Underground Railroad: The Secret History


Genre: History, Spring 22


Duration: 4 x 60’


Year of Production: 2022


Production Company: Attraction Media


Commissioned By: Science, US


Definition: HD


The hidden network helping slaves find freedom

During the 1800s, roughly 100,000 enslaved people sought freedom on the Underground Railroad, a network of people and ‘safe houses’ that stretched from the American South to Canada and Mexico. This absorbing series uses archaeology and the latest technology, including cutting-edge drones and LiDAR, to both reveal the incredible hidden network of secret routes and places that helped people escape – and unlock some of their long-held and biggest mysteries.

This fascinating series uncovers underground tunnels, remote caves, and artefacts from maroon communities on the run, as well as likely whereabouts of abolitionist Harriet Tubman’s childhood home. We learn about secret caves in Grapevine, Texas, a lost ferry system that transported Black Americans to freedom in Mexico, and the forgotten city of Quindaro, Kansas, an abolitionist town that helped shield freedom seekers from bounty hunters and law enforcement. And we travel to a Washington DC cemetery where freedom seekers hid among the dead. We also learn about several unsung heroes of this Underground Railroad, as leading experts chronicle this critical chapter in American history.