Life+of+the+Fugitive+Slave+on+the+UGRR

**Life of the Fugitive Slave on the UGRR** Original Author: Jenna Bounds, ENG206 SP10 Revision Author  The “passengers” who traveled along the Underground Railroad faced a wide variety of dangers and difficulties that we have probably never had to deal with. They had to figure out where they were running, how to get there without being caught, as well as what to eat, where to sleep and what to do if they became sick or just needed to rest along the way. In her book, Underground Railroad in Illinois, Glenette Turner goes into detail about how exactly so many slaves survived such a dangerous journey with so little help, as well as what they were risking by attempting their escape to freedom.  At the end of her book, Turner included a map of popular URR routes in Illinois. For slaves who entered the state in the Quad City area like Rock Island or Moline, there were a couple of options. One was to go in a sort of southeast direction, stopping at major towns like Andover, Kewanee, Princeton, LaSalle, Peru, Ottawa and then eastward toward the Chicagoland area. The other route was to head more northeast from the QC, hitting towns Hillsdale, Prophetstown, Sterling, Rock Falls and Dixon, ending up just north of Chicago. In neighboring Iowa, one popular route for the runaways was basically what is known now as Interstate 80 (Turner 79). The other heavily trafficked towns where slaves entered the state over the Mississippi were Quincy and Alton, near St. Louis (Ransom 286-287). St. Louis was a popular trading post for slave owners. Once slaves had crossed Illinois and made it to the Chicagoland area, many crossed the border into northern Indiana, and then traveled northward into Michigan, Detroit specifically, where they could cross into the ‘promised land’ of Canada. There, they would be free to start their lives over as free men and women.  No matter what region of the U.S. slaves found themselves in, there were some tactics that all of them undoubtedly shared to make their journey along the Underground Railroad a success. Many slaves traveled at night (when it was overcast and the moon wasn’t shining brightly) and hid during the day, because it was less likely that they be caught in the darkness. Many found sufficient hiding places in thick forests or caves – sometimes even hiding in the hay bales of a barn. Some tried to cover their scent using different methods, like rubbing the bottoms of their feet with pungent scents like onion or turpentine, or wading through creeks and rivers so trained hunting dogs would have more difficulty following their trail (Turner 54).  The slaves trying to escape in Illinois had specific terrain, plants and animals to deal with. Obviously, Illinois (also known as the Prairie State) is covered with fields and forests, streams and rivers. The prairies of Illinois were both an advantage and a disadvantage for runaways. Open fields were easier for them to navigate through, and allowed an unobstructed field of vision. That was not only true for them, though, but also for their captors – this meant that they needed to be especially careful when walking across open fields (Turner 57). Some grasses of the prairie served as cover for the runaways at certain places, as some types of grasses in IL could grow up to 7 feet or taller; in other places, the grass grew to 2 or 3 feet. As far as animals, many were the same that can still be seen in Illinois today; “raccoons, woodchucks, deer, brown bats, weasels, opossums, skunks, minks, foxes, bobcats, squirrels, rabbits, and beavers” (Turner 60-61). If runaways could find a place where it was safe to have a fire, these animals were often hunted and served as nourishment for the travelers.  As far as hiding places for fugitives, there were many different types. In Geneseo, there are a couple of houses confirmed to have been a part of the Underground Railroad, and those homes have actual hidden rooms or compartments where slaves probably hid. In some Illinois URR homes, some of those compartments led to tunnels that slaves could actually crawl through and follow to a larger hidden room or cave. Several homes along the railroad in Illinois had such intricate hiding places, including houses in Glen Ellyn, Quincy, Warrenville, St. Charles, Roselle and Aurora (Turner 94-95). However, many stations along the route did not have such spaces, and many slaves and “conductors” on the Underground Railroad simply improvised with what was available. Some people simply hid slaves in the basement of their home. Turner lists examples of other hiding places that were not necessarily solid structures like a house: “attics, barns, ditches, haystacks, cornfields, empty wagons …one ‘station’ in Plainfield was a room built inside a woodpile” (Turner 93). Clearly improvisation and clever thinking by both runaways and homeowners along the Underground Railroad helped many slaves escape to freedom.  So what were slaves risking by trying to escape on the Underground Railroad? Of course, slaves who were apprehended on their journey were quite often returned to their owners, and most likely suffer some severe form of punishment from them, like whippings. Sometimes their owners would sell them “down river”, which meant “the worst kind of enslavement” (Turner 53). Slave plantations in the far south were especially notorious for their brutal treatment of slaves. Not only did being sold down river mean a terrible master or plantation, but it probably meant separation from family members and loved ones. Families were often split up as punishment for attempted escapes. Some slaves were put in chains and ankle braces as a way to deter them from trying to run away again. Some were put on trial, probably without any rights or a good defense. Turner also mentioned more barbaric methods of punishment for attempted escapes, methods like beatings, cutting off toes, or burying the slave up to their neck and covering their head in honey to attract ants and bugs. And of course, some slaves were killed for their misbehavior, undoubtedly to serve as an example for other slaves who were contemplating trying their turn on the Underground Railroad (Turner 53).  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">**Works Cited** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Turner, Glenette Tilley. “The Underground Railroad in Illinois.” (Glen Ellyn, IL: Newman Educational Publishing 2001): 53-95. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Ransom, James. “The Underground Railroad in Illinois [Map].” 1993. Found in “The Underground Railroad in Illinois” by Glenette Tilley Turner. (Glen Ellyn, IL: Newman Educational Publishing 2001): 286-287. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Return to UGRR <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Return to Home