My flash story earlier today made me want to read more about what life was like for slaves once they made it to their destinations. Great read.
During the mid-19th Century, Canada was the end of the line for runaway slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. It is estimated that between 1850 (when the American congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law) and 1865 (the end of the US Civil War), more than 100,000 African-American slaves escaped to Canada, with most settling in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.
For many slaves, Canada represented a dream of freedom where slave catchers and lynch mobs couldn’t hurt them. Slaves on the Underground Railroad endured months, and even years, of living like fugitives while bounty hunters and racist government policies were always trying to impede their flight to freedom.
Most slaves started out their journey on the Underground Railroad (which wasn’t an actual railroad but more of a resistance and escape route that was heavily organized by concerned American citizens) by running away from their plantation in the middle of the…
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Jennifer Terry 