A common legend of the Underground Railroad, which can be traced to the latter decades of the nineteenth century, emphasized that well-meaning white people “ran” the freedom network to assist enslaved people, who otherwise remained helplessly in bondage. According to the historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr., in the face of a dominating Southern interpretation of the meaning of the Civil War, many white Northerners sought to preserve a heroic version of their past and found a useful tool in legends of the Underground Railroad. These legends placed white conductors in heroic and romantic roles in the struggle for black freedom. This mythology was facilitated by the difficulty researchers faced in identifying both blacks escaping slavery and free blacks who acted as conductors. Many African Americans involved in the Underground Railroad still remain anonymous, though historians and activists lately have sought to identify them. As you read about individuals in this exhibit, ask yourself their agency, or responsibility for their own freedom and that of other enslaved people, changes the history of the Underground Railroad.
