Alex Barse's Research

African Americans and the Road during Slavery

The one road that was available for African Americans during the time of slavery was the Underground Railroad. This was incredibly important for African Americans, because it was the only road solely used for escaping slaves and for those who helped them. There were no "roads" to take like there were for white people of the time. While free whites could take the train to travel and go places to fulfill their dreams, escaping slaves only had that informal network of safehouses and places of refuge, and the route in between those places was extremely dangerous.

The Underground Railroad did not just represent freedom for African Americans at the time. The road was a place of hope, as well as fear. There was a hope of starting somewhere new with one's family and having a completely new life. Even though the road itself held no guarantees for freedom, it still held hope. However, with that hope came fear. There was a fear of losing one's family on the road, being caught and forced back into slavery, and even worse there was the fear of what was to come once the road ended.