Frederick Douglass, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
The name tells you what the men who ran it most needed the world not to know: that it moved underground, out of sight, without schedule or manifest, and that secrecy was not an incidental feature but the whole principle of its operation.1 I was myself the station master and conductor of the line passing through Rochester, New York, sitting as I did on the southern border of Lake Ontario with Canada directly across the water.2
The main line I worked ran through Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Syracuse, and Rochester, before putting its passengers on the free waves of Lake Ontario bound for St. Catharines.3 Thomas Garrett held Wilmington; William Still and Robert Purvis and others did the work in Philadelphia; David Ruggles in New York; the Misses Mott and Stephen Myers forwarded from Albany; Samuel J.
May and J. W. Loguen kept the Syracuse station; and J. P. Morris and I received and dispatched from Rochester.4 When a party arrived, Morris and I raised the funds for their passages to Canada, and it is due to truth to say we seldom called in vain — men were better than their theology, and truer to humanity than to their politics or their offices.5
The work cost something. Every step I took in it exposed me to fine and imprisonment under the fugitive slave law, which made it a crime to feed, harbor, or otherwise assist a slave escaping from his master.6 As a means of destroying slavery it was, I confess, like attempting to bail out the ocean with a teaspoon; but the thought that there was one less slave, and one more freeman — having myself been a slave, and a fugitive slave — brought to my heart unspeakable joy.7
On one occasion I had eleven fugitives under my roof at once, sleeping on strips of carpet and straw in the barn loft, waiting until I could collect money enough to move them north.8 Now — and this is the thing I have argued from the first telling of my own escape — the railroad's power was inseparable from its darkness. I have never approved of what some of our western friends did when they called it the underground railroad in their open declarations and then proceeded to describe it in public, making it, most emphatically, the upperground railroad.9
Its stations became far better known to the slaveholders than to the slaves.10 Consider what publicity does: the plan used by William and Ellen Crafts perished with the first using, because every slaveholder in the land was apprised of it; the man who hid in the guards of a steamer set a spy on the guards of every steamer departing from southern ports thereafter.11
In publishing such accounts, the anti-slavery man addresses the slaveholder, not the slave; he stimulates the former to greater watchfulness and adds to his power to capture his prey.12 We owe something to the slave south of the line as well as to those north of it, and in aiding the latter on their way to freedom we must be careful to do nothing that hinders the former from making their escape.13
I would keep the merciless slaveholder profoundly ignorant of the means of flight adopted by the slave — leave him to imagine himself surrounded by myriads of invisible tormentors, ever ready to snatch from his infernal grasp his trembling prey, feeling his way in the dark, at every step running the frightful risk of having his hot brains dashed out by an invisible hand.14
Let us render the tyrant no aid; let us not hold the light by which he can trace the footprints of our flying brother.15 That is what the underground railroad was, and why it had to stay underground to be what it was.
Secrecy and concealment were necessary conditions to the successful operation of this railroad, and hence its prefix 'underground.'Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
I was on the southern border of Lake Ontario, and the Queen's Dominions were right over the way--and my prominence as an abolitionist, and as the editor of an anti-slavery paper, naturally made me the station master and conductor of the underground railroad passing through this goodly city.Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
The underground railroad had many branches; but that one with which I was connected had its main stations in Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and St. Catharines (Canada).Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
Thomas Garrett was the agent in Wilmington; Melloe McKim, William Still, Robert Purvis, Edward M. Davis, and others did the work in Philadelphia; David Ruggles, Isaac T. Hopper, Napolian, and others, in New York city; the Misses Mott and Stephen Myers, were forwarders from Albany; Revs. Samuel J. May and J. W. Loguen, were the agents in Syracuse; and J. P. Morris and myself received and dispatched passengers from Rochester to Canada.Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
it is due to truth to state, that we seldom called in vain upon whig or democrat for help. Men were better than their theology, and truer to humanity, than to their politics, or their offices.Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
I could take no step in it without exposing myself to fine and imprisonment, for these were the penalties imposed by the fugitive slave law, for feeding, harboring, or otherwise assisting a slave to escape from his master.Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
as a means of destroying slavery, it was like an attempt to bail out the ocean with a teaspoon, but the thought that there was one less slave, and one more freeman,--having myself been a slave, and a fugitive slave--brought to my heart unspeakable joy.Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
On one occasion I had eleven fugitives at the same time under my roof, and it was necessary for them to remain with me, until I could collect sufficient money to get them on to Canada.Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
I have never approved of the very public manner, in which some of our western friends have conducted what they call the 'Under-ground Railroad,' but which, I think, by their open declarations, has been made, most emphatically, the 'Upper-ground Railroad.'My Bondage and My Freedom
Its stations are far better known to the slaveholders than to the slaves.My Bondage and My Freedom
The singularly original plan adopted by William and Ellen Crafts, perished with the first using, because every slaveholder in the land was apprised of it. The salt water slave who hung in the guards of a steamer, being washed three days and three nights—like another Jonah—by the waves of the sea, has, by the publicity given to the circumstance, set a spy on the guards of every steamer departing from southern ports.My Bondage and My Freedom
In publishing such accounts, the anti-slavery man addresses the slaveholder, not the slave; he stimulates the former to greater watchfulness, and adds to his facilities for capturing his slave.My Bondage and My Freedom
We owe something to the slaves, south of Mason and Dixon's line, as well as to those north of it; and, in discharging the duty of aiding the latter, on their way to freedom, we should be careful to do nothing which would be likely to hinder the former, in making their escape from slavery.My Bondage and My Freedom
Such is my detestation of slavery, that I would keep the merciless slaveholder profoundly ignorant of the means of flight adopted by the slave. He should be left to imagine himself surrounded by myriads of invisible tormentors, ever ready to snatch, from his infernal grasp, his trembling prey. In pursuing his victim, let him be left to feel his way in the dark; let shades of darkness, commensurate with his crime, shut every ray of light from his pathway; and let him be made to feel, that, at every step he takes, with the hellish purpose of reducing a brother man to slavery, he is running the frightful risk of having his hot brains dashed out by an invisible hand.My Bondage and My Freedom
Let us render the tyrant no aid; let us not hold the light by which he can trace the footprints of our flying brother.Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave