Slavery was a common practice in the southern states in the early 1800's. Therefore what made the Underground Railroad so successful? Supposedly the term Underground Railroad originated when an enslaved runaway, Tice Davids, fled from Kentucky. Determined to retrieve his property, his owner chased Davids but Davids suddenly disappeared, leaving his owner wondering if the slave had "gone off on some underground road" . Ironically neither an "underground" or "railroad" took part in this network of escape routes which first began in the 1500s right threw to the end of the 19th century. Many people had their fair share of opinions and arguments on the situation. There was the slave owners, which believed "slavery was lawful and slaves were property" . The law, who tried to make slaves and slave owners happy, yet failed at doing either one. The abolitionists, who thought it was morally wrong to enslave Africans and dedicated their lives to destroying it, as well as the slav!
             es and the ways that conductors of the Underground Railroad and the bondsmen communicated to find ways to freedom.
             By 1770, bonded labor became more and more vital to the Southern economy. There was more demand for African workers, which contributed, to the steady increase of their population. Slave traders often shipped extra African workers into North America to cultivate tobacco, sugar, rice and indigo plantations. Those who lived in the cities worked as personal servants or were hired out as domestic and skilled workers. Also because of overwhelming demand, bondsmen were needed to cultivate cotton. This caused the African American population to escalate from 700,000 in 1790 to nearly 4 million by 1860. The work of the underground was so effective that its action intimidated and threatened slave owners. Most looked upon the Underground Railroad as organized theft and under the constitution of the U.S it was. Slave owners thought their bondage wa...