Rwandagate Runagate Poem Meaning

“Runagate Runagate,”written by Robert Hayden, portrays the Underground Railroad as slaves escaped to freedom. In the poem, Hayden pays tribute to the strength and bravery of Harriet Tubman along with other abolitionists. Robert Hayden, the poet, was African American, which ignited his interest toward the Underground Railroad. The poet, Robert Hayden, related to the underlying ideas and meaning by including allusions in his writing. Hayden included the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman and other abolitionists, allusions, and lack of punctuation in his poem “Runagate Runagate.”
As mentioned before, the Underground Railroad was a system in which slaves escaped to the North before the Civil War took place. The Underground Railroad was not really a railroad, but the slaves used the term to relate to their path to freedom. Their code didn’t stop with the railroad, as they referred to abolitionists as conductors and their hideouts as stations. The “conductors” would lead runagates, deserters, to receive food, shelter, and clothing at delegated locations. Often times when slaves would run away, their owners would put up signs. Hayden expressed this by writing, “If you see my Pompey, 30 yrs of age, new breeches, …show more content…
The most famous “conductor” was an African American woman named Harriet Tubman. Tubman risked her life many times and ended up leading almost 300 slaves to freedom. Harriet Tubman was often referred to as Moses, a biblical prophet. As the Bible says, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea to their promised land, similar to Tubman leading the slaves to freedom. Hayden referred to Tubman by her name and as Moses in his poem. Hayden mentions other famous abolitionists as well, such as William Lloyd Garrison, Amos Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Garrett, Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, and John Brown as well as Harriet