United States Railroad History

The Underground Railroad was used by people escaping enslavement in the South. This system of passages and safe houses helped people reach freedom in the Northern United States or Canada. Did you know science played a role in the Underground Railroad?

America was made by the railroads. The opening of the Baltimore & Ohio line—the first American railroad—in the 1830s sparked a national revolution in the way that people lived thanks to the speed and convenience of train travel. Built through heroic effort, the American railroad network was bigger in every sense than Europe's, and facilitated everything from long-distance travel to commuting and transporting goods to waging war. It united far-flung parts of the country, boosted economic development, and was the catalyst for America's rise to world-power status.

The transcontinental railroads of the late 19th century were the first corporate behemoths. Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the US economy. Their dependence on public largess drew them into the corridors of power, initiating new forms of corruption. Their operations rearranged space and time, and remade the landscape of the West. As wheel and rail, car and coal, they opened new worlds of work and ways of life.

Covering a time of great hope and incredible change, Reconstructing America is a dramatic look at life after the Civil War in the newly re-United States. Railroad tycoons were roaring across the country. New cities sprang up across the plains, and a new and different American West came into being: a land of farmers, ranchers, miners, and city dwellers. Back East, large-scale immigration was also going on, but not all Americans wanted newcomers in the country.

If you want to discover the captivating history of the Underground Railroad, then pay attention...The Underground Railroad wasn’t underground. Nor was it a railroad. It was, however, an awe-inspiring piece of history, and one that speaks of hope even today. Two hundred years ago, slavery had the Southern United States firmly in its evil grip. The only hope that these enslaved people had of escaping their brutal fates was the Underground Railroad. This fabled network delivered tens of thousands of escaped slaves all the way across the northern United States and into Canada.

The first book to explore the historical role and residual impact of the Green Book, a travel guide for Black motorists.

In Spanish Florida during the nineteenth century, one man shaped the course of Black Seminoles—descendants of Seminole Indians and free Blacks and escaped slaves—more than any other. A political and military leader of both Seminole and African heritage, John Horse valiantly defended his people from slave hunters, other tribes, and the U.S. government. After fighting in the Second Seminole War—one of the longest and most costly Native American conflicts in United States history—Horse negotiated territory for the Black Seminoles and became a guide and interpreter.

Acclaimed archeologist and historian Karolyn Smardz Frost painstakingly resurrects Thornton and Lucie Blackburn's perilous 1830s journey from Kentucky slavery to Canadian freedom.

In the 1850s, the United States was a nation divided. In the North, industrialization and urbanization were both significant drivers of change. In the South, a largely agrarian economy was supported by the institution of slavery. The East and West of the country were also divided, not by social or political differences but by a vast tract of largely untouched, rugged, and often hostile territory. There were just two ways to travel from the East Coast to the Pacific Coast or vice versa.

The Transcontinental Railroad, laid across the United States during the 1860s, remains the very epitome of contradiction. On the one hand, it was a triumph of engineering skills over thousands of miles of rough terrain, but on the other hand, it drained the natural resources in those places nearly dry.

The completion of the transcontinental railroad in May 1869 is usually told as a story of national triumph and a key moment for American Manifest Destiny. The Railroad made it possible to cross the country in a matter of days instead of months, paved the way for new settlers to come out west, and helped speed America's entry onto the world stage as a modern nation that spanned a full continent. It also created vast wealth for its four owners, including the fortune with which Leland Stanford would found Stanford University some two decades later.

Have you ever wondered why America is the way it is? Do you want to understand the events that have shaped American culture? Are you interested in seeing the long-term historical connections that explain how America moved from a group of colonies to the most powerful nation in history? If so, this book is for you. In simple, straightforward language, this book will take you on a brief journey through the highlights of American history. Filled with interesting facts and historical context, this book is a must-hear for those who are passionate about history or are simply interested in better understanding the history of the United States.

A Southern Underground Railroad constitutes a powerful counter-narrative in American history, a tale of how enslaved men and women found freedom and human dignity not in Jefferson's "Empire of Liberty" but outside the expanding boundaries of the United States.

Geoffrey H. Doughty, Jeffrey T. Darbee, and Eugene E. Harmon explore the fascinating history of this popular institution and tell a tale of a company hindered by its flawed origin and uneven quality of leadership, subjected to political gamesmanship and favoritism, and mired in a perpetual philosophical debate about whether it is a business or a public service. Featuring interviews with former Amtrak presidents, the authors examine the current problems and issues facing Amtrak and their proposed solutions.

Before the widespread popularity of automobiles, buses, and trucks, freight and passenger trains bound the nation together. The Station Agent and the American Railroad Experience explores the role of local frontline workers that kept the country's vast rail network running.

During a dark time in United States history, thousands of freedom seekers traveled the Underground Railroad through Ohio. The Buckeye State hosted about half of all fugitive slave traffic of the antebellum era. A mix of Northern and Southern settlers in the state added drama to a struggle that led to major benefits for the state and the country. Unfortunately, this epic past was obscured by silence and secrecy and then distorted with misinformation and folklore—until now.

Imagine you are traveling west from Independence, Missouri, on a 2,000 mile trip to Oregon in the mid 1800s. Since there are no cars, trains, or passenger jet services you take the most reliable and speedy form of transportation available at the time: a wagon. After completing this dangerous trip you hear about the new cutting edge technology that has just reduced the dangerous 2,000 mile trip down to a week, all for the price of one ticket. In 1869, after decades of travel, the Oregon Trail fell into disuse.

When trains were introduced as a popular means of transportation, some of the first tracks laid terminated in New York, and the expansion of railroads led to the birth of train stations across the country. In general, these were small buildings where passengers could buy tickets and wait for their trains to arrive. Trains were run by steam as far south as 14th Street and pulled from there by horses.

Embark on a profound journey through the veiled pathways of hope and resilience with The Underground Railroad. This audiobook pierces the shroud of myths surrounding one of history’s most clandestine escapes to freedom. Uncover the true stories of courage that fueled the Underground Railroad. Navigate through the tales of heartbreak, debunked legends, and the heart-stopping realities of those who dared to dream of liberty.

The dramatic story of fugitive slaves and the antislavery activists who defied the law to help them reach freedom. They are little known to history: Sydney Howard Gay, an abolitionist newspaper editor; Louis Napoleon, a furniture polisher; Charles B. Ray, a black minister. At great risk they operated the Underground Railroad in New York, a city whose businesses, banks, and politics were deeply enmeshed in the slave economy.