'''The Underground Railroad''' was is a greatly exaggerated image of a network of people who helped fugitive [[slave]]s safe houses to help runaway slaves from the south United States escape to South make it into Canada in the North 1840s and to [[Canada]]1850s. It was not run by any single organization or personA few hundred runaways did use safe houses. Rather, it consisted of many individuals — many whites but predominantly blacks — who knew only of But after the local efforts to aid fugitives and not Civil War thousands of the overall operation. Still, it effectively moved hundreds people claimed their house had served as part of slaves northward each year — according to some estimates, the South lost 100,000 slaves between 1810 and 1850system.
{{stub}}There was no system. Most runaways were recaptrued but the fortunate few were aided by abolitionists and--more often--by the black communities in towns along the route.
[[category:United States HistorySlavery]]