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44 pages 1 hour read

Barbara Smucker

Underground To Canada

Barbara SmuckerFiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1978

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Chapters 17-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 17 Summary

Levi and Auntie Katie help Julilly and Liza board a horse-drawn carriage with black curtains over the windows. When the driver arrives at a train station, he instructs the girls to climb into sacks and hang limply when carried. Julilly hears that the train cars will be searched for escaped slaves and is grateful for their disguise. The driver carries her and Liza into the train car and tells them to stay hidden in their sacks until they reach Cleveland. Hours pass and Liza and Julilly become increasingly cramped and thirsty. Finally, they hear a man calling out for two “dry goods” from Cincinnati: it is Alexander Ross.

Ross picks up both Liza and Julilly and carries them to his carriage and gives them water. The driver begins taking the carriage down the road, and Ross explains that he was released from prison in the South when the enslaved person he was accused of taking returned. He informs the girls that while Lester and Adam both reached freedom in Canada, Adam died of blood poisoning from the wounds caused by his chains. Lester survived and found a job in St. Catharines, Ontario.

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