pe. A shape that is to this day very hard to describe. Traks were laid to aide the slaves to freedom. People talked in secrecy to make safe paths for the slaves to run on. These were the tracks. Letters were sent that had terminology or code for the balcks. A lot of the terms come from things found along railroads. 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 unoticed.Along the tracks, there were depots, safe houses to stay. These were houses of free whites or blacks where they could hide when they werent 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 didnt 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 the top of a houses chimney was another sign of a good hiding spot. Shoppes that were safe often had a silohette of a fleeing man or woman on in sign. Other siggns 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 songgs that ave 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 Dippers "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 pic...
