When did the underground-railroad start and end?

Answer 1

The Undeground Railroad actually has its beginnings in Africa when the Portugese captured their first slaves in the 1400s. It' s been estimated that around twelve million Africans were uprooted from their homeland and sold into a life of slavery between 1450 and 1850. From a multitude of conflict, wars, escapes, and resistance efforts, the Railroad supposedly ended around the mid 19th century, after the American Civil War.

In the United States, because of the secrecy of the Underground Railroad there are no written records or documents of any of the routes taken, who started this resistance and freedom effort, nor who took the escaped slaves into hiding on their route to Canada. Some people believe it started around 1837; others say it began much earlier. The Railroad ended when slavery was abolished after the Union defeated the Confederacy in the American Civil War in 1865.

Answer 2

The Undeground Railroad actually has its beginnings in Africa when the Portugese captured their first slaves in the 1400s. It' s been estimated that around twelve million Africans were uprooted from their homeland and sold into a life of slavery between 1450 and 1850. From a multitude of conflict, wars, escapes, and resistance efforts, the Railroad supposedly ended around the mid 19th century, after the American Civil War.

In the United States, because of the secrecy of the Underground Railroad there are no written records or documents of any of the routes taken, who started this resistance and freedom effort, nor who took the escaped slaves into hiding on their route to Canada. Some people believe it started around 1837; others say it began much earlier. The Railroad ended when slavery was abolished after the Union defeated the Confederacy in the American Civil War in 1865.

Answer 3

The Underground Railroad was at its height from 1810 to 1850, but George Washington complained as early as 1786 about a group of Quakers who had helped one of his slaves escape. Escape was a little easier after 1810 when several northern states had passed laws forbidding slavery, and became much more difficult in 1850 when Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law. The Fugitive Slave Law required officials in free states to actively assist slave catchers and penalized those who tried to help escaped slaves. Officials were required to arrest those accused of being an escaped slave or face a $1,000 fine, and people who aided a runaway slave by providing food or shelter were also subject to a $1,000 fine or even imprisonment. The Underground Railroad remained in operation until the end of slavery in the U.S., which (despite the Emancipation Proclamation) did not end in the Confederate States until the end of the Civil War in 1865,