To Be a Slave

1
To Be a Slave

• Traveling on the Underground Railroad

2
If You Were Born a Slave

• You were considered to be property just like the
  livestock your master owned.
• You started working early in your childhood,
  doing small tasks until you could be trained to
  perform skilled work or work in the fields.

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• You worked from sunup to sundown every day of the
  year, with part of the day off to celebrate
  Christmas.

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• You lived in the quarters which was nothing
  more than a one-room shack

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• while the master lived in grandeur.

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• You were, by law, considered to be 3/5 of a human
  being.
• You would not be taught to read or write in
  fact, there were laws against teaching slaves
  these skills in several states.
• You could, at any point, be sold away from the
  only family you knew.

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• You were the sole property of your master and he
  had the right to mistreat you if he saw fit to do
  so.
• You had no legal rights you could not vote.

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As a slave, there would be no documentation no
licenses or legal certificates like ones granted
to whites. Hence, you would not have a birth
certificate, marriage license, or death
certificate. Some slave owners did keep
handwritten records of their slaves and for many
African-Americans today, these records are the
only proof they have of their ancestors
existence.
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What Could You Do?

• You grow tired of the grueling work, the
  beatings, the hopelessness of your life. Youve
  heard about other slaves on neighboring
  plantations who have tried to run away heard
  about how some of them were caught and brought
  back. How some of those poor souls were beaten,
  maimed, or sold southa fate worse than death.
  Still, a little voice inside your head says,
  Yes, but just think about it. To be free! Free
  from the horrors of life in bondage. Free to be
  your own person with no master.

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You decide to run!

• Youve even heard tell of a place way up north
  called Canada where you could be free to work and
  earn your own way, to have a real home, to be
  able to hold your head high like any other
  person. But youve never been more than fifteen
  miles from your masters plantation. How would
  you get there? You cant read a map. No one
  youve ever heard of would risk helping a runaway
  slave.

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• Just as you decide to give up your dream of
  freedom, you hear some of the field hands singing
  a song

When the sun goes back and the first quail
callsFollow the drinking gourdThe old man is
a-waitin' forto carry you to freedom.Follow the
drinking gourd.For the old man is a-waitin'to
carry you to freedom.Follow the drinking
gourd. The river bed makes a mighty fine
road,Dead trees to show you the wayAnd it's
left foot, peg foot, traveling on.Follow the
drinking gourd. The river ends between two
hills.Follow the drinking gourdThere's another
river on the other side.Follow the drinking
gourd.
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• You look up in the sky and there it is the
  Drinking Gourd!

You begin to learn the song, memorizing the words
and you realize it holds a secret message. A
code telling you how to get north, what to look
for.
13
The Underground Railroad

• You discover that this song is only one of many
  code songs that were used to help those slaves
  who wanted to make a run for freedom. The trail
  it speaks of is on what is known as the
  Underground Railroad. Not an actual railroad
  with tracks laid on the ground, but a series of
  routes with people to guide you called
  conductors and houses where you can get help
  called stations.

14
Riding the Freedom Train

• With your family, you pack only the things
  necessary for your journey and you wait for the
  cover of darkness to Steal Away, Steal Away,
  following the North Star, looking for signs along
  the way

15

• You stumble upon some other runaways who plan to
  join a group led by none other than Harriet
  Tubman, the Moses of her people. She has led
  many others to the promised land always to return
  and lead even more. You know that your chances
  of reaching Canada will be better if you put your
  life in her hands.

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• You travel by night and hide during the day
  because bounty hunters lurk everywhere, ready to
  take you back to your former master for the
  reward that has been placed on your head.

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The Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850 gave slave
owners the right to organize a posse anywhere in
the United States to help return runaway slaves.
Courts and police everywhere were obligated to
assist them. Private citizens had to aid in the
recapture of runaways, too. Furthermore, anyone
caught helping escaping slaves served jail time
and had to pay fines and restitution to the slave
owner.

• If the bounty hunters capture you whether
  youre in a free state or not they can by law
  take you back for the reward on your head.

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• You learn from Miss Harriet that the trail you
  will follow has secret code words and signals,
  that there will be people both black and white
  called abolitionists who will give you a
  place to hide (safe houses) and see you to the
  next stop along the way at the risk of their own
  lives. Many of these people are Quakers whose
  religion opposes slavery and some are runaway
  slaves who now live free.

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Code Words
20
Underground Quilt Codes

• There were over ten quilts that the slaves
  learned to use as signals to help them find their
  way. Each one featured its own pattern. One
  quilt would be draped over a fence at a time.
  Back then, it was common practice to air out
  quilts this way so no one would have thought it
  was suspicious. Since slaves couldnt read, the
  patterns would hide a secret message telling them
  what to do next.

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Coded Quilt Tale

• The monkey wrench turns the wagon wheel toward
  Canada on a bears paw trail to the crossroads.
  Once you get to the crossroads you dig a log
  cabin on the ground. Shoofly says to dress up in
  cotton and satin bowties and go to the cathedral
  church, get married and exchange double wedding
  rings. Flying geese stay on the drunkards path
  and follow the stars.

22
A Map to Freedom
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• You memorize the quilt story, knowing every word
  by heart, knowing your life may depend on
  remembering the meaning of each quilt pattern.

24
Monkey Wrench

• The monkey wrench pattern was the first quilt
  pattern to be used as a signal for escaping
  slaves. Its message was to gather up your tools
  you will need for the journeyin other words, get
  ready to leave soon.

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North Star

• The North Star pattern served as a reminder to
  runaway slaves to keep their eyes on the North
  Star to show them the way to the promised land
  and freedom.

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Bear Paw

• The Bear Paw design was a secret message to tell
  them to look for a bears path when they were in
  the mountains so they could find food and water.

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Flying Geese

• The points on the triangle shapes, looking like a
  flock of migrating geese, showed what direction
  to follow,.

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Log Cabin

• In the early 1800s a log cabin design always
  featured a red square at its center to symbolize
  the hearth or the heart of the home. But those
  who helped escaping slaves began to make their
  log cabin quilts with a black center and display
  them outside as a signal that this home was a
  safe house.  

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Drunkards Path

• The Drunkards Path told slaves to make a zigzag
  path, a warning not to take a straight route
  because bounty hunters would be there searching
  for them.

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Sailboat

• The Sailboat pattern indicated that they were to
  take a boat across the Great Lakes to Canada.

31
Crossroads

• This pattern symbolized reaching Cleveland, Ohio,
  where there were several routes slaves could take
  from there to Canada. They knew that Cleveland
  was a point in the journey where their lives
  would be forever changed so they had to be
  willing to continue the trip.

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Wagon Wheel

• The Wagon Wheel pattern told runaways to be ready
  to escape in a wagon, hiding under produce.

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Shoofly

• The Shoofly quilt indicated a guide who was
  sympathetic to their cause and would help them on
  their way.

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Tumbling Blocks

• The Tumbling Blocks design was used to alert
  escaping slaves to pack up and move on.

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Bowtie

• Bowtie quilts warned slaves to dress up in a
  disguise or a change of clothing.

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• Using the code words and quilt patterns, you
  follow Miss Harriet to station after station
  along the way, staying in safe houses where there
  were hiding places to keep you out of sight when
  bounty hunters were in the area or when neighbors
  stopped by.

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• Along the journey, you meet with many kind people
  who feed you and let you stay while you get a
  much needed rest. You must be ready to flee at a
  moments notice and willing to leave behind
  personal items if you must.

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• You meet several famous people during your escape.

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• You stay in several houses and follow strange
  paths.

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• You face many dangers

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• but see few warnings on your journey.

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The Last Leg of the Journey

• From Cleveland, you travel to Buffalo, New York,
  on the banks of Lake Erie. Canada the promised
  land! is just across Lake Erie. You stay
  overnight on Michigan Avenue, the site of the
  present Michigan Street Baptist Church. The next
  morning, Miss Harriet takes you to Lewiston on
  the Niagara River.

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• She leads you to the Lewiston First
  Presbyterian Church where Reverend Josiah Tryon
  has built a hideaway shelter at the top of the
  Niagara Gorge with tunnels that lead down to the
  river. Miss Harriet calls it Tryons Folly.

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• The gorge is a scary place so high above the
  roaring river, you get dizzy just looking down at
  the water.

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• Late that night with Miss Harriet leading the
  way, you sing and dance and clap your way all the
  way across the Whirlpool Bridge, called by
  runaways the Freedom Crossing. You reach the
  other side and fall to your knees, laughing and
  crying at the same time, joyous in your new-found
  freedom.

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• Together, you sing,
• Free at Last, Free at Last!