Refugees from slavery in the United States.
Refugees from slavery in the United States.
(Ontario, Canada, ca. 1850. Photographer: unknown. Schomburg Center, Photographs and Prints Division)
Runaway slaves were among the first voluntary African migrants in the Americas. These fugitives from plantations and other slavery systems ran away to cities or outlying areas where they could enjoy more freedom or establish their own communities. Soon after the War of 1812, Upper Canada's Attorney General announced that residence in Canada made blacks free. By 1820 definite routes into Canada had been established. It is conservatively estimated that 30,000 slaves used this "Underground Railroad" to escape to freedom aided by freed blacks, Quakers and Methodists as well as by individuals like John Mason and Harriet Tubman, both escaped slaves, who risked recapture to lead runaways to freedom.