The underground railway was a clandestine network organized in the nineteenth century in the United States and Canada to help African-American slaves escape from the southern plantations to free states or Canada.
Throughout its existence, the Underground Railroad managed to free thousands of slaves and also influenced public opinion to win supporters of the abolitionist cause.
When the owners of the slaves saw that they were fleeing, they offered rewards for them, alive or dead. In the cases in which they were recaptured, they suffered great physical damage from their owners, including amputations.