Underground Railroad

noun

variants or less commonly Underground Railway

: a system of cooperation among active antislavery people in the U.S. before 1863 by which people escaping enslavement were secretly helped to reach the North or Canada

Examples of Underground Railroad in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This novel offers a new perspective on the workings of the Underground Railroad, with its setting across several actual communities in northern Ohio in the mid-19th century. —The Know, The Denver Post, 3 Nov. 2024

It's believed that Broderick and his friend Col. Leonides K. Haskell, both outspoken anti-slavery officials, had hidden runaway slaves from the Underground Railroad in the cellar of Haskell's house. —Shawna Chen, Axios, 30 Oct. 2024

Yes, Mahalia!, 7:30 p.m., National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 E. Freedom Way, Downtown. —Luann Gibbs, The Enquirer, 20 Oct. 2024

And Spit on the Broom was a surrealist doc that put the history of the African American women’s group the United Order of Tents, a clandestine organization organized in the 1840s during the height of the Underground Railroad, center stage. —Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1842, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

Underground Railroad

noun

: a system of cooperation among active antislavery people in the U.S. before 1863 by which people escaping enslavement were secretly helped to reach the North or Canada