The Underground

Like that old spiritual "The underground says so the underground is where to go the underground frees the soul." My grandmother used to talk about a conductor named Sarah. She would sing this song whenever she was near by the slaves on the plantation. She would wait in the woods, wait in the forest till the slavedrivers went away. She would walk out of the woods fearless and brave. She would sing this song for the slaves to hear from their cabin. She knew if she get caught they would hang her but she believed that nobody should be bound and that everybody should be freed. She believed with all her heart, with all her mind, and with all her soul that freedom should be for everyone. Now some of the slaves thought they were having church at night because they were forbidden to have church during the day because sometimes masters were just paranoid and despiteful of rights. They did not like their slaves enjoying themselves and they thought if they taste freedom then they will never stop till they got it. Anyway Sarah would call to them make a bird noise after singing making a sound like a cooing near the cabin. It was rumored that conductors on the Underground were coming to free slaves. The Masters warn if any slave caught they might be put in chains where one move wrong would snap their necks or be branded like a cow. If they continue to fight then they would be hang from the highest tree. So some of the slaves came out worried and fearful to Sarah, she reassured them like a minister and said she was sought from heaven to guide them to freedom. And the slaves were convinced and quietly took themselves because they did not have much being locked within a no window cabin with no fire and hay for beds. As they moved further and somehow escaped their Masters, the slaves that Sarah carried with her wanted to learn the song she sang. Sarah promised to teach them as soon as they reached a stopping point. Sarah carried that old rifle which she said was for everyone protection. Just when Sarah was about to teach the slaves the song. She saw light from fire coming miles away and hearing distancely dogs and horses and bounty hunters. Sarah distracted almost miss the stopping point where there was a wagon with some folks to carry them to the next stopping point. The slaves rechanted for the song but saw that they were in danger and they waited with bags of grain on top of them with bags of black pepper spice. The chase was on on the underground and the bounty hunters reached around the stopping point and they relied on their dogs but the dogs cried from the black pepper left on the ground, it burned their noses and killed the sense of smell temporarily delaying the bounty hunters for days and setting them back because their dogs were their best friend and they relied heavily upon their smell which was very accurate and acute. Sarah and the slaves was dropped to another State almost to safety and they stopped at a church to see if it was in the North. The church was another stopping point, where they could rest for weeks, heal their wounds, and clean themselves and learn about freedom from the Quakers. And the slaves begged Sarah to teach them that song and she said I will teach you but you got to follow. So she sung the words, tell all my friends that I got to go. Tell Momma I love her but this ain't a home. Tell father I will be waiting but I gotta go. And after three time they got the song joining, Cause I got to go on the underground. The underground is where I must be. I must be away away away. Cause I gotta go. Must go to the underground where freedom is home. And so the bounty hunters had the press to distributed an article about the slaves all over the States where they estimated the slaves to be around as the bounty hunters' dogs and horses regain strength. And after weeks, the Quakers quietly assemble in Upper-South secretly told the slaves to move out. Sarah and the slaves refreshed took the last wagon out of town this one was much bigger than the last one. The slaves hid with the bags of grain and they held on tight underneath with hay and much comfortable than the last one. Sarah rode besides her Quaker friends till she reached the North with enough food to last for a couple of months. Sarah guided by her Quaker friends thought for sure the bounty hunters would not get them now that they are up North. But with rage the bounty hunters offered a huge reward for the slaves and even Sarah if caught alive. Sarah and the slaves and the Quakers parted ways but not without telling them how to get to Canada. Some of the slaves went with the Quakers and the rest followed Sarah to Canada. The bounty hunters were losing on the trail they came up very behind after weeks and weeks decided to spread a lie to protect their jobs. They called Sarah a witch and voodoo mistress and they paid people to turn freed men into slaves. They paid others to pretend to be Sarah. They were desperate and enrage. And the story of Sarah and the slaves she freed is still a mystery.