The famous Underground Railroad (UR) before and during the American Civil War (1810 – 1850) was a live network of overt, discreet and secret links (conductors) to pass enslaved negroes (approximate 100,000 – [6,000+ documented] passengers) from southern US states to free lands as far north as Canada using shelters (stations) along the way. –

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My focus here is not to cover the American Civil War but to cover survival tricks, evasion and facts associated with the Underground Railroad so You’re Ready Anytime Anywhere!

The Underground Railroad (UR) consisted of the following important elements:

Underground:  A secret network of conductors and hide sites established to secretly escort evaders from their current unwanted locations to safe locations no matter the distance involved.

Conductors:  A conductor is the person or persons secretly escorting the evader from their unwanted location to a temporary hide site using different discreet methods of disguise or hiding.  The conductor may hand-off the evader to another conductor to continue the evasion.

Hide Sites:  Hide sites can be any location to temporarily protect and conceal the evader.  A hide site can be underground, in a house, in the wilderness, motel rooms, vehicles of all types, boats, planes,…

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Let’s get started with UR Secret Six.

1st Note:  Slavery in America started in 1619 when 20 black servants were indentured (under contract of their employer – usually 04 to 07 years) in the original 13 colonies.

2nd Note:  Estimates of evading slaves that used the UR are as high as 100,000 but only 6,000 evaders can be historically documented.

3rd Note:  International terrorist organizations have their own “underground railroad” to covertly transport fighters, equipment, weapons, moneys,…

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UR Secret Six:  Every organization that operates needs money and the “The Secret Six” were financial backers and advisors to John Brown who initially was the main abolitionist (abolish slavery).  “The Secret Six” were not provided with UR operations so if anything went wrong, “The Secret Six” were innocent of any criminal charges.  The financial backing of “The Secret Six” was a huge step in the success of the UR.

Note:  Even coward terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda, Hamas,… need money to operate and in my humble opinion they’re financially supported by Iran, Syria, Egypt, China, Russia,… – enemies of Israel and the US.

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UR Black Jacks:  Black Jacks were West African sailors.  Sailing into the North Atlantic ports and ports to the south, Black Jacks supported the UR.  Some evading slaves stowed away on ships, some borrowed uniform and credentials of Black Jacks and some evading slaves took advantage of the latest scuttle butt provided by Black Jacks.  The support by Black Jacks brought on laws that jailed Black Jacks while their ship was in port in some southern states so to prevent them from supporting the Underground Railroad in any fashion.

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UR Baby Silencer:  The last thing you need while evading is making a lot of noise.  And evading slaves had to insure their babies stayed quiet.  To do this they gave their babies opium.  Today, opium is an illegal drug that’s used as an anesthesia (sleep).

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UR Outdoor Hide Sites:  Evading from South Carolina, Daniel Fisher and another slave were now in Virginia.  Waiting to stow away on a boat they hid in the woods for 03-months.  During those 03-months they hid in 03 different underground hide sites.  Rotating from one hide site to another, depending on the threat of capture, the 02 evaders hid during daylight hours and foraged for food at night.  Fisher and friend evaded their way to freedom.  To insure his freedom, Fisher changed his name to William Winters and he always wore a wig.

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UR Bloodhound Energy Food:  When slaves escaped and evaded, a group of men known as negro-hunters went after them.  The negro-hunters were on horseback and had vicious dogs that were part bloodhound and part fox hound.  To keep these dogs energetic so to chase down evading slaves, they were fed Indian cornbread.  Made mostly from corn, the cornbread is loaded with super energetic carbohydrates.  It was noted that the cornbread ‘made the dogs eager and lively for their business.’

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UR Above Ground Hide Site:  Harry Grimes escaped with his life.  His drunk master beat him and was about shoot him with a double barrel shotgun.  Grimes ran for the woods and his masters tried to get the dogs to run him down but Grimes fed and treated the dogs so good, they wouldn’t chase down Grimes.  Grimes evaded into the woods and found a great hide site.  He actually hid in a hollow of a big poplar tree for seven months.  All together, Grimes hid in the poplar tree and in a cave for 27-months before he was captured.

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UR Indoor Hide Sites:  Evading slaves enroute to freedom to the north occupied any hiding sites that kept them hidden from the negro-hunters.  They hid in attics, coal sacks, livery stables, potato sacks, storerooms, under feather beds,…  And to complement their hiding, evading slaves were disguised in various outfits, occupations,…

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UR Pearl Ash:  Pear ash is made from the ashes of burnt wood.  The wood ashes were used for making soap, glass and to wash wool.

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UR Swamp Evasion:  Attending the U.S. Army SERE Instructor Course, the subject one day was on anti-tracking.  I remember the instructor telling us to “go where nobody else wants to go.”  And that’s exactly what evading slaves did, they evaded into the swamps.  Swamps are inherently an anti-tracking environment.  With its water, mud, thick vegetation, heat & humidity, 24-hour nagging & biting insects, poisonous snakes, crocodillians,… evading slaves would rather hide in the dangerous swamps that be an abused slave.  Tracking dogs lost the fresh scents of evading slaves when picking up old scents of other evading slaves that were long gone.

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UR Hush Puppies:  Deacon Trowbridge a conductor of the Underground Railroad who smuggled hundreds of slaves through his home in Denmark, Iowa.  Trowbridge is noted to come up with the term “hush puppies.”  Since slaves were really hunted down by tracking dogs, Trowbridge went after the tracking dogs.  He killed tracking dogs by discreetly adding strychnine to their food – thus “hush puppies.”

Note:  For you soldiers that are evading and your captors are led by dogs – kill the dogs.

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UR Kneeling Miracle:  This evading Mississippi female slave’s name is unknown but her story lives forever.  Hearing stories of living in freedom in Canada, she was compelled to evade north being guided by the North star.  Evading several days, her northward journey led her to a swamp.  Using the water-laden swamp she managed to keep the tracking dogs at a distance for just a bit longer.  Far away from the swamp, the dogs were almost on her but she had no swamp nor any water to hide & evade.  She knew the dogs would literally tear her apart.

She knelt down and asked God to preserve her.  The pack of dogs advanced on her.  On her knees facing the vicious dogs, she reached in her pocket and pulled out some crumbs of bread and offered it to the killer dogs that never before showed any mercy.  The dogs came upon her, trotted around as she knelt there.  The dogs surprisingly ate the crumbs out of her hands, turned away and ran into the woods.  Then and there she knew she would dedicate her life to God.  See UR Raft and UR Woman’s Best Friend below.

Note:  Getting down on all fours (knees & hands) puts you on the level of a dog.  This action may stop an attacking dog.

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UR Raft:  You just read Kneeling Miracle.  This brave lady carried-on with her long-range evasion.  Finding and begging for food on her evasion, she managed to keep from starving.  But one threat to her evasion was crossing rivers.  She smartly managed to construct rafts using logs and poles tied together using grape-vines or hickory withes (looped bindings).  She propelled and navigates her rafts using poles or make-shift paddles.  This unknown brave evader eventually crossed into Canada where she was witnessed falling to her knees and kissed the shore thanking God for His mercy.  She then jumped up & down shouting and praising the Lord for 30-minutes.

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UR Anti-Tracking:  Isaac Berry an evading slave used a combination of anti-tracking techniques to throw the tracking dogs off his scent.

a) Raw Onions: Raw onions were rubbed on the backs of slaves. The super keen smell of the tracking dogs would pick up the strong onion scent and may be so strong, their noses were unable to get back on track of their original scent.

b) Water: Evading slaves got into waist-deep water and waded through it for some distance thus erasing their scented trail.

c) Pine Brush: Pines give off a strong pine scent. Pine brush was tied to both legs thus scenting their evading trail with pine instead of their own scent.  The tracking dogs lose the evading slaves original scented trail.

d) Cayenne Pepper: Hot cayenne pepper was placed in their shoes. It was also placed around the trees which they hid.  Cayenne pepper with even a low SHU (Scoville Heat Units) rating (1,000) can defeat just about any tracking dog.  Cayenne pepper with high SHU rating (350,000+) will stop ANY tracking dog, human,… in their tracks!

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UR Woman’s Best Friend:  Margaret Ward at the young age of 20 was single with her new born child Samuel.  Her husband was hauled off with other slaves to the New Orleans slave market.  Margaret worked hard in the fields and only had a couple opportunities to care for her baby.  One day she found a poisonous snake laying across the body of her baby who was senseless and exhausted from crying.

Desperate, Margaret revived her baby saving its life.  Then and there she swore that Samuel would never be enslaved and minutes later her evasion to the north was underway.  Margaret evaded to the north using the north star.  But within a mile or so, she noticed she was being tracked.  She was being tracked by a large dog named Watch.  Watch was always treated real nice by Margaret and Watch liked her so much he often visited her when she came in from the fields.  It turns out Watch stayed by her side during her evasion.

At one point when the lead and best bloodhound caught up with Margaret and her baby.  Margaret secured her baby to her shoulders and retreated into the river with a club.  The bloodhound advanced on Margaret and her baby unaware of Watch.  Watch pounced on the bloodhound and went for its wind-pipe for a quick kill and a quick kill it was.  Margaret threw the dead bloodhound in the river and off they went evading before the remaining pack of hounds caught up with them.  With the help of the Underground Railroad, Margaret, Samuel, and Watch eventually arrived to their freedom.

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UR Navigation:  Evading slaves used one navigational aid that was not only accurate but always there to see in at least half way good weather – the North Star.  Below are 04 North Stars that you should be familiar with according to the season.  See Sketches below.

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Seasonal Positions Of The Big Dipper

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UR Soil Rejuvenation:  This next fact may not be associated with the evading slaves but I had to capture this data so you can use it one day.  Anyway, tobacco was known to use up the nutrients in the soil in a short period of time.  So to renovate the soil, farmers used plaster of Paris followed by guano – bird feces from a South American bird.

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UR Free Papers:  Blacks that were free had “free papers” to prove they were not slaves.  However, evading slaves managed to acquire fake “free papers” so to live free.  These slaves had to keep a low profile so to avoid the census takers, authorities,… for a little research could reveal their “free papers” were fake.

1st Note:  As you read in POW Survival Tricks in past AASNs, fake credentials were fabricated to look so authentic, they were instrumental in some fantastic evasions.

2nd Note:  Identity theft victimizes approximately 000,000 Americans per year.  Fake credentials are used for small & large purchasers, cash withdrawals,… and ruins the credit of its victims.  See Credit and Identity Theft in the POC Section.

Important Note:  Ms. Harriet Tubman is no doubt an American hero.  Born Araminta Ross, a slave in 1823 in Dorchester County, Maryland, Ms. Tubman was a house servant in her youth.  In 1844 she married a free man named John Tubman.  In 1849, she escaped to freedom.  Prior to the American Civil War, Mr. Tubman made 19 daring missions into the South to lead slaves – to include her parents – back to the north to freedom.

She (the conductor) used the secret Underground Railroad, guiding many slaves (estimated at 300) north as far as Canada.  Ms. Harriet became known as “Moses.”  Her own home located in Auburn, New York was used as a “station” on the secret escape route.  During the American Civil War, Ms. Tubman courageously and bravely served Union forces as a cook, nurse, scout and even a spy.  In her later years, Ms. Tubman maintained a home for aged blacks.  She later died in 1913.  God Bless this Angel!

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