Final answer:
Between 50,000 and 100,000 slaves are thought to have successfully escaped to the North or Canada in the thirty years before the Civil War, using networks like the Underground Railroad.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the thirty years before the Civil War, it is estimated that between 50,000 and 100,000 slaves may have successfully escaped using the Underground Railroad. However, the exact number remains uncertain due to various factors. Most of these escapees remained in the South, blending in with free Black communities in urban areas, while others made their way north to places like Canada, where slavery had been abolished. Estimates vary widely, but historians believe that between 50,000 and 100,000 enslaved people successfully escaped through the Underground Railroad in the thirty years before the Civil War.
The Underground Railroad was a network of safe houses and passages provided by sympathetic individuals, including Quakers, who aided freedom seekers in their bids for freedom. Many escaped slaves settled in Canada, particularly in Southern Ontario, where they established black Canadian communities.The success of these freedom-seekers in reaching safety was made increasingly difficult with the enactment of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, which heightened the risks of capture. Notable figures such as Harriet Tubman became synonymous with these acts of self-emancipation and the assisted escape efforts.