Underground Railroad, in U.S. history, loosely organized system
for helping fugitive slaves escape to Canada or to areas of
safety in free states. It was run by local groups of Northern
abolitionists, both white and free blacks. The metaphor first
appeared in print in the early 1840s, and other railroad
terminology was soon added. The escaping slaves were called
passengers; the homes where they were sheltered, stations; and
those who guided them, conductors. This nomenclature, along with
the numerous, somewhat glorified, personal reminiscences written
by conductors in the postwar period, created the impression that
the Underground Railroad was a highly systematized, national,
secret organization that accomplished prodigious feats in
stealing slaves away from the South. In fact, most of the help
given to fugitive slaves on their varied routes north was
spontaneously offered and came not only from abolitionists or
self-styled members of the Underground Railroad, but from anyone
moved to sympathy by the plight o