Underground Railroad Research Papers

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The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad. Still, it was responsible for helping thousands of slaves find their way to freedom. This paper will examine the activities of the Underground Railroad in Kentucky. It will review primary and secondary literature to describe several views regarding the development and success of this response to slavery prior to the Civil War. Like the Underground Railroad that operated throughout the south and northern border states, the Kentucky abolitionists helped many African-Americans escape the South and find freedom in the North.

The Underground Railroad first developed in the states that bordered slave states, where slaves traveled if they were fortunate enough to escape, with or without a railroad. According to Siebert, there were many that lived along these borders that did not agree with slavery, and although they were bound by law to return runaway slaves, they often preferred to help them escape. This was nature of the Underground Railroad. Slowly, the connections of safe house grew until slaves were safely smuggled form southern bondage to northern freedom as far away as Canada.

Slaves from Kentucky were among the first to find their way to Canada. By 1860, approximately 500 slaves escaped to Canada each year. Among the escaped slaves that carried the word of Canadian emancipation were Josiah Henson and Harriet Tubman, two escaped slaves. A Canadian physician named Dr. Alexander Ross made trips through Kentucky to inform slaves about Canadian laws forbidding slavery.

Levi Coffin was a white man who became an abolitionist at a young age. In Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, he tells the story of what it was like to help slaves find their freedom. While living in Cincinnati, it was very unpopular to be an abolitionist, such as Coffin, yet was well connected with many people along the Underground Railroad. He notes that many slaves often came from Kentucky with hardly any clothes or provisions, and he and other families would help feed and cloth them for the trip farther north. Coffin writes that slaves would find ways to make a little extra money, then pay a white man to help them cross the Ohio River, out of Kentucky, and guide them to the underground railroad.

Custom Underground Railroad Research Papers from Paper Masters

A research paper is an in-depth examination of Underground Railroad. More than just an overview of what was learned on Underground Railroad, like a term paper is, a research paper contains analysis of Underground Railroad along the lines of organizational theory and relevant published material. Research papers are highly analytical and can often be more than 8 to 10 pages. The key to a good research project is the examination of recently published journal articles and peer-reviewed material on the Underground Railroad chosen. Like the name implies, research papers are exactly that, a paper that examines the information that can be found on Underground Railroad.