Free Essays on Underground Railroad

â€Å"That face of his, the hungry cannibals Would not have touched, would not have stained with blood; But you are more inhuman, more inexorable, Oh! ten times more than tigers of Hyrcania.† Shakespeare I chose the topic about slavery for my research paper because I thought it would be an interesting experience doing research about slavery. It is American history and the more we know about it, the better we can understand what is going on today in our country. I think that because slavery was abolished very recently in terms of historical periods of time, it still has an impact on today’s economic and political life. Searching for the writings by slave owners was a more difficult task then searching for the writings by slaves. However, I found a lot of useful material in various sources. The slavery in the United States is no doubt a shameful history of our country. White people transferred the slaves living in Africa to the New Land and treated them as their property, not as human beings. The living and working conditions of slaves and their food were extremely poor. Those were inhuman conditions in which the slaves had to survive. Endless executions of the slaves made the situation even worse. Slavery was a period of time when one race treated the other race as animals, things, property, but not as people. Unfortunately, not everyone saw the situation as it was in reality at that time. As we can see from many different sources available today, the points of view of slaves and slave owners on slavery were the opposite to each other. That can be seen in various slaves’ and slave owners’ descriptions of slavery. Slaves described their dwellings, food, clothes, labor, and the terrible treatment of slaves by their masters. On the other hand, slave owners described the relationships between slaves and their masters in a very positive way. They argued that slavery is very beneficial for the slaves and the slaves are very happy to liv... Free Essays on Underground Railroad Free Essays on Underground Railroad â€Å"That face of his, the hungry cannibals Would not have touched, would not have stained with blood; But you are more inhuman, more inexorable, Oh! ten times more than tigers of Hyrcania.† Shakespeare I chose the topic about slavery for my research paper because I thought it would be an interesting experience doing research about slavery. It is American history and the more we know about it, the better we can understand what is going on today in our country. I think that because slavery was abolished very recently in terms of historical periods of time, it still has an impact on today’s economic and political life. Searching for the writings by slave owners was a more difficult task then searching for the writings by slaves. However, I found a lot of useful material in various sources. The slavery in the United States is no doubt a shameful history of our country. White people transferred the slaves living in Africa to the New Land and treated them as their property, not as human beings. The living and working conditions of slaves and their food were extremely poor. Those were inhuman conditions in which the slaves had to survive. Endless executions of the slaves made the situation even worse. Slavery was a period of time when one race treated the other race as animals, things, property, but not as people. Unfortunately, not everyone saw the situation as it was in reality at that time. As we can see from many different sources available today, the points of view of slaves and slave owners on slavery were the opposite to each other. That can be seen in various slaves’ and slave owners’ descriptions of slavery. Slaves described their dwellings, food, clothes, labor, and the terrible treatment of slaves by their masters. On the other hand, slave owners described the relationships between slaves and their masters in a very positive way. They argued that slavery is very beneficial for the slaves and the slaves are very happy to liv... Free Essays on Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad The idea of freedom is as old as American slavery itself. The desire for freedom was in the mind of almost every slave. Freedom was always the dream at the back of every slaves mind; is it possible? What would it be like? Finally, how can I obtain it? For the great majority of the enslaved, hope lied northward. The passion to be free grew so strong in many slaves, that they risked their lives to find it. Not only did they want it for themselves, but for all who were held captive by slavery. Many ex-slaves, who had made it to freedom, returned to the south to help guide other slaves to the promise of freedom. Blacks and whites working together created a system of moving slaves to freedom called the Underground Railroad. Slavery in America developed as a response to economics. The major crops and exports of the southern states were tobacco, rice, cotton, and sugar. These crops required longs hours of hard work in the hot sun, time consuming, backbreaking labor, and a cheap source of laborers. Slavery was the answer to all of these problems. From the very beginning, people tried to escape from slavery with varying degrees of success. By the early 19th century, white and black abolitionists, African American Slaves, American Indians, and members of religious groups including Quakers, Methodists, and Baptists were involved in the abolitionist movement. These groups established a fluid and informal system of aiding escapees that came to be called the Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a vast network of people who helped fugitive slaves escape to the North and to Canada. It was not run by any single organization or person, rather, it consisted of many individuals, many whites but predominantly black, who knew only of the local efforts to aid fugitives and not of the overall operation. Still, it effectively moved hundreds of slaves northward each year. This organized system to assist runaw...