The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad review

Most scholars only tell about the legitimate struggle for the abolition of slavery but Foner goes ahead and tells what had to be done in secret to get fugitives to freedom. The book is set at a time when New York City was home to the largest group of free slaves from the north and they could be seen roaming and doing business in the streets. This made the city a magnet to fugitive slaves seeking refuge. However, slave catchers and kidnappers roamed around in the city seeking free slaves especially kids and selling them off to the south. Summary Before reading it, the subtitle seems misleading because it suggests that there was a certain underground railroad while in the real sense it has been used metaphorically to refer to the secret arrangements that were made by free black anti-slavery activists and their white counterparts who were also willing to assist fugitives to run off to freedom.