They were often running with nothing to call their own and a price on their heads to a place in the North known only as the “promised land”; they were dependent upon the kindness and trust of strangers known only for a fleeting moment – strangers who might warm them, feed them, clothe and shelter them for a night then shuttle the fugitive slaves on to the next “station.” Though many slaves were American born, African-Americans were denied the right to freedom. Their struggle to gain that freedom has been traced back to 1786 and a fugitive slave owned by George Washington. The Underground Railroad could only save few from shackles until the end of the Civil War in 1865.
