Underground Railroad
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses which African slaves in the 19th century United States used to escape to free states, or as far north as Canada, with the aid of abolitionists. Other routes led to Mexico or overseas. At its height between 1810 and 1850, an estimated 30,000 to 100,000 people escaped enslavement via the Underground Railroad, though census figures only account for 6,000. The Underground Railroad has captured public imagination as a symbol of freedom, and it figures prominently in African-American history.[1] [May 2007]
