A Trip on the Underground Railroad
Imagine...you are a slave. You work in the fields.
 Your body, your time, your very breath belong to another person.
You work for a farmer in 1850's in Maryland.
Six long days a week you take care of his fields and make him rich.
You have never tasted freedom--and you never expect to.

And yet . . . your soul lights up when you hear people whisper about escaping.
Freedom means a hard, dangerous journey.
Do you try it? Do you dare risk failure?


If your answer is 'no', you are not alone...
 Most slaves chose not to run away. Very few actually did. Millions of slaves stayed on. Instead of trying to escape, they protested by working more slowly and pretending to be sick.


But you are brave...you would rather die than continue to live your life as a slave.
You decide to attempt an escape!

 Take a journey on the Underground Railroad by clicking the lantern on the hitching post below.

 (Harriet Tubman told you that a lantern on a hitching post meant that it was a "safe" house.)
And remember, you must keep traveling north.
At night, under cover of darkness, you must follow Polaris, the North Star.
Click here to learn how.)



When your journey is over, return here to trace your path on the maps below.



The top map shows the routes taken by slaves as they attempted to flee into Canada.
Imagine you are a slave who just escaped from a plantation in Georgia.
Write the names of the next 2 states you would be traveling through.
From Georgia you would enter .
Next you would pass through .

Look at the next map to zoom in on your route.
 From Virginia you travel through the northern part of the tiny state of .
Then you pass through Pennsylvania on your way through the state of .
Next you travel northwest through the state of New York.
Your last safe stop is not too far from the Canadian border.
It is the city of where Susan B. Anthony gives you warm clothes
for your trip across the icy waters of Lake .


HOW WELL WERE YOU LISTENING? CAN YOU ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS?