'''The Underground Railroad''' is a greatly exaggerated image of a network of safe houses to help runaway slaves from the South make it into [[Canada ]] in the 1840s and 1850s. A few hundred runaways did use safe houses. But after the [[American Civil War|Civil War ]] thousands of people claimed their house had served as part of the system.
There was no system. Most runaways were recaptured but the fortunate few were aided by abolitionists and—more often—hidden by the black communities in towns just north of the Mason–Dixon line separating the free states and the slave states. A few hundred made their way to Canada, where they faced discrimination like the North, but where there was no risk of being recaptured and returned to slavery. The [[Compromise of 1850]] required the [[U.S. ]] government to return fugitive slaves, making the runaway issue highly visible in the emotion-charged debates leading to the Civil War. By far the most famous treatment was the novel and play by Harriett Beecher Stowe, ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1854).
==Image and memory==
In the 21st century conservative right-to-life advocates invoke abolitionists aiding fugitive slaves to justify civil disobedience aimed at abortion providers, while liberals see in the Underground Railroad an example of interracial collaboration that speaks to the needs for better race relations.