e it is true that he held over 300 slaves at the time of his death, it is also true that through his influential letters, and through his releasing of his own slaves in his Will, Washington helped to push the anti-slave movement forward. For a Virginian in the late 18th century, Washington was truly enlightened on his views of slavery. It is unfortunate that more Southern Americans did not follow Washington’s lead, for this issue of slavery would cost us many American lives in another sixty years, and would almost destroy the nation that George Washington had worked so hard at building. Underground Railroad I know you’re wondering, what railroad? Well the simple fact is that everybody has heard of the Underground Railroad, but not everyone knows just what it was. Firstly, it wasn’t underground, and it wasn’t even a railroad. The term "Underground Railroad" actually comes from a runaway slave, who while being chased swam across a creek and was out of the owner’s sight. The owner said "...must have gone off on an underground railroad." That man was Tice Davids, a Kentucky slave who decided to live in freedom in 1831. The primary importance of the Underground Railroad was the on going fight to abolish slavery, the start of the civil war, and it was being one of our nation’s first major anti-slavery movements. The history of the railroad is quite varied according to whom you are talking. Slavery in America thrived and continued to grow because there was a scarcity of labor. Cultivation of crops on plantations could be supervised while slaves used simple routines to harvest them, the low price at which slaves could be bought, and earning profits as a bonus for not having to pay hired work. Slaves turned to freedom for more than one reason. Some were obsessed with being free and living a life where they were not told how to live. Others ran due to fear of being separted or sold from friends and family. Then...
