The liberty line
Subtitle: the legend of the underground railroad
By: Larry Gara.
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Lexington
Language: eng
Number of pages: 201
Subjects: Underground railroad; Fugitive slaves -- United States
Description: "The underground railroad - with its mysterious signals, secret depots, abolitionist heroes, and slave-hunting villains - has become part of American mythology. But legend has distorted much of the history of this institution, which Larry Gara carefully investigates in this important study. Gara show how pre-Civil War partisan propaganda, postwar reminiscences by fame-hungry abolitionists, and oral tradition helped foster the popular belief that a powerful secret organization spirited floods of slaves away from the South." "In contrast to that legend, the slaves themselves had active roles in their own escapes from slave states. They carried out their runs to the North, receiving aid only after they had reached territory where they still faced return under the Fugitive Slave Law. Thus, The Liberty Line places fugitive slaves in their rightful position: the center of their struggle for freedom."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Originally published: Lexington : University of Kentucky Press, 1961. With new pref.