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Underground Railroad Research Paper

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Collin Montenegro
Mr. Camerieri & Mr. Trautz
Social Studies & Literature
June 8, 2018
The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad is a very significant event in the Civil War. The Civil War was a war between the North and the South about slavery being legal. The South used thousands of slaves, and the North wanted to change the use of slaves. The Underground Railroad was created to save slaves, and help them escape. The Underground Railroad saved approximately 100,000 slaves(Waggoner 1). The Underground Railroad is essential to our nation’s history because it progressed the United States idea of a “Free Country.”
The Underground Railroad railroad operated from 1861-1865(Maryland Public Television 1). These dates are not exact because …show more content…
The Underground Railroad stretched thousands of miles across the East Coast and in the South. Trails were used by all the escaped slaves; they ran from Maryland, the Carolinas, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia, Louisiana, and other Southern states to Northern States or Canada. Slaves went to Canada because of the Fugitive Slave Act. This law required both the North and South to return runaway slaves (Maryland Public Television 8). So if the slaves go to Canada it is very unlikely for them to be returned back to the South. Some slaves further South went to Mexico (National Geographic Society 1). The Underground Railroad was not underground and not a railroad either. This name was a code. “Underground” which you can’t see represents it was secret and concealed from others. “Railroad” because they are …show more content…
The effect was they passed the Fugitive Slave Act. Because of how slave owners were upset about losing their slaves through the Underground Railroad Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. The act made all caught escaped slaves return to their slave owner. The North of course opposed the act because they wanted freedom, but the South favored the act because they are in favor of slavery. After the law was passed another Fugitive Slave Act was passed, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. This act allowed harsher punishment if an escaped slave is found. “These acts caused the formation of slave patrols. These groups looked for potential escaped slaves and sold them to the South” (Alchin 1). In the end the 13th Amendment was passed to abolish slavery in the United States, and it also repealed the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850 (Alchin 1). The 13th Amendment is, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction"(U.S. Constitution). Today America still follows this amendment because of past acts in slavery, and the help of Underground Railroad to abolish slavery in

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