Thesis: Slavery importation was abolished in 1808 but just because there was a law about it there was, still many people who imported illegal slaves. In this chapter Zinn talks about how slave’s families were split up, slave revolts were actually not that common in the U.S., and how blacks would escape to freedom.

Harriet Tubman- Was the most famous “conductor” of the Underground Railroad.

Underground Railroad- A series of checkpoints that runaway blacks would stop at and it would help them to reach freedom.

Fugitive Slave Act- made it easy for slave owners to recapture ex-slaves or simply to pick up blacks they claimed had run away.

This chapter begins talking about how when slavery was first abolished the plantation owners didn’t realize that they would need more slaves, so even though slavery was illegal they would import slaves anyway. It then goes into how people usually think that there were a lot of slave revolts, when in fact there were hardly any and probably the biggest one which took place in New Orleans where a group of four hundred slaves went from plantation to plantation but were quickly stopped by the U.S. army. Following that point it goes into talking about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. This system and Harriet alone helped lead thousands of slaves to freedom. It then goes into this thought that slavery hurt the black family but in fact it has been shown in the Federal Writers Project showed that it was just the opposite. The slaves felt like they belonged to their own community where the all adults looked after the children as if they are all related. Then the Fugitive Slave Act comes into play in 1850. It made it easy for slave owners to recapture ex-slaves or claim blacks that they believed to be a runaway. All of this was fuel to the fire which eventually led to the Civil War. One of the bloodiest wars ever to happen and most American deaths even with other wars combined.

1. When the Fugitive Slave Act went into affect did a lot of slave owners just claim any black people as runway slaves, and if they were free slaves would the free slaves be able to fight it?
2. Why would the country abolish slavery when they would know that it would make a big dent in the economy’ profit, I mean isn’t that what were about?

I found this article to be kind of boring. I found it hard to stay focused, not because it was a tuff read but it just wasn’t that exciting. I did pull some information away from it but it was not an enjoyable read.