Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Eric Foner relates the dramatic story of fugitive slaves and the antislavery activists who defied the law to help them reach freedom.

Rethinking the underground railroad -- Slavery and freedom in New York -- Origins of the underground railroad : the New York Vigilance Committee -- A patchwork system : the underground railroad in the 1840s -- The Fugitive Slave Law and the crisis of the Black community -- The metropolitan corridor : the underground railroad in the 1850s -- The record of fugitives : an account of runaway slaves in the 1850s -- The end of the underground railroad.