In contemplating different actions to take in support of my many Muslim friends brother’s and sisters due especially heinous treatment of these past few weeks, I considered the history of abolitionists in this country.
How did they operate?
How exactly did their subversive work take place?
How did they signal safety to illiterate slaves running in the night?
In doing do, I stumbled upon this list of signs and symbols:
|
Underground Railroad Symbols for kids – Railways (hit the link) |
|
|
Words, Signs and Symbols |
Meaning and Definition |
| Underground Railroad | The name for the secret network of organizations and operations who helped slaves to escape slavery |
| Railroad Line | Line referred to the route from one safe house to another |
| Conductor | Conductors were those who guided fugitive slaves between safe houses |
| Station master | The station master was the owner of a safe house |
| Station / Depot | Station and Depot were the secret names given to hiding places or safe houses used during escapes |
| Cargo / Freight | Cargo or Freight was the name given to fugitive slaves who received assistance from conductors on the Underground Railroad |
| Passengers | Passengers was another name give to slaves traveling the escape routes |
| Baggage | Baggage was another secret name for a fugitive slave |
| Parcels | Term to indicate that fugitive slaves were on their way to a safe house |
| Stockholders | The name given to abolitionists who donated money, food, shelter and clothing to the Underground Railway |
| Ticket Agents | Agents was the name given to those who coordinated and planned escape routes. Slaves were given a ‘ticket’ |
| Operator or Engineer | Other names for a conductor (the guides) |
| Jumping off place | Place of safe shelter for fugitive slaves |
| Patty Rollers or Paddy Rollers | Patty Rollers, Pattyrollers or Paddy Rollers were slave catchers. Probably a derivation of patrollers but ‘Roller rigs’ was used for the investigation of steam locomotives |
The term “Jumping off place” stood out to me.
If you listen to any late 90s early aughts hip-hop, you hear this term thrown around all the time. The jump off had/has flexible definitions including:
- as a place
- where the party is at
- it’s about to go down
- where it’s live
- where you need to be
- where the em-por-unt people at
It’s not too much of a jump to see how this term survived and transformed while maintaining some semblance of it’s original intent; to party, revel, etc. one first needs to feel safe and secure.
That feeling when you realize where it came from and what it really means:
