The Underground Railroad

The "Underground Railroad" as a train/railroad had never really existed. That name describes a network of secret routes and safe houses during the 19th century across the Eastern Seaboard of the United States of America. The "railroad" helped enslaved African Americans to escape the Northern states, and, after the Fugitive Slave Act, to Canada. The first literal subway/tube/underground railroad was built in London, England, in 1863, while America was embroiled in the Civil War to end slavery.

Featured in Late Night with Seth Meyers: Joel Edgerton/Edward-Isaac Dovere (2021)