UNDERGROUND RAILROAD TOUR

On the Underground Railroad Historical Trail I run into a car-full of black women who did not know what the underground railroad was. I was so shocked by the question, it took me a little while to get the words together to explain. Looking back I would have just said "You're on it!" and explained more, instead of tiptoeing around the issue. I wanted to tell them that the Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad. Underground really means 'secret' or 'secret codes', like the black market is not actually a market that is black, but it's a way of buying and selling illegal or cheap goods. The 'railroad' part refers to the fact that there were people ('conductors') who helped runaways along the way, places ('stops') where they could hide, and secret code words and songs to help navigate people to freedom.