UNDERGROUND, the gripping new escape drama on
WGN America, tells the story of those unsung American
heroes, black and white, who struck the first blow
against slavery by creating the Underground Railroad.
The series follows a group of slaves who escape from
a Georgia plantation and make their way north with
the help of white abolitionists who are willing to
join them in defiance of the law and protect them
from their pursuers. At every step, these freedom
seekers must guard against discovery and betrayal as they
maneuver through an uncertain landscape amid the dangers of a hostile society. It
is a journey filled with risk and fear, daring and deception, courage and sacrifice, propelled
by an unwavering determination to break free.
Created by Misha Green and Joe Pokaski, UNDERGROUND stars Aldis Hodge, Jurnee
Smollett-Bell, Christopher Meloni, Alono Miller, Jessica De Gouw, Amirah Vann, Renwick
Scott, Marc Blucas, Mykelti Williamson, Adina Porter, Johnny Ray Gill, and Theodus Crane.
A WGN America Original Series, UNDERGROUND premieres Wednesday, March 9, at 10/9c.
To find WGN America in your area, visit http://wgnamerica.com/channel-finder.
© 2016 YMI, Inc.
UNDERGROUND presents an intense, suspenseful
portrayal of the Underground Railroad that may
come as a shock to those who imagine it as a secure
network that safely conveyed slaves to freedom.
In fact, as the series shows, the real experience
of traveling on the Underground Railroad was
far more arduous and unpredictable, more like
a series of life-or-death decisions than a simple
journey from one hiding place to the next.
The origins of the Underground
Railroad reach back to the late 18th
century, when free blacks and other
opponents of slavery in the North
began to organize on a local level to
actively assist escaped slaves who found
their way into their communities. By
the 1830’s, these separate and largely
uncoordinated efforts were being called
the Underground Railroad, after the newly
invented steam railroads then spreading
across the United States.
In time, as more individuals became involved
in the abolitionist movement, they began
to cooperate, forming a secret network of
supporters who sometimes used railway terms
as a code to conceal their actions. Safe houses were called
stations. Those who guided escaped slaves from station
to station were called conductors. And the escaped slaves
themselves were called passengers or cargo. Despite this
borrowed terminology, however, the Underground Railroad
was not a transportation system, and those who traveled on
it needed initiative, resourcefulness, and luck to complete
their journey.
Ironically,
the mistaken belief
that the Underground
Railroad was a wellorganized network of
clandestine operatives
probably had its
origins in the South,
where slaveholders
imagined a farreaching abolitionist
conspiracy to destroy
their way of life. In this respect,
the Underground Railroad may have played
a part in precipitating the Civil War. Its greater impact,
however, was to consistently expose the brutal truth about
slavery and demonstrate the heroism of those who escaped
bondage, while providing an opportunity for black and
white Americans to set aside their assumptions about one
another and work together for change. In this way, those
who traveled the Underground Railroad, like the characters
in UNDERGROUND, changed our nation, helping us all
break free.
© 2016 YMI, Inc.
UNDERGROUND takes viewers on a journey to freedom that continues today. Explore some
of the choices and challenges we face on this journey with the discussion topics below.
• By some estimates, more than 100,000 people made
the journey to freedom on the Underground Railroad.
Looking back at the obstacles they faced, this could
seem impossible, but it is in fact proof that the human
spirit will always prevail, no matter what the odds. And
in UNDERGROUND, we can see how this happens. What
part does leadership play in beating the odds? How does
self-sacrifice contribute to the group’s success? What other
facets of the human spirit enable us to achieve what might
seem impossible? And where do we see this indomitable
spirit at work in our society today?
• It is easy to believe that
UNDERGROUND takes us back
in time to a world completely
unlike our own. But imagine
for a moment that Congress
has passed a law similar to the
Fugitive Slave Act that requires
all illegal immigrants to return
to their country of origin.
Under this law, U.S. citizens
can have any immigrant
declared an illegal simply by
filing a formal claim, and any
citizen who aids or employs
an illegal immigrant can be
imprisoned. Is such a law
impossible in today’s world?
How would such a law impact your
family? Your community? Our society? How
would you react to the law? How would
such a law change the meaning of freedom
for all Americans?
© 2016 YMI, Inc.
• Like the slaves in UNDERGROUND, refugees from decades
of war in the Middle East are today on a journey to
freedom, traveling thousands of miles “to secure the
blessings of liberty” for themselves and their children. What
parallels can you find between today’s political refugees and
the runaway slaves of American history? What factors make
these two sets of freedom seekers very different? Looking
to our past and our principles, what should be American
society’s response to the refugees in your opinion?
• More than one hundred fifty years ago, the
who created the Underground Railroad set out together
on a journey to freedom that ultimately
reaffirmed our nation's
founding principle, that
“all men are created equal.”
How do you think they would
react to the society we have
built on their accomplishment?
What might they say about the
election of an African American
to the White House? What might
they feel about the
Black Lives Matter
movement and
the police violence
against black youth
that inspired it?
How far have
we come in our
national journey to
freedom? How far
do we still have to
go?
• Harriet Tubman, one of the top candidates to become the new
face on the $10 bill, was the most famous conductor on the
Underground Railroad. Born into slavery herself, she escaped to
Philadelphia in 1849, then immediately returned to the South to
rescue her family. Eventually
she would make eighteen more
trips south, in some cases
slipping onto a plantation
to organize an escape, and
brought more than 300 slaves
to freedom. Known as “Moses”
for her role in guiding escaped
slaves to the “Promised Land,”
Harriet Tubman was said to
have never lost a passenger.
• The Fugitive Slave Act
of 1850 marked a turning
point in the history of the
Underground Railroad. Until
then, officials in the North
had seldom enforced the
laws against aiding an escaped slave. Under
the Fugitive Slave Act, however, these officials faced heavy fines
if they refused to act, and anyone who aided escaped slaves
faced prison. The act also made a simple claim of ownership the
only proof needed to arrest any African American as an escaped
slave, giving slave catchers a virtual license to kidnap free blacks
with a false claim and carry them south into slavery. Suddenly,
for Northerners, black and white, support for the Underground
Railroad became almost as dangerous as traveling on it, but the
danger only deepened their opposition to slavery and helped
bring on the war that would end it.
• Spirituals and Quilts may have played a role in guiding escaped
slaves along the Underground Railroad. A nineteenth century
biography of Harriet Tubman, Harriet, The Moses of Her People,
recounts how she once used the spiritual “Go Down Moses”
to reassure a group of escaped slaves that they had eluded a
posse of slave catchers. Some have claimed that slaves also used
spirituals like “Steal Away” and “Follow the Drinking Gourd” to
send coded instructions for joining a planned escape. In addition,
they may have developed a system of quilting patterns that were
used to mark the way to safety or signal danger by hanging the
appropriate quilt on a fence
Network to Freedom
www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/discover_history/
index.htm
Gateway to a National Park Service program
that coordinates preservation and education
efforts nationwide by integrating local
historical places, museums, and
interpretive programs associated
with the Underground Railroad
into a mosaic of community,
regional, and national stories.
Pathways to Freedom:
Maryland and the
Underground Railroad
http://pathways.thinkport.org/
flash_home.cfm
A resource created for Maryland
schools that includes background
on the use of spirituals and quilts
to guide escaped slaves to freedom.
National Underground Railroad
Freedom Center
www.freedomcenter.org
Online resources include “Enabling Freedom,”
which provides a brief history of the
Underground Railroad and profiles of some
heroes in the fight to abolish slavery in the
United States, along with information on the
struggle to end slavery around the world in
our own time.
Underground Railroad
www.historynet.com/underground-railroad
Background on the history of the
Underground Railroad and links to many
academic articles on specific topics connected
with the African American journey to freedom.
© 2016 YMI, Inc.