Underground Railroad eBook

Imagine leaving everything you’ve ever known—your friends, family, and home—to travel along roads you’ve never seen before, getting help from people you’ve never met before, with the constant threat of capture hovering over your every move. Would you risk your life on the Underground Railroad to gain freedom from slavery? Tens of thousands of African American men, women, and children did just that, and thousands more risked their lives to help them.

In The Underground Railroad: Navigate the Journey from Slavery to Freedom, readers ages 9 to 12 examine how slavery developed in the United States and what motivated abolitionists to work for its destruction. The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses operated by conductors and station masters, both black and white. Readers travel the Underground Railroad as they follow true stories of enslaved people who braved patrols, the wilderness, hunger, and their own fear in a quest for freedom. The legacy of the Underground Railroad is also explored—how it provoked the Civil War, how it laid the seeds of activism for African Americans and women, and how it remains a model of resistance that still inspires people today.

Throughout the book, readers do the work of historians as they dissect primary sources, including slave narratives, runaway ads, and the music that inspired enslaved people. Projects include printing African cloth, constructing a model swamp refuge, cooking a typical slave meal, composing a song with a hidden message, and navigating to freedom by reading the nighttime sky.

There are many myths about the Underground Railroad. However, the real history of this crusade is more dramatic than any legend. The lives of the men and women involved in the Underground Railroad reveal a story of inspiration, moral and physical courage, and personal sacrifice. The Underground Railroad informs students’ understanding of modern race relations and provides a historical context for current events. Amidst the countless tragedies that centuries of slavery brought to African-Americans lie tales of hope, resistance, courage, sacrifice, and victory—truly an American story.