The+Slavery+Escape

=The Escape of Slavery = = =

But before that law was passed slaves were already trying to escape to free land.
Slaves had a hard life. Click on the Video to learn more. media type="file" key="Slavery.mov" width="300" height="300"

The Compromise of 1850 allowed slavery in the Confederacy (south), but in the Union (North) slavery was prohibited, and slaves were free.



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They were using the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was run by the Quakers (very religious men, who were pacifists). The Quakers would allow the slaves to hide in the basements, or secret places in there homes. They would bring them food, and keep them safe. Then when it was safe the slaves would move to the next house. The slaves would keep moving from house to house until they were out of the Confederate states, and into the Union states.=====

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= = = = [|**Harriet Tubman**]was born in March of 1820 in Dorchester County Maryland. She was born a slave, and put to hard work under harsh conditions. She was beaten many times by her master, and suffered a head wound. Harriet was hit by a heavy metal weight thrown by her master trying to stop another escaping slave. The injury caused headaches and blackouts for the rest of her life. In 1849 Harriet decided to escape from Maryland, and head to Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania she could be free. She left John Tubman her husband a free black in Maryland. He was against her running away but she wanted "Liberty or Death." If she could not have one she wanted the other.

That is where the Underground Railroad came in for Harriet. Before she left she sang a song into a friends window. The songs were ways for slaves to send secret messages to friends and families.

Harriet went house to house stopping at what they refereed to as stations, using the helpfulness of the Quakers. After a long journey she was in Pennsylvania; free. But she missed her family. In the late 1850s a new friend of Harriet told her that some of her family members were supposed to be sold. Harriet decided to go rescue them. She traveled all the way back to the Maryland. She found her family members, and they escaped again. They used the Underground Railroad, and moved to the North. Once they were back Harriet realized that was her future, and for the rest of her life that is what she did.

Slaves would escape from there plantations, and during the night Harriet would sing "[|steel away], steel away, steel away to Jesus. Steel away, steel away home." The slaves would then follow her to the "promise land" as Harriet called it.



In 1850 the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. The **Fugitive Slave Act** allowed slave hunters in the South to come to the North and bring back slaves. So by 1851 Harriet started taking slaves to Canada where slavery was prohibited. It was a journey longer than 500 miles, and many slaves wanted to turn back. But Harriet would not let them; if the slave hunters caught the runaways they would force them to tell the secrets of the Underground Railroad.



From 1851 to 1860 Harriet Tubman made 18 trips to Maryland and other confederate states to rescue slaves. She rescued more than 300 people. "on my underground railroad i never ran my train off, and I never lost a passenger."- Harriet Tubman. The issue of slavery helped start the Civil War in 1861. On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln announced he would issue a formal [|emancipation] of all slaves in any of the Confederate States of America that did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. None of the states followed so on January 1st 3.1million of the nations 4 million slaves were immediately freed. But at the end of the war the North defeated the South, and the [|13th amendment] was add abolishing slavery everywhere.

[|13th Amendmen]t- for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
 * Section 1**: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment
 * Section 2:** Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

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THE END Resources- http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/document.html?doc=9&title.raw=13th%20Amendment%20to%20the%20U.S.%20Constitution%3A%20Abolition%20of%20Slavery http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASproclamation.htm http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/13thamendment.html http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.amendmentxiii.html http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=old&doc=40 http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=3C359220-5204-4782-843D-C76567FF3E99&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US