good essay titles for underground railroad

The Underground Railroad

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Underground Railroad: Introduction

The underground railroad: plot summary, the underground railroad: detailed summary & analysis, the underground railroad: themes, the underground railroad: quotes, the underground railroad: characters, the underground railroad: symbols, the underground railroad: theme wheel, brief biography of colson whitehead.

The Underground Railroad PDF

Historical Context of The Underground Railroad

Other books related to the underground railroad.

  • Full Title: The Underground Railroad
  • When Written: 2011-2016
  • Where Written: New York, USA
  • When Published: 2016
  • Literary Period: 21st century African-American historical fiction
  • Genre: Neo-slave narrative
  • Setting: Several states in America in the year 1850, including Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Indiana
  • Climax: When Elijah Lander delivers his speech and it is interrupted by a white gang who destroy Valentine farm
  • Antagonist: Arnold Ridgeway
  • Point of View: Third-person narrator

Extra Credit for The Underground Railroad

Coming to the small screen. In March 2017 Amazon announced the production of a mini-series based on The Underground Railroad , directed by Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins.

Real pieces of history. The first four runaway slave ads featured in the novel are taken word-for-word from real 19th century newspapers. The only one that Whitehead wrote himself is the last one, Cora’s.

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The Underground Railroad

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Discussion Questions

What is the symbolic significance of depicting the Underground Railroad as an actual rail line? Use specific quotes to support your analysis. 

Choose one of the book’s major settings (the Randall plantation in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, the Valentine farm in Indiana). Use and cite primary and secondary historical sources to compare the book’s depictions with historical record. 

What is the book’s central message about the character and origins of the American nation? Use direct quotes and analysis to support your position.

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ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY

The underground railroad.

During the era of slavery, the Underground Railroad was a network of routes, places, and people that helped enslaved people in the American South escape to the North.

Social Studies, U.S. History

Home of Levi Coffin

Historic image of the home of American Quaker and abolitionist Levi Coffin located in Cincinnati, Ohio, with a group of African Americans out front.

Photography by Cincinnati Museum Center

Historic image of the home of American Quaker and abolitionist Levi Coffin located in Cincinnati, Ohio, with a group of African Americans out front.

During the era of slavery , the Underground Railroad was a network of routes, places, and people that helped enslaved people in the American South escape to the North. The name “ Underground Railroad ” was used metaphorically, not literally. It was not an actual railroad, but it served the same purpose—it transported people long distances. It also did not run underground, but through homes, barns, churches, and businesses. The people who worked for the Underground Railroad had a passion for justice and drive to end the practice of slavery —a drive so strong that they risked their lives and jeopardized their own freedom to help enslaved people escape from bondage and keep them safe along the route.

According to some estimates, between 1810 and 1850, the Underground Railroad helped to guide one hundred thousand enslaved people to freedom. As the network grew, the railroad metaphor stuck. “Conductors” guided runaway enslaved people from place to place along the routes. The places that sheltered the runaways were referred to as “stations,” and the people who hid the enslaved people were called “station masters.” The fugitives traveling along the routes were called “passengers,” and those who had arrived at the safe houses were called “cargo.”

Contemporary scholarship has shown that most of those who participated in the Underground Railroad largely worked alone, rather than as part of an organized group. There were people from many occupations and income levels, including former enslaved persons . According to historical accounts of the Railroad, conductors often posed as enslaved people and snuck the runaways out of plantations. Due to the danger associated with capture, they conducted much of their activity at night. The conductors and passengers traveled from safe-house to safe-house, often with 16-19 kilometers (10–20 miles) between each stop. Lanterns in the windows welcomed them and promised safety. Patrols seeking to catch enslaved people were frequently hot on their heels.

These images of the Underground Railroad stuck in the minds of the nation, and they captured the hearts of writers, who told suspenseful stories of dark, dangerous passages and dramatic enslaved person   escapes . However, historians who study the Railroad struggle to separate truth from myth . A number of prominent historians who have devoted their life’s work to uncover the truths of the Underground Railroad claim that much of the activity was not in fact hidden, but rather, conducted openly and in broad daylight. Eric Foner is one of these historians. He dug deep into the history of the Railroad and found that though a large network did exist that kept its activities secret, the network became so powerful that it extended the limits of its myth . Even so, the Underground Railroad was at the heart of the abolitionist movement. The Railroad heightened divisions between the North and South, which set the stage for the Civil War .

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Underground Railroad

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 29, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

These fugitive slaves are fleeing from Maryland to Delaware by way of the Underground Railroad.These fugitive slaves are fleeing from Maryland to Delaware by way of the Underground Railroad, 1850. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The Underground Railroad was a network of people, African American as well as white, offering shelter and aid to escaped enslaved people from the South. It developed as a convergence of several different clandestine efforts. The exact dates of its existence are not known, but it operated from the late 18th century to the Civil War, at which point its efforts continued to undermine the Confederacy in a less-secretive fashion.

Quaker Abolitionists

The Quakers are considered the first organized group to actively help escaped enslaved people. George Washington complained in 1786 that Quakers had attempted to “liberate” one of his enslaved workers.

In the early 1800s, Quaker abolitionist Isaac T. Hopper set up a network in Philadelphia that helped enslaved people on the run. At the same time, Quakers in North Carolina established abolitionist groups that laid the groundwork for routes and shelters for escapees.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, established in 1816, was another proactive religious group helping fugitive enslaved people.

What Was the Underground Railroad?

The earliest mention of the Underground Railroad came in 1831 when enslaved man Tice Davids escaped from Kentucky into Ohio and his owner blamed an “underground railroad” for helping Davids to freedom.

In 1839, a Washington newspaper reported an escaped enslaved man named Jim had revealed, under torture, his plan to go north following an “underground railroad to Boston.”

Vigilance Committees—created to protect escaped enslaved people from bounty hunters in New York in 1835 and Philadelphia in 1838—soon expanded their activities to guide enslaved people on the run. By the 1840s, the term Underground Railroad was part of the American vernacular.

How the Underground Railroad Worked

Most of the enslaved people helped by the Underground Railroad escaped border states such as Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland.

In the deep South, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 made capturing escaped enslaved people a lucrative business, and there were fewer hiding places for them. Fugitive enslaved people were typically on their own until they got to certain points farther north.

People known as “conductors” guided the fugitive enslaved people. Hiding places included private homes, churches and schoolhouses. These were called “stations,” “safe houses,” and “depots.” The people operating them were called “stationmasters.”

There were many well-used routes stretching west through Ohio to Indiana and Iowa. Others headed north through Pennsylvania and into New England or through Detroit on their way to Canada.

Fugitive Slave Acts

The reason many escapees headed for Canada was the Fugitive Slave Acts . The first act, passed in 1793, allowed local governments to apprehend and extradite escaped enslaved people from within the borders of free states back to their point of origin, and to punish anyone helping the fugitives. Some Northern states tried to combat this with Personal Liberty Laws, which were struck down by the Supreme Court in 1842.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was designed to strengthen the previous law, which was felt by southern states to be inadequately enforced. This update created harsher penalties and set up a system of commissioners that promoted favoritism towards owners of enslaved people and led to some formerly enslaved people being recaptured. For an escaped person, the northern states were still considered a risk.

Meanwhile, Canada offered Black people the freedom to live where they wanted, sit on juries, run for public office and more, and efforts at extradition had largely failed. Some Underground Railroad operators based themselves in Canada and worked to help the arriving fugitives settle in.

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman was the most famous conductor for the Underground Railroad.

Born an enslaved woman named Araminta Ross, she took the name Harriet (Tubman was her married name) when, in 1849, she escaped a plantation in Maryland with two of her brothers. They returned a couple of weeks later, but Tubman left again on her own shortly after, making her way to Pennsylvania.

Tubman later returned to the plantation on several occasions to rescue family members and others. On her third trip, she tried to rescue her husband, but he had remarried and refused to leave.

Distraught, Tubman reported a vision of God, after which she joined the Underground Railroad and began guiding other escaped slaves to Maryland. Tubman regularly took groups of escapees to Canada, distrusting the United States to treat them well.

Frederick Douglass

Formerly enslaved person and famed writer Frederick Douglass hid fugitives in his home in Rochester, New York, helping 400 escapees make their way to Canada. Former fugitive Reverend Jermain Loguen, who lived in neighboring Syracuse, helped 1,500 escapees go north.

Robert Purvis, an escaped enslaved person turned Philadelphia merchant, formed the Vigilance Committee there in 1838. Former enslaved person and railroad operator Josiah Henson created the Dawn Institute in 1842 in Ontario to help escapees who made their way to Canada learn needed work skills.

New York City-based escapee Louis Napoleon’s occupation as listed on his death certificate was “Underground R.R. Agent.” He was a key figure guiding fugitives he found at the docks and train stations.

John Parker was a free Black man in Ohio, a foundry owner who took a rowboat across the Ohio River to help fugitives cross. He was also known to make his way into Kentucky and enter plantations to help enslaved people escape.

William Still was a prominent Philadelphia citizen who had been born to fugitive enslaved parents in New Jersey. An associate of Tubman’s, Still also kept a record of his activities in the Underground Railroad and was able to keep it safely hidden until after the Civil War, when he published them, offering one of the clearest accounts of Underground Railroad activity at the time.

Who Ran the Underground Railroad?

Most Underground Railroad operators were ordinary people, farmers and business owners, as well as ministers. Some wealthy people were involved, such as Gerrit Smith, a millionaire who twice ran for president. In 1841, Smith purchased an entire family of enslaved people from Kentucky and set them free.

One of the earliest known people to help fugitive enslaved people was Levi Coffin, a Quaker from North Carolina. He started around 1813 when he was 15 years old.

Coffin said that he learned their hiding places and sought them out to help them move along. Eventually, they began to find their way to him. Coffin later moved to Indiana and then Ohio, and continued to help escaped enslaved people wherever he lived.

A portrait of John Brown (May 9, 1800-December 2, 1859). Brown was an American abolitionist who advocated the use of armed insurrection to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States.

Abolitionist John Brown was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, during which time he established the League of Gileadites, devoted to helping fugitive enslaved people get to Canada.

Brown would play many roles in the abolition movement, most famously leading a raid on Harper’s Ferry to create an armed force to make its way into the deep south and free enslaved people by gunpoint. Brown’s men were defeated, and Brown hanged for treason in 1859.

By 1837 Reverend Calvin Fairbank was helping enslaved people escape from Kentucky into Ohio. In 1844 he partnered with Vermont schoolteacher Delia Webster and was arrested for helping an escaped enslaved woman and her child. He was pardoned in 1849, but was arrested again and spent another 12 years in jail.

Charles Torrey was sent to prison for six years in Maryland for helping an enslaved family escape through Virginia. He operated out of Washington, D.C. , and had previously worked as an abolitionist newspaper editor in Albany, New York.

Massachusetts sea captain Jonathan Walker was arrested in 1844 after he was caught with a boatload of escaped enslaved people that he was trying to help get north. Walker was fined and jailed for a year, and branded on his right hand the letters “SS” for Slave Stealer.

John Fairfield of Virginia rejected his slave-holding family to help rescue the left-behind families of enslaved people who made it north. Fairfield’s method was to travel in the south posing as a slave trader. He broke out of jail twice. He died in 1860 in Tennessee during a rebellion .

End of the Line

The Underground Railroad ceased operations about 1863, during the Civil War. In reality, its work moved aboveground as part of the Union effort against the Confederacy.

Harriet Tubman once again played a significant part by leading intelligence operations and fulfilling a command role in Union Army operations to rescue the emancipated enslaved people.

Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad. Fergus Bordewich . Harriet Tubman: The Road To Freedom. Catherine Clinton . Who Really Ran the Underground Railroad? Henry Louis Gates . The Little Known History of the Underground Railroad in New York. Smithsonian Magazine . The Perilous Lure of the Underground Railroad. The New Yorker .

good essay titles for underground railroad

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The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead

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The Underground Railroad Essays

Delusion and reality in the underground railroad tyler rodgers college, the underground railroad.

The realms of delusion and reality are typically intrinsically separated, existing as opposites in the spectrum between myth and actuality. In The Underground Railroad however, Colson Whitehead merges fantastical and mythical elements with...

Past and Future Blues: A Comparison of Historical Themes in 'Sonny's Blues' and 'The Underground Railroad' Anonymous 11th Grade

The past is anything but mere history; it sheathes, surrounds, and encompasses us, as humans, as we forge on through life. Similarly, in two eminent American works of fiction - The Underground Railroad, The Cafeteria, and Sonny’s Blues - the past...

Rewriting the Past Saayeh Siahmakoun College

In Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, one of her character’s notes that “we believe the one who has the power... So when you study history, you must always ask yourself, ‘Whose story am I missing?’” (Gyasi 239). With this in mind, novels of historical...

Underground Railroad: The Railroad To The North As A Metaphor For Freedom Anonymous 11th Grade

In the Underground Railroad, author Colson Whitehead uses the metaphorical instrument of the railroad to the North to portray the deep, systematic roots of the struggles that many still face today. While Cora’s story shows us how far we have come...

good essay titles for underground railroad

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The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead: Physical and Linguistic Violence

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good essay titles for underground railroad

Harriet Tubman Essay: Topics, Outline, & Ideas

An essay about Harriet Tubman is to focus on the biography and accomplishments of a famous American abolitionist and political activist of the 19 th century. Harriet Tubman was born into slavery, escaped it herself, and helped others escape it. She changed many jobs throughout her lifetime, being a housekeeper, a nanny, a cook, an outdoor worker. However, everyone knows her as “a conductor of the Underground Railway,” as an “American Moses.” She made about 13 missions and rescued 70 enslaved people.

Our specialists will write a custom essay specially for you!

Need to write a Harriet Tubman essay and don’t know where to start? No worries! Custom writing experts have prepared useful tips on making an outline and Harriet Tubman thesis statement. You will also find some ideas for the introduction and conclusion of your essay or research paper, as well as a list of topics and questions to inspire you even more.

  • 📚 How to Write It
  • 🔸 Prompt #1
  • 🔸 Prompt #2
  • 🔸 Prompt #3
  • 🗂️ Essay Topics

🔗 References

📚 harriet tubman essay: where to start.

There are many ways in which you can write a paper. This part of the article will focus on the structure for the 5-paragraph essay on Harriet Tubman. Further down, you will learn how you can use this outline and fill it with content.

A standard essay structure looks like this:

  • Introduction

The introduction should move from general information to more specific. You should start by presenting the topic. For instance, for your Harriet Tubman essay, you can give some initial information:

  • her greatest achievement,
  • her influence on African American history,
  • her role in the slavery abolitionist movement in the United States.

The next part of your Harriet Tubman essay introduction should prepare the reader for the thesis statement. It can be a sentence, a rhetoric question, or a quote with a brief explanation of your position.

Just in 1 hour! We will write you a plagiarism-free paper in hardly more than 1 hour

  • Thesis Statement

A thesis statement tells the reader what your position is. Try to find some aspect of the topic that you can argue in the paper. A thesis statement for the essay about Harriet Tubman can be something provocative, like saying she influenced the American Civil War outcome.

This section is where you provide arguments for your position and develop a discussion. It is a way to demonstrate your knowledge of the material and ability to make connections. Find examples from Harriet Tubman’s biography to prove her importance to American history.

In Harriet Tubman essay conclusion, you should restate your answer to the question. Give a summary of the main point and make a final statement. Remember that the last paragraph should not have any new ideas or information.

Now let’s move to Harriet Tubman essay prompts!

🔖 Harriet Tubman: Essay Prompts

Writing a paper becomes a real challenge when you aren’t sure what to write about. In this section, learn how to start and develop your essay on one of the proposed topics.

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🔸 Essay Prompt #1

If you are short on time but want to write an excellent essay on Harriet Tubman, use the following outline.

  • Start with general information about Mrs. Tubman. Recollect everything learned in class and carry out additional research to introduce new facts. Explain in the introductory paragraph of your Harriet Tubman essay why you are writing about her.
  • Tell about some significant periods and events in her life. It can be the body paragraphs of your essay on Harriet Tubman. Do not forget to include info about how she helped slaves escape, her participation in the American Civil War, etc.
  • In the concluding paragraph, summarize everything said. Explain what you find the most impressive about Harriet’s life and deeds and restate your thesis.

Check out Harriet Tubman essay examples to ensure your structure and reasoning are as good as they can be.

🔸 Essay Prompt #2

You can be more creative when writing your Harriet Tubman essay if you have time for that. Try to answer the following questions in your paper:

  • What is your definition of freedom?
  • Can you think of anything that you would give away your freedom for?
  • What would you do to escape if you were a slave?
  • If you were a slave, would you trust Harriet Tubman and follow her?

🔸 Essay Prompt #3

If you need to write an essay about your role model or an inspirational person in your life, you can use Harriet Tubman for that. Just follow these five steps:

  • Identify your role model’s impact on you. Remember to make it personal even though it is about Harriet Tubman. Think about the qualities you admire in her. You can focus on her sense of justice and love of freedom. It would be best if you also wrote about how these qualities played out in your life. Maybe you decided to act courageously or fight injustice.
  • Have a main focused point. The reader should understand what you’re trying to say. Try to think about one or two main points of the essay. You can find several interesting facts from Harriet Tubman’s life to write about. For instance, the fact that she was born into slavery and helped others to escape it.
  • Illustrate your points with suitable examples. Every good essay should have examples. There are plenty of facts and stories that demonstrate how strong Harriet Tubman was.
  • The finish on a memorable note. Harriet Tubman was an abolitionist and social reformer. She was so successful in her efforts to freedom that she called herself “Moses.”
  • Read it once again. Read your essay out loud and ask your friends and family to read it too. Ask them if the paper shows how Harriet Tubman has influenced you.

🗂️ Harriet Tubman: Essay Topics

In this section of the article, you will find 50 essay topics. These ideas can help you greatly to write an outstanding paper about Harriet Tubman.

Get an originally-written paper according to your instructions!

  • The role of Harriet Tubman in US history . Not only she led 300 slaves out of slavery, but she helped to defeat slavery in the United States as an institution. In your essay, you can speak about her achievements as an escaped enslaved woman who became a conductor on the Underground Railroad.
  • How did Harriet Tubman change the world ? Her historical significance goes far beyond American History. She is indeed a hero in every sense of this word.
  • Free African Americans in the United States before the abolition. Talk about free African Americans in the IS in the Antebellum Period. How did they live? What were the ways to get freedom? How did Harriet Tubman get her liberty?
  • Fight against slavery . >In this essay, you can write about how Harriet Tubman fought slavery before, during, and after the Civil War.
  • A role model for Black Feminism . Elaborate on the concept of Black Feminism and what makes it different. Then discuss Harriet Tubman’s role in it.
  • An underground railroad . In this essay, speak about the political background of the railroad, as well as its structure and the routes.
  • Harriet Tubman Role in the Civil War . Not many people know that Tubman worked as the Union Army nurse, a cook, and a spy during the Civil War. Her experience and knowledge helped in organizing the operations too.
  • Harriet Tubman Life after the Underground Railroad . The woman had a very long life. She lived until 1913. Talk about her participation in the Civil War and her work in the suffragist movement.
  • What challenges did Harriet Tubman face? She faced many challenges in her life: the legal prospect of imprisonment, health problems, the possibility of re- enslavement . Nevertheless, she never gave up on her courageous work.
  • Harriet Tubman’s Biography . This essay can tell the significant events in her life. She had a long and fruitful life, and you can try to tell her story engagingly.
  • Harriet Tubman as a famous African-American female leader .
  • The influence of Harriet Tubman on African American history.
  • Explore the role of women in the Civil War .
  • The life of African Americans after abolition of slavery .
  • Describe the most famous activists of the abolitionist movement .
  • The role of free African American women during slavery .
  • Can Harriet Tubman be considered as a role model for modern Americans?
  • How did Harriet Tubman help African Americans to escape slavery ?
  • Harriet Tubman as one of the leaders of abolitionist movement.
  • Life and work of Harriet Tubman after the Civil War .
  • Causes of the Civil War in the United States.
  • How the abolition of slavery changed the lives of African Americans.
  • Is racism the consequence of slavery ?
  • Discuss the connection between slavery and discrimination in the modern world.
  • The role of African American soldiers in the Civil War .
  • Analyze the beginning of the period of slavery in America .
  • Describe the connection between abolitionist and women’s right movement .
  • Examine the peculiarities of abolitionist movement and its ideology.
  • How the Antebellum Period encouraged propagation of slavery.
  • The status of African Americans during and after the Civil War.
  • The effect of the Compromise of 1850 on slavery.
  • Discuss the specifics of plantation slavery in the Southern States.
  • The role of Harriet Tubman in inspiring the slaves to escape.
  • Evolution of civil rights for African Americans from the Civil War to the present day .
  • The relationship between religion and slavery .
  • How did Harriet Tubman manage to escape slavery ?
  • How were women treated during slavery in the North American colonies?
  • Analyze the significance of Harriet Tubman as the first female in the US history that served in the military during the Civil War .
  • Harriet Tubman’s participation in the woman suffrage movement .
  • The significant impact of black women-activists on the Civil War.
  • Was the Civil War really a fight for freedom and equality?
  • Describe the events that led to the end of slavery .
  • The origin of the woman suffrage movement in the US.
  • Describe the qualities of Harriet Tubman you admire.
  • Harriet Tubman’s role as the Underground Railroad conductor.
  • How the concept of slavery is harmful to both the slaves and the slaveholders.
  • Discuss the change in feminist movement ideology since 19 th century.
  • Gender and slavery in American history.
  • Analyze the role of Harriet Tubman as one of the first feminist movement activists among African American women.
  • Describe how the personality of Harriet Tubman influenced you.

Essays on the American Civil War and papers on slavery can inspire you as well.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article and you found it helpful. Now you know how to write an essay on Harriet Tubman. Share it with your friends and peers who may need our tips. Good luck with your paper!

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  • How to Write An Essay: Centre for Critical Development Studies, University of Toronto Scarborough
  • Harriet Tubman Essay: Bartleby
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  1. Underground Railroad Essays (Examples)

    Underground Railroad Looked Both Ways. PAGES 2 WORDS 705. The Underground Railroad was an informal network of aide and assistance for those who would escape the bondage of slavery and seek freedom. Besides the Underground Railroad made famous by American History, other such systems have offered similar services.

  2. The Underground Railroad Essay Questions

    The Underground Railroad Essay Questions. 1. In your opinion, why does Colson Whitehead make the Underground Railroad a literal railroad? What function does this play in the novel? The physical reality of a literal railroad amplifies the colossal effort of those who used the real Underground Railroad. Cora dwells on the immensity of the labor ...

  3. The Underground Railroad: [Essay Example], 487 words

    The Underground Railroad. During 1700s-1865, free African Americans and white abolitionists who were against slavery, developed a secret network of people who helped fugitive slaves in their escape from slavery. The people who aided the slaves were known as "conductors". The fugitive slaves hid in private homes, churches, and schoolhouses.

  4. What topics could be researched about the Underground Railroad?

    Having the Underground Railroad as the starting point for a research paper is a fairly narrowed down topic; however, there are lots of different directions that you could go with the research.

  5. The Underground Railroad Essay Questions

    The Underground Railroad. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

  6. About The Underground Railroad: [Essay Example], 639 words

    The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by enslaved African Americans to escape to freedom in the years before the Civil War in the United States. This clandestine system, which operated from the late 18th century to the Civil War, was not a physical railroad, but rather a complex network of people, places ...

  7. The Underground Railroad Study Guide

    The Underground Railroad is an example of a neo-slave narrative, a term coined by Ishmael Reed that refers to a work of literature written in the contemporary era that is set during the slavery era and tells the story from the perspective of enslaved characters. Other examples of neo-slave narratives include Octavia Butler's Kindred, Toni Morrison's Beloved, Marlon James' The Book of ...

  8. The Underground Railroad Essay Topics

    The Underground Railroad. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

  9. The Underground Railroad

    noun. process and condition of owning another human being or being owned by another human being. Underground Railroad. noun. system used by abolitionists between 1800-1865 to help enslaved African Americans escape to free states. During the era of slavery, the Underground Railroad was a network of routes, places, and people that helped enslaved ...

  10. Underground Railroad

    Updated: March 29, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009. The Underground Railroad was a network of people, African American as well as white, offering shelter and aid to escaped enslaved people from ...

  11. "The Underground Railroad: A Path To Freedom?" Argumentative/Persuasive

    In this extended writing task, students will read, analyze, and gather relevant information from text (s) and write an argumentative essay. Students will. Examine the history of the Underground Railroad. Analyze the ideas of freedom that escaped slaves gained. Read, analyze, and gather relevant information from multiple texts.

  12. What would be a good thesis about Harriet Tubman and the Underground

    An effective thesis to drive an essay could read something like this: As an active abolitionist, Harriet Tubman not only used an existing system, the Underground Railroad, to guide enslaved people ...

  13. The Underground Railroad Essays

    The Underground Railroad. The past is anything but mere history; it sheathes, surrounds, and encompasses us, as humans, as we forge on through life. Similarly, in two eminent American works of fiction - The Underground Railroad, The Cafeteria, and Sonny's Blues - the past... The Underground Railroad essays are academic essays for citation.

  14. Essay about Underground Railroad

    Throughout history, the underground railroad is one of the most famous topics when considering slavery. The underground railroad freed hundreds of slaves and was led by an American hero, Harriet Tubman. Slaves had it hard when it comes to their living conditions. They had only the minimum of what they needed.

  15. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead: Physical ...

    "Stolen bodies working stolen land. It was an engine that didn't stop, its hungry boiler fed with blood. " These words of Colson Whitehead in his novel "The Underground Railroad" perfectly describe the cruelty, black people faced not only in the cotton plantations in the south of America where the racial violence took its extreme practice, but also in the other parts of America where ...

  16. Underground Railroad Essay

    The Underground Railroad was a network of people who assisted fugitive slaves. Slaves that escaped from the south to the North and then to Canada. Run away slaves received assistance along the way from individuals who were involved in this network. The organization became successful the estimated 1810 and 1850, 100,000 slaves escaped from the ...

  17. The Underground Railroad Rhetorical Analysis Essay

    In the fictional novel, The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead writes about slavery and it's unfortunate/ dishonorable history. He includes the racial discrimination against African Americans to show the past and present issues with racism in America. Cora, the protagonist as well as other slaves from the text are utilized as symbols for ...

  18. PDF The Underground Railroad

    plantation and make her way to freedom by using the underground railroad. Rather than figuring the railroad as a network of peo-ple helping Cora move in secret, Whitehead's novel transforms the underground railroad into a real train. This essay considers the effects of the novel's speculative premise in conjunction with its

  19. PDF Underground Railroad Resources in the U.S.

    A special resource study published in 1995 determined that there were sufficient resources available and suggested a variety of approaches for commemoration of the Underground Railroad. Operating under the 1990 legislation, the National Park Service has produced educational materials and technical support for researchers.

  20. The Underground Railroad Essay

    The Underground Railroad Harriet Tubman was considered to be the "conductor of the Underground Railroad.". Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in 1819 or 1822, in Dorchester County, Maryland. "Her Birth date is unknown as paper records of slaves' births were not kept at the time. Araminta Ross also known as Harriet Tubman changed her ...

  21. Harriet Tubman Essay: Topics, Outline, & Ideas

    An underground railroad. In this essay, speak about the political background of the railroad, as well as its structure and the routes. Harriet Tubman Role in the Civil War. Not many people know that Tubman worked as the Union Army nurse, a cook, and a spy during the Civil War. Her experience and knowledge helped in organizing the operations too.

  22. Underground Railroad Essay Outline

    Underground Railroad Essay Outline. Good Essays. 1333 Words. 6 Pages. Open Document. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 1 The Underground Railroad Raymond Allen Setlock West Catholic High School THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 2 Our country's history had its good times and also its bad times. One of our bad times in our country's history was the time when ...