During the 1830s, people began using the term “Underground Railroad” to refer to a loose network of individuals who provided hiding places for runaway slaves and helped them move forward on their journey to freedom.

Working for the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia, a free black man named William Still aided hundreds of fugitives passing through the city on their way north. From these runaway slaves, Still heard painful stories of humiliation and cruelty, along with inspiring accounts of their determination to escape. He wrote down what the fugitives told him and, after the Civil War, published their remarkable accounts in a book entitled The Underground Railroad.