oads. This is because real railroads at this time were the newest thing and happened to be the topic of choice for conversation. This made it all the easier for the helpers of the railroad to communicate going unnoticed. Along the tracks, there were depots, safe houses to stay. These were houses of free whites or blacks where they could hide when they weren't running. The people who owned the houses were often called conductors. The conductors often left a number of signs for the slaves to follow so they didn't go to houses that belonged to allies of the slave owners. A quilt on the clothes line depicting a house with smoke coming out of the chimney was a sign of a safe station. A white ring of bricks around the top of a house's chimney was another sign of a good hiding spot. Shops that were safe often had a silohette of a fleeing man or woman on in sign. Other signs were used to guide the slaves. There were knocks that slaves used when approaching a house, animal calls, and lights hung in windows. When a slave was moving to the next house along the railroad, this was called "catching the next train." There were also songs that gave directions to slaves that were taught to everyone so that they might memorize the way. One such, was "Follow the Drinking Gourd" The drinking gourd was the slaves' terminology for the big dipper. The Big Dipper's "handle" points to the north star, which they could use to find their way north. The song gave landmarks along the way to follow and a verse from it says " the dead trees will show you the way." This was put in the song for a reason. The writer of this song, refered to as Peg-leg Joe, drew a picture of a peg leg on the dead trees along the track with charcoal. The following verse is "Left foot, peg foot traveling on," accordingly. The tracks for the railroad weren't exactly laid. A slave had many possible directions to run in, but the main idea here was safety over quickness. The...
