Unit 3: The Secret Road to Freedom (1ère G1_gr2)

Colson Whitehead: The Underground Railroad

The resistence became more organized in the 1840s.

 

2.     How did the network of people help the slaves to escape?

They helped :

a.      By hiding them in their homes.

b.     By giving them money

c.      By helping them crossing rivers

d.     By giving them passage in the back of their wagons

e.      By giving them passage on ships

 

3.     What definition does Colson Whitehead give for the Underground Railroad?

It was a social network of people helping out.

 

4.     Was the Underground Railroad an actual or metaphoric network?

It was a metaphoric network: people would say for the fugitive slaves who successfully escaped that they had disappeared on the Underground Railroad.

 

5.Even nowadays, some people still think that the Underground Railroad was a literal road underground. It gave him the idea to write a novel in which the slaves would escape north using an actual network beneath the earth.

 

As a conclusion, the USA is a country full of contradiction, on the one hand it is the birth place of modern democracy, but on the other hand, it is a country that legitimized slavery for almost 2 centuries. To finish with, in a country that call its inhabitants dreamers, it is sad that some of them were actually living a nightmare. 

Homework: Learn the lesson.