Embedded Resource
Description
This brief video excerpt from Iowa Public Television's "Civil War" program focuses on enslaved people seeking freedom through the Underground Railroad that included Iowa cities such as Tabor, Lewis, Des Moines, Grinnell, Iowa City, West Liberty, Low Moor and Clinton. Most of the slaves who passed through the Iowa escape network entered from Missouri or Kansas. The main route through Iowa started in Tabor. Quakers were strongly opposed to slavery and a number of their homes in Salem and Keosauqua became ticket offices on the Underground Railroad. Many towns later claimed to be, and probably were, stops on the Underground Railroad. The route was occasionally changed to throw off southern boundary hunters, who tracked down the escapees for money.
Source-Dependent Questions
- What is an abolitionist?
- Why would there need to be so much secrecy with the Underground Railroad?
- The Underground Railroad was not an actual railroad or under ground. Why would this movement be called the Underground Railroad?
Citation Information
"The Civil War," The Iowa Heritage: Program #5 - Iowa Public Television, 1977. Courtesy of Iowa Public Television