The Underground Railroad | The Light of Freedom | 1

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the early 1800s, slavery rapidly expanded across the American South. But each year, thousands of courageous enslaved men, women, and children fled their owners in search of freedom. And in Philadelphia, secret allies came to their aid. Quaker abolitionists collaborated with free Black people to bring the freedom seekers to safety.

It was the start of the Underground Railroad, a clandestine network of activists, safe houses, and escape routes that would help tens of thousands of enslaved people flee bondage in the decades before the Civil War and challenge the very roots of American slavery.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	A listener note, this episode contains graphic descriptions of racial violence and may not be suitable for everyone. Imagine it's a cold night in February 1801. The moon hangs low in the sky as you trudged through the woods near
0:24.7	Middleburg, Virginia. A few days ago you slipped away from your plantation and
0:29.2	headed toward Washington where one of your cousins works as a free blacksmith.
0:33.8	Your wife was recently sold away to a different owner, but you hope that you can get work and
0:38.4	earn some money that you might be able to buy her freedom.
0:41.8	And despite your fear, that thought motivates your every step.
0:45.8	You stop in your tracks, panic clawing at your chest.
0:49.4	You set off at a sprint.
0:51.0	The woods are a maze and branches tear it your clothes. Stop right there. a and
1:05.0	I'm a free man, I swear.
1:03.0	One of the men steps forward and examines you with a mocking smile.
1:07.0	Is that right?
1:08.0	Then show us your papers.
1:10.0	I lost them a while back crossing the stream.
1:13.0	Look, I'm just trying to get to Washington to see my cousin.
1:17.0	He's a free man too.
1:18.0	Man scoffed, his hand resting on the butt of the pistol at his side.
1:23.0	You must think us fools, boy.
1:25.0	I can see that scar above your eyebrow,
1:28.0	just like the ad in the newspaper said.
1:30.0	We know you ain't free.
1:32.0	You're from the Seton Plantation. I swear I don't know what you're talking about
	...

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