The Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad Records

The Underground Railroad by William Still. William Still (October 7, 1821 - July 14, 1902) was an African-American abolitionist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, conductor on the Underground Railroad, businessman, writer, historian and civil rights activist. Often called "The Father of the Underground Railroad", Still helped as many as 800 slaves escape to freedom. After the war, he remained an important businessman and philanthropist, as well as used his meticulous records to write an account of the underground system and the experiences of many refugee slaves, entitled The Underground Railroad Records (1872). The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early to mid-19th century, and used by African-American slaves to escape into free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. Like millions of my race, my mother and father were born slaves, but were not contented to live and die so. My father purchased himself in early manhood by hard toil. Mother saw no way for herself and children to escape the horrors of bondage but by flight. Bravely, with her four little ones, with firm faith in God and an ardent desire to be free, she forsook the prison-house, and succeeded, through the aid of my father, to reach a free State. Here life had to be begun anew. The old familiar slave names had to be changed, and others, for prudential reasons, had to be found. This was not hard work.