“Daily Life Along the Underground Railroad” by Cassandra Newby-Alexander
c.2026, Bloomsbury Academic $75.00 184 pages
Head down. Keep it covered.
Make yourself as small as possible and don’t say a word. Don’t even sneeze, but when the time is right, be ready to jump and run. Run, zig-zag, crouched and quiet and don’t stop. As in “Daily Life Along the Underground Railroad” by Cassandra Newby-Alexander, it’s not easy but people did it every day for decades.
It was 1853 and Harriet Jacobs was “miserable.”
“The monster who owned her” was abusing her, and his wife was jealous. Resulting children “bore too strong a resemblance to him,” and it naturally vexed Jacobs. In 1861, she published a book about it; says Newby-Alexander, “…the story of Harriet Jacobs… represents the life of many who were victims of slavery yet managed to escape…”
Though the danger existed for those who helped the enslaved escape, the Underground Railroad was strengthened by many people willing to shelter and shield those on the run. Cooks and stewards, Quakers, stationmasters and the formerly enslaved did their part, knowing that if they were caught, it could mean imprisonment or worse. Says Newby-Alexancer, slavery was “big business,” often more lucrative than grain and tobacco crops the enslaved harvested. Escaped slaves were lost money.
The reasons for escape were many and varied, as were the methods of escape.
Some formerly-enslaved people walked away from their owners, just like that. Some ran, in broad daylight or overnight, leaving behind spouses and children with the hopes of reunion later. Some methodically made their way to seaports, where Black mariners would ferry them north to safe American cities; others went to Mexico or to Canada. Still others found their way to “Free Black Communities,” to the Great Dismal Swamp near Norfolk, Virginia, or “Maroon communities” or among Indigenous people.
Kidnapping back into slavery was a constant threat, and being caught could make things worse. Laws were often lax. And while freedom was obviously overwhelmingly desirous, Newby-Alexander says that it was still “not a perfect happy ending…”
No doubt, you’ve heard the story of Harriet Tubman many times – so much, perhaps, that her larger-than-life tale might seem to overshadow the help that others lent. “Daily Life Along the Underground Railroad” shows readers that Moses was far from the only conductor.
In this book, stirring accounts of action, terror, abuse, and righteous desperation will make you forget about any repetition you’ll find reading it. Author Cassandra Newby-Alexander brings to life tales of little-known conductors along the Underground Railroad, and enslaved people that were all but anonymous before. Readers may be particularly struck by the multitude of those who left family behind, often out of necessity, and by the complicated planning an escape took. These things, told plainly and with an urgency that still rings over the decades, will keep you glued to your seat.
