Louis Filler

Historian and Antioch College professor Louis Filler is the author of several books on slavery, including Crusade Against Slavery: Friends, Foes, and Reforms, 1820–1860 and The Rise and Fall of Slavery in America, from which the following selection is excerpted. In it, Filler discusses the significance of runaway slaves, and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, designed to ensure their return to bondage. Filler writes that while many slaves escaped by relying on their own courage and ingenuity, countless others received aid from the Underground Railroad—a semi-secret network of free blacks and white abolitionists in the North and South who helped provide runaways with transportation and shelter on their journey to the North. Filler emphasizes the role of whites in the Underground Railroad, discussing how white participation in defying the slavery system strengthened abolitionist sentiment...