ABSTRACT
In 1849, Harriet Tubman walked from slavery to freedom. The Underground Railroad that Tubman participated in was a loosely defined network of whites and blacks who provided assistance and shelter to fugitive slaves. Aiding fugitives was punishable in all of the Southern states, and expressions of antislavery sentiment in the South was paramount to treason. White and black Southerners frequently betrayed the Underground Railroad by leading runaways into the hands of law officers and slave catchers. Tubman recognized the dangers of such a system and tried to follow different paths on each of her journeys. Fugitive slaves usually acted as individuals rather than as part of an organized system. Often under the cover of darkness, runaways employed as many means of transportation as they could. Slaves would not walk from slavery to freedom en masse until Union lines penetrated the Southern countryside during the American Civil War.
