Unearthing the underground railroad. As a national geographic explorer and biological anthropologist, carter clinton's job is to dig up and study ancient dna from burial grounds for enslaved people. Webthe underground railroad was a series of safe houses that stretch from the south all the way to canada. These safe houses provided shelter and protection for runaway slaves trying to find freedom in the north. Weballies assisted in journeys to freedom, but the underground railroad is centered around the enslaved people who resisted their status and asserted their humanity. Fugitives exhibited creativity, determination, courage, and fortitude in their bids for freedom. It's rather disconcerting to discover that one of george washington's main. Webthe underground railroad was a network of people, african american as well as white, offering shelter and aid to escaped enslaved people from the south. It developed as a convergence of several. Webduring the era of slavery, the underground railroad was a network of routes, places, and people that helped enslaved people in the american south escape to the north. The name “ underground railroad ” was used metaphorically, not literally. Webfor most people today —as for most americans in the 1840s and 1850s—the phrase underground railroad conjures images of trapdoors, flickering lanterns, and moonlit pathways through the woods. Webthe secret order behind the underground railroad. Schomburg center for research in black culture, photographs and prints division, the new york public library. Quakers played a huge role in the formation of the underground railroad, with george washington complaining as early as 1786 that a “society of quakers,.