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Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America

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I read a lot of history books and am always glad to find a book that deals with a topic I know little or nothing about. It's an added bonus if the book is well-written and a pleasure to read, as this one is. "Bound For Canaan" is both thought-provoking and entertaining, which is another big plus. Mr. Bordewich presents many harrowing tales of escape, attempted escape, and recapture. Famous people, such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and John Brown, are brought to life. Even better, brave people who have been lost in the mist of history, such as Jermain Loguen, Gerrit Smith, and Levi Coffin, are given their day in the sun. The Underground Railroad was peopled by slaves, free blacks, and women, as well as white male abolitionists. People with strong religious beliefs, notably Quakers, but also Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists were in the forefront of the movement to abolish slavery. What I especially liked about this book was that Mr. Bordewich didn't try to simplify things. People and movements are complex, and all the nuances are present here: religious abolitionists who wanted an end to slavery, but who thought blacks were inferior and shouldn't be allowed to vote or "mingle" with whites; male abolitionists who thought women had no business being active in the movement; slaves who betrayed (for reward money) other slaves who were attempting to escape; American Indians being slaveholders; "free" blacks not being allowed to vote or to use "white" accomodations, etc. It was especially interesting (and ironic) to learn of the numerous "passengers" who chose to go to Canada (still under British rule at the time)so that they could get a fair shake....British law treated them as equal to white people, and they didn't have to worry about being hunted down and being returned to slavery. (In the United States even blacks who were born free, or who had purchased their freedom, could be kidnapped and sold into slavery.) Presidents and other politicians (Martin Van Buren, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster) who were either sincerely pro-slavery or willing to compromise to appease the southern states at any cost, come off especially badly. This was a time when government was wrong and conscience was right, and it took both physical and moral courage to buck the system. You might be wondering about the title of this review.........West Virginia was formed when Virginians opposed to slavery decided to create a new state where slavery would not be permitted. And Kentucky? When the southern states seceded from the Union, Kentucky (and Maryland) did not join them. When Lincoln "freed the slaves" he only freed those in the states which had seceded. As the Civil War roared on to its conclusion, slaveholders in Kentucky and Maryland continued to enjoy their rights. This is an excellent book which illuminates a movement which most Americans know little about....and which is both scholarly and entertaining. It is well-worth your time.

For many, hear the phrase "Underground Railroad" and immediately the names of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and - well maybe that's about it - come to mind. Textbooks give, at best, a few pages of only the most superficial examination of a pivotal movement in American history. Most of what we have learned about it from either these sources, or brief mentions in periodicals and such. BOUND FOR CANAAN offers a fresh insightful and illuminating exploration of this ultimate road to hope, which helped to dismantle the great American hypocrisy of slavery amidst the rhetoric of liberty.

Fergus M. Bordewich is an exemplary writer and historian - a master craftsman of the written word. His writings have appeared in American Heritage, Smithsonian, Atlantic Monthly and others. Journalist and author, he has authored well-received books including KILLING THE WHITE MAN'S INDIAN, which dispels Native American misconceptions and fallacies, and MY MOTHER'S GHOST, an exploration of the author's dealing with the tragic death of his mother. His current book stands as an in-depth study of the Underground Railroad, synthesizing original materials, academic research and anecdotal recollections into a seamless and thoughtful narrative of epic proportions.

The true value of BOUND FOR CANAAN (in my opinion) is Mr. Bordewich's presentation of the humanity of the movement. Historical figures - black and white, slave and free, noted and obscure - all are shown as complex richly textured characters in the ultimate American drama. Men and women are shown in all of their strengths and weaknesses, rather than one-dimensional stereotypes. Within a chronological framework, the author interweaves the compelling personal stories of flesh-and-blood with the broader themes of slavery as a political, social, moral and ultimately theological issue.

Beyond the historical scholarship, BOUND FOR CANAAN reminds us that all men and women, by bonding together, forward the American ideals of liberty and equality. The Underground Railroad, part of the larger abolitionist movement, shows how persons of all races, philosophies and creeds can cast off the shackles of evil by working together. While the struggle for equality is a continual struggle, the power of men and women, motivated by simple human decency, can overcome institutions which exploit human capital in its most fundamental nature.

An important lesson of this engaging book is its telling of this great story in human terms. It emphasizes the commonalities that define us as human beings and how that commonality slowly (too slowly) can change the course of human events - a liberation at great price. This book is well worth the time for anyone who wishes to understand the Underground Railroad's role in American history - a road to a more just nation.

This book is a huge contribution to the literature of the decades leading up to the Civil War. Until Eric Foner's monumental work, there was no good, comprehensive history of Reconstruction in the years following the War. So too, until now, there has not been a good, comprehensive history of the Underground Railroad. Author Fergus M. Bordewich has remedied this with "Bound for Canaan." There have certainly been histories of the years leading up to the Civil War, indeed one of the best is the beginning couple of hundred pages of James McPherson's "Battlecry of Freedom." But these histories were intended to cover the broader spectrum of events leading to the Civil War. This concentration on the Underground Railroad is long overdue.

We have all heard of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, both monumental figures. However, there were numerous heroes of the Underground Railroad who have been lost to history. Fortunately, Bordewich brings to life figures such as Isaac Hopper, Levi Coffin, David Ruggles, Josiah Henson and many others. Sadly, because there was scant record keeping of many of the Underground Railroad's activities, some others may be permanently lost to history.

Early efforts at rescuing slaves commenced with the efforts of Quakers such as Isaac Hopper in Philadelphia. Also, on or about 1805, a young Quaker boy, Levi Coffin, saw the horrible sight of slaves, chained together, being marched along the road. He saw the hopelessness in them and also, the fate of another slave who was probably a runaway. He had a metal collar placed around his neck and it was afixed to the master's buggy. The poor fellow was forced to run behind the buggy at a rapid clip to avoid being dragged by the neck. These memories led Coffin to become a leader in the Underground Railroad in Indiana (where he had moved). Of course, early on the term "Underground Railroad" was not used because there were no actual railroads to be named after. Later on, however, in the 1840s, when railroads started to grow, a proslavery opponent of Coffin labled him the "president" of the Undergrond Railroad. Coffin took this an honor, not an insult, and indeed, it was just that, a testiment to a heroic individual who devoted his life to freeing slaves.

Many evangelical Christians were fervent abolitionists and instrumental in the network constituting the Underground Railroad. Such an individual was Reverend John Rankin of Ohio, whose entire family was involved in this network. These people were often austere, stolid individuals who were religious fundamentalists, moved by religious fervor. In just about every way, they were conservative. They were religious moralists. Today, many people have a need to use lables, sometimes perjoratively, such as "religious right." It is well to remember that many true heroes of the abolitionist movement, people who put their own safety on the line, were what could be labled "religious right."

The network involved Quakers, evangelicals, secular abolitionists, escaped slaves, free blacks and, women who would later form the women's rights movements. Women's rights giant Lucretia Mott got her start as an activist in the Underground Railroad. The escaped slave Hariett Tubman is also another female giant in the movement, perhaps the leading figure. She could not read and she spoke in the manner of an uneducated fieldhand. However, Tubman was smart, a good organizer and also, extraordinarily courageous as she often went back, below the Mason Dixon Line, to effect an escape. She put her life and security on the line but, she was a slightly built, nondescript woman, and perhaps she was successful because she did not have an appearance which would draw attention to herself.

The railroad consisted of stations, which were often the homes of people sympathetic to the cause. There would be a "stationmaster" who took care of fugitives at these stations. "Conductors" would often escort them to the next station. However, particularly in the early days, there was no conductor and a frightened fugitive with no knowledge of geography or of the topography of the route, would have to have the courage to navigate through a great unknown. Incredibly, many did.

The terminus was often Canada since draconian fugitive slave laws, particularly the one enacted in 1850, made even the north a risky place for escaped slaves. There was tremedous risk involved and failure could result in flogging, death, and imprisonment. Bordewich gives examples of some of these horrors. However, in the last few years, the network became so successful that the secret became an open secret as fugitives and their rescuers became safer since their efforts were making the fugitive slave law less enforceable.

This fine book is very readable and is hard to put down. I certainly learned a wealth of new information and I am delighted that forgotten heroes are being reintroduced to history. I strongly recommend this fine book.

Good histories provide new perspectives on old events. Superior histories provide a sense of the sweep of those events over time, how they evolved and changed and impacted different people, and ultimately how they changed the way we think about ourselves. The best histories do it with a storyteller's flair. Fergus Bordewich's Bound for Canaan is just such an excellent history. His fascinating exploration of the abolitionist movement from its humble beginnings as a religiously prescribed act of charity to the fanatical activism of John Brown lets you peer into the evolving morality of the nineteenth century American mind and gives you an understanding of how modern notions of rights and liberty were born.

The lofty ideals of freedom espoused by the founding fathers in the 1700's were not intended to extend beyond the rubric of patrician white males and gentlemen farmers, and few people in the year 1800 would have treated seriously the idea that Blacks ought to be given equal status in the franchise. Calvinism, whose ideas of providence and pre-destination held sway, insisted that each individual's place in society was pre-ordained by God and that nothing short of God's unlikely intervention could change it. But as the nineteenth century unfolded, the iron grip of Calvinism loosened and new ideas emerged, not the least of which was the Quaker insistence on good works.

Good works led naturally to a sense of obligation, particularly to those suffering and those in need. Quakers began to help runaway slaves out of a Christ-like impulse to do good and before long had cobbled together a loose network of like-minded people throughout the northern states. This was the beginning of the Underground Railroad and the first stirrings of a provocation to the South which would be answered with draconian legislation which would eventually threaten the North's sense of their own autonomy and raise the issue of state's rights for the entire nation, an issue, which like slavery itself, would require a bloody war to resolve.

Bordewhich's book provides the full sweep of this cataclysmic change in the mind-set of the nation, a sea-change in America's ideals unequaled until the advent of World War II. His focus is the Underground Railroad but the book is about much more. It's about how America evolved a sense of responsibility for the promises laid out in the Declaration of Independence and whether or not those promises would be carried forward to the rapidly developing nation or remain trite phrases imbedded in a document whose true purpose (at least in the beginning) was to protect the privileges of a few Virginia planters.

Bordewhich's research is top notch. The anecdotes he's dug up about the experiences of slaves on the run are engrossing and his examination into the often casual or lackadaisical attitude of Northerner's to the plight of the oppressed is striking. Interestingly, only when a few white people are killed in the effort to assist blacks do the majority of Northerner's become outraged with the South's insistence on its "peculiar institution."

This is a book well worth reading, but I have to register a complaint with the good people at Borders. I specifically went in search of this book and couldn't find it in the History Section of their store. I had almost given up when I discovered they had categorized it as African-American Interest. Please! Does this category really help anyone? Why would blacks want books about their ideas and experiences set apart from the more general categories? For many people, this communicates the idea that "You wouldn't be interested in this book unless you're Black." How is this helpful? It's only from learning about each other's experience that we can develop and sustain accord, a radical idea in the 1830's and one, apparently, that still needs communicating today.

Most American history books focus on presidents, generals, justices, wars, treaties, Congressional votes and the Industrial Revolution. Beneath those surface events, Americans were always sweating, swearing, praying, loving, losing, winning and trying for a better life. Novels sometimes provide that color, but some novels are notoriously misleading . . . such as the Gone with the Wind view of slavery in Georgia.

With the Underground Railroad, the United States experienced its first important multiracial movement to create a better society. Unfortunately, most people don't know that. Bound for Canaan is a significant and much needed spelling out of the lessons of how social change can overcome the selfishness of the interested, the gullibility and passivity of the majority, and the deprivations of the victimized.

While Fergus M. Bordewich has not written the definitive history of the Underground Railroad, he has written a rich history that fills in many gaps in the average person's knowledge of the event in helpful and interesting ways. Using a variety of sources including little-read autobiographies, biographies and personal journals, he has created a rich tapestry of how individual outrage, morality and courage came to be woven together into a movement that had national consequences.

Helping slaves escape their owners was never easy. Most slaves didn't know much more about escaping than how to follow the North Star . . . and that didn't help much on cloudy nights. Rewards offered for escaped slaves meant that anyone might turn you in. Many slaves had poor skills for living off the land. Those who helped slaves were also subject to arrest, fines and possible violence from their pro-slavery neighbors.

In the beginning, some Quakers were the most likely to help . . . having formed their sensibilities against slavery from reading the Bible and the Constitution. Eventually, people of other religions joined in the efforts. As more and more slaves escaped, more and more current and ex-slaves joined the efforts.

By the time of the Civil War somewhere between 100,000 and 175,000 slaves were assisted in escaping slavery's many evils. It was a monumental accomplishment with just a few slaves at a time being carried along. Even more important, the sensibilities of the free states began to shift to favor those who were helping slaves. The Civil War accelerated the process and the difficult path to full freedom finally began . . . which still continues today.

As you read this book, you will be reminded of stories about how Communists, Socialists and Christians often combined in secret cells to thwart the Nazis through the French Resistance movement in the 1940s. Many who wanted to help slaves were terribly prejudiced against African Americans.

Canada has a proud story to tell here too in providing the safest home for those who had escaped from this physical and economic tyranny that was enshrined by our Founding Fathers. You'll be fascinated by the book's many references to the slave-holding side of many of our "greatest" patriots . . . and see those leaders in a truer light.

Of course, you will read about people like William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Lucretia Mott and John Brown whose names will be at least somewhat familiar to you. But you will probably find new heroes and heroines as you learn about Isaac Tatum Hopper, Gerrit Smith, Rowland T. Robinson, the Reverend John Rankin, Levi Coffin, Calvin Fairbank, Jonathan Walker, Jermain Loguen, William Still, Thomas Garrett, William Lambert, Mary Ann Shadd, Josiah Henson, Henry Bibb, Shields Green and Robert Purvis.

The book does a good job of tracking these important citizens through their lives and their relationships with one another. The stories are often intermeshed by tales of helping a single individual or a family to escape through many way stations along the Underground Railroad. The tales of hiding slaves will remind you at times of stories about the Holocaust, including Anne Frank's diary.

I have seldom read a book about American history that infected me with as much emotion as I experienced with this sympathetic and inspiring book about those who dared to oppose the will of the armed posses wielding their chains, ropes and whips.

Praise God that these days are behind us in the United States. Before taking too much solace in that thought, remember that many people still are held in slavery in places like the Sudan and that the ugly face of racism is seldom absent from our current American society.

In the preface to "Bound For Canaan: The Underground Railroad And The War For The Soul Of America", author Fergus Bordewich admits that his earlier knowledge of the Underground Railroad was limited to Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and vague images of wagons and trains surreptitiously transporting runaway slaves to the North. Before I read his monmental book, I have to confess that that was the my limited knowledge as well. People like me, who have had a lifelong interest in American history, but had too many gaps in it, owe Mr. Bordewich a huge debt for bringing this unnecessarily overlooked movement into history's spotlight. Before reading this book, I had never heard of Henry Bibb, Gerrit Smith, Josiah Henson, Mary Ann Shad, James and Lucretia Mott or Levi Coffin (ironic how many lives got their beginnings from a man named "Coffin"). Now, thanks to this book, I doubt I will ever forget these noble people.

As other reviewers have pointed out, the Underground Railroad was as complex and chimeric as were the stationmasters and conductors who expedited the fugitives. So many of the participants--white and black--had so many different opinions as to the moral and practical implications of the Railroad's use, that it's amazing that the infighting didn't shatter the movement to pieces. Fortunately, as Mr. Bordewich points, they all had a unified goal: to free as many slaves as possible and crush the South's resistance to abolition.

What makes the book so very readable is Mr. Bordewich's blend of political/moral wrangling, biographies, tales of thrilling escapes (and sometimes captures), and the sweeping events--sometimes local, sometimes global--that had an impact on the Railroad's progress. The generous peppering of photos, illustrations and maps make the reading process all the more enjoyable and understandable. Mr. Bordewich is to be thanked for bringing this epic back to life, and it is good to know that publishers are still willing to take the chance on publishing books that are certainly not guaranteed to be best sellers. I sure hope this book becomes one; it deserves it.

'Bound For Caanan' is an informative and moving book about the battle over slavery that took place between the founding of our country and the Civil War. It is about a diverse, integrated, informal ever-changing organization of blacks and whites, slaves and free, male and female, religious and secular, young and old, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, with one goal in mind: "to set the captives free". There were no official leaders, no hierarchy, no written orders, just a mission to accomplish, but the Underground Railroad worked, and worked well.

Bordewiich tells us individual stories through the recorded accounts of slaves and slave owners, court records, newspaper accounts, and personal memoirs of Underground Railroad conductors. What I like best are the detailed escape stories highlighting the remarkable heroism and commitment of the escapees and their underground helpers, as well as the stubborn determination of the pro-slavery contingent to keep their way of life intact. The stories also show the problems with the federal and state slavery-related laws in relation to differing attitudes in the South and in the North. The problems escalated when new states were being admitted to the Union, and you can see the country coming apart at the seams as some of these stories played out near the beginning of the Civil War.

The accounts are woven together very gracefully, even poetically, by the author, with an emphasis on the individual personal stories of the participants. Also, he did not sermonize about slavery, which is so obviously wrong it needs no sermonizing. Instead, he let the material speak for itself. It is shocking to see how bad people can become when they think they own other people, and gratifying to see how good people can become for a right cause. Even Thomas Jefferson affirmed that one of the worst spin-offs of slavery was the damage it did morally to the people who owned slaves. (Too bad he didn't do something to stop slavery when he had the chance as president.)

I can't disagree with anyone who has written a review thus far. This is an outstanding book that has a great balance between journalistic research/credibility and strong narrative flow. It's also one of the most thought-provoking books I've read in a long time.

One thing that's crystal clear in the book is how polarizing slavery was in the first half of the nineteenth century. That coincided with a large period of westward expansion, and as a result, the slavery debate permeated the settlement of lands west of the Mississippi, driving a deeper wedge between North and South. Like all great books, this one suggests further reading on the subject and on the period.

Bordewich presents the figures of the railroad with striking humanity. These are not the cardboard heroes we think of from school, but deeply human folks who felt compelled to do what they believed was right. Are they the forerunners of today's liberal activists, advocating for the rights of groups on the margin, or conservative activists, turning their own religious beliefs into action that flew in the face of the law? In either case, these people were courageous individuals, risking their lives and homes for a cause that no one today would doubt was noble.

Highly, highly recommended.

The history of the Underground Railroad, and its many manifestations, is known to most educated Americans, at least a little. This well-written book should be instrumental in filling in all of the blank spaces about this heroic and dangerous undertaking. We get everything but the kitchen sink in this exhaustive review, and it is information well worth reading, for we tend to forget that humans are always reaching for freedom from tyranny, either a slave owner, or a country's dictation. We should honor these brave men and women of both races, many of them unknown, who did their best to help bring a people out of bondage.

Bound for Canaan describes the roots of the Underground Railroad from the turn of the 19th century to the Civil War. The breadth covered is refreshing; most other accounts you will read focus only on Harriet Tubman and the full flowering of the Underground after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Bordewich delves much more deeply, covering the passive, Quaker beginnings to the radical movement that spawned John Brown and the attack on Harpers Ferry. He doesn't neglect the major participants, be they white or African-American. The fact that most US History textbooks have forgotten so many of these inspiring individuals is truly tragic.

I particularly enjoyed Bordewich's description of American opinion as it evolved from tolerating slavery towards supporting abolition in theory and finally convincing thousands to join together in civil disobedience and help fugitive slaves. I also found the information about black settlements in Canada to be very interesting.

Fascinating and very well-written, Bound for Canaan is truly one of the better pieces of popular history that I have read in 2005. Definitely recommended for all history buffs.