sentiment ...

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