Title: Underground to Canada
Author: Barbara Smucker
Publisher: Penguin Canada Books Inc
Year: 1978
170 pages
Living in Mississippi as a black person during the early 1800s usually landed you as a slave to white people. Being a slave to a certain family would be passed from generation to generation. The treatment of slaves (other than the fact of being a slave) was horrendous - malnutrition, poverty, lack of freedom. Children were often stolen by slave traders who then sold them on the slave market.
Underground to Canada is a work of fiction but is based on first-hand experiences found in the narratives of fugitive slaves, a study of the Underground Railroad routes, and on the activities of two Abolitionists: Alexander Ross of Canada and Levi Coffin of Ohio.
Barbara Smucker tells the story of Julilly, who was stolen from her mother by a slave trader. What keeps her going is the hope that she will escape and be reunited with her family. She spends her time huddled in a cart, travelling or working on horrible plantations.
Workers from the "underground railway" offer to help Julilly, and her friend Liza, to escape, which starts off an exciting but frightening adventure towards to Canada, and freedom.
In today's society, it is becoming more apparent that stories like these need to be shared and all history taught. The horrific treatment of human beings simply because of the colour of their skin is sickening. It is also good to hear about the great work that people have done to make change in the world.
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