History Main / UndergroundRailroad

* ''Series/{{Underground}}'' is about a group of Georgia slaves making a 600-mile journey to freedom with the help of the Underground Railroad.

For modern American SuperHero stories, the famous slave escape network is the perfect way to show the heroes come from an honored history of heroism as they learn they have ancestors who risked everything joining the organization, and also left secret passages and [[ElaborateUndergroundBase hideouts]] to use now.

* In ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' comics, Solomon Wayne was part of the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, hiding escaped slaves in [[ElaborateUndergroundBase that big cave under Wayne Manor]] (this comes up in ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy''). Presumably, this was to indicate that while the Wayne family has not always been [[ToBeLawfulOrGood lawful, they have always been good]].
* In Franchise/{{Superman}}, ''ComicBook/TheKents'', Pa and Clark Kent learn that they had heroic ancestors who were abolitionists who gave UsefulNotes/HarrietTubman a hand with the Underground Railroad.

* In the Slavequestria portion of [[Fanfic/TheInfiniteLoops MLP Loops]] It's mentioned the in-Loop version of Pinkie Pie was running the Underground Railroad into Griffon Territory before the group awoke in that loop.
* Fialleril's ''Fanfic/DoubleAgentVader'' universe has a couple of examples:

* Fialleril's ''Fanfic/HereticPride'' AU also has a version of the Tatooine freedom trail, which Padme gets involved with after she goes back to Tatooine to free Shmi. She offers monetary support, and helps set up places offworld for slaves to escape to, including establishing Naboo as a place where escaped slaves are welcomed as refugees.
* In ''Fanfic/TheThreeKingsHunt'' the mages are organizing one of these in order to get any mages that they find to safety

* ''Film/AbrahamLincolnVampireHunter'' features the historic Underground Railroad in the ending. It turns out that [[spoiler: the train that was being used to deliver the silver weapons to the front lines to defeat the Confederate vampires [[DecoyConvoy was a decoy]], the silver was actually being delivered on foot by the Underground Railroad, not a literal railroad.]]

* ''Film/NotWithoutMyDaughter''. The protagonist and her daughter use such an organization to escape Iran.
* ''Film/ThePhiladelphiaExperimentII''. The American Underground has a route to help Americans (who are basically slaves of the Nazis) escape to safety in Alaska, which is apparently not under the Nazis' control.

* ''Literature/ChocoholicMysteries'': ''Snowman Murders'' reveals that Lee's aunt Nettie, along with Sarajane Harding and George Jenkins, is involved in one of these. But instead of slaves, it helps battered women escape from physical abusers. ''Cupid Killings'' has one of these battered women take a job at [=TenHuis=] Chocolade, but Lee soon finds that a private detective (who soon becomes the book's murder victim) is on her trail. [[spoiler: It ultimately turns out the woman was faking her status, and had been just using the group as part of her own scheme.]]
* ''Literature/CoruscantNights'': Coruscant's Whiplash resistance movement forms shortly after Order 66 to smuggle dissident politicians, civilian Jedi Temple employees, and the odd surviving Jedi farther away from the planets carrying out the Empire's purges.
* ''Literature/TheScarletPimpernel'' is an early literary example, smuggling French bluebloods from the clutches of the revolutionaries and the embrace of Madam Guillotine.

* In Sinclair Lewis' ''Literature/ItCantHappenHere'', American dissidents flee Windrip's regime by traveling to Canada via an underground railroad, [[spoiler: including Doremus after he escapes the Trianon camp.]]

* The ''Literature/JackReacher'' book ''Nothing To Lose'' has a subplot where several locals are [[spoiler: transporting people who deserted from the army for religious reasons away from the authorities.]]
* In Creator/JoWalton's ''Literature/SmallChange'' trilogy, several groups focus on getting Jews and other undesirables out of [[DayOfTheJackboot fascist Europe]]. When Carmichael is blackmailed into becoming the head of [[BigBrotherIsWatching The Watch]], [[StateSec a British gestapo]], he and a few trustworthy allies [[RageWithinTheMachine found the Inner Watch]] and use their resources and feared reputation to secretly get innocents to safety.
* One is developed in the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series to help Jedi evade the various invaders, sympathizers, and bounty hunters who want to capture them. The "Great River" is later converted into a branch of the Insiders and later the Ryn Network, which both have a more active intelligence role.
* In ''Literature/TheOrphanTrainAdventures'' book "A Family Apart", Frances overhears a conversation about the Underground Railroad. [[spoiler:Later, it turns out that her new foster family is involved, and she even brings a couple of runaway slaves to the next farm on the route.]]
* In ''Rapscallion'', Literature/MatthewHawkwood has to infiltrate and shut down an underground railroad that is smuggling escaped French [=POWs=] out of England.
* ''Literature/RepublicCommando'': Nyreen Vollen is a freight hauler who helps deserting Clone Troopers run away from the war. After the war, she also helps smuggle a few Jedi away from those who want them dead. An earlier Franchise/StarWarsLegends installment, ''ComicBook/CloneWarsAdventures:'' "Salvaged," mentions that lots of freight haulers are smuggling surviving Jedi (particularly children) away from the Empire's reach right after Order 66.
* The ''Resistance'' trilogy by Clive Egleton. LaResistance to the [[DayOfTheJackboot Soviet-occupied Britain]] have networks to move people around, but it's often subverted. On one occasion the container truck used for people smuggling is actually a GasChamber used to [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilised get rid of people the Resistance would rather not have running free]]. In the final novel the protagonist is promised passage to the sea where an American nuclear submarine is waiting to pick him up. His girlfriend regards this as a fairytale to make him do OneLastJob, but [[DownerEnding they are both killed before we find out if it's genuine]].
* Colson Whitehead's aptly named ''Literature/TheUndergroundRailroad'' re-imagines the American Civil War-era underground railroad as an actual railroad, underground, that helps slaves escape.
* Subverted in ''[[Literature/GreatwinterTrilogy Eyes of the Calculor]]'' by Sean [=McMullen=]. After an electro-magnetic pulse stops technology, the government forcibly conscripts anyone capable of operating the Calculor, a human-powered computer. An underground railroad is formed, but it turns out to be run by the secret police to scoop up all those who escaped the net -- this is only revealed [[RightHandVersusLeftHand after another agency arrests everyone in the mistaken belief that it's a real underground railway]].
* ''Literature/NinaTanleven'': The trope-naming real life Underground Railroad is discussed in ''The Ghost Wore Gray'', and Captain Gray had to use a similar method in order to get from South Carolina to New York so he could meet with a Canadian contact. He winds up having to hide in a room that was part of the ''actual'' Underground Railroad to avoid his enemies at a few points.
* The actual American Underground Railroad (as in, the one that helped escaped slaves flee the southern United States before the Emancipation) appears in ''Literature/ChanceAndChoicesAdventures''. They help the Williams family escape when they're being pursued by [[HangingJudge Judge Daniel Hall]] for violation of [[MalignedMixedMarriage anti-miscegenation laws]], and it's mentioned they also helped another family who were being hunted for the same thing.
* Inverted in ''Literature/MrStandfast'' - the ''Untergrundbahn'' is a German operation to kidnap and imprison people who might be a danger to the German war effort.
* ''[[Literature/TheMurderbotDiaries Fugitive Telemetry]]''. The murder mystery turns out to be related to an operation to smuggle AsteroidMiners trapped in IndenturedServitude. They've been there so long it's actually their children and grandchildren who are being smuggled.
* ''Literature/TheYankeePlague:'' In an interesting (yet historically accurate) flip flop of the usual scenario, the slaves are the ones conducting the Underground Railroad: hiding, sheltering, and guiding escaped Union prisoners of war headed back to their own lines. Various white unionists, deserters and their families, and GoodSamaritan's also help in this informal network, out of either sympathy for the prisoners and their cause or out of a pragmatic desire to bring down the Confederate government faster.
* In ''Literature/YoursTruly'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:Truly Lovejoy helped black slaves escape to Canada as part of The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad Underground Railroad]] during the Civil War. Her house had a hiding place for slaves under the stairs that lead to a secret tunnel, and one of the slaves she helped escape to freedom was an ancestor of the Freeman Family]].

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': There is a so-called Telepath Underground Railroad, which helps telepaths escape from the [[MutantDraftBoard Psi-Corps]]. From time to time, the Psi-Cops, elite Psi-Corps agents who are also powerful telepaths, will attempt to break the Railroad in order to capture the rogue telepaths.
** Later on, other operations develop to help [[spoiler: Narn]] civilians escape captivity after their star nation falls under a brutal occupation by [[spoiler: The Centauri Republic.]] One of the notables in this movement is [[spoiler: Vir Cotto, using his credentials as Londo's aide and later Ambassador to Minbar]] under the name "Abrahamo Lincolni".
** And the Telepath Underground Railroad is used again later on as [[spoiler: a recruiting network for telepaths to help the [[TheAlliance Army of Light]] fight the Shadows.]]
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': An underground railroad that helped battered spouses escape their abusive husbands was central to the plot [[spoiler: read: was the target of the Serial Killer Of The Week, who was a ColdSniper hired by one of said spouses and was [[WitlessProtectionProgram killing his way to the escaped wife]]]] of the episode "Sniper, Sniped".
* In ''Series/{{Degrassi|TheNextGeneration}}'', Jimmy mentions that one of his ancestors had come to Canada via the Underground Railroad.

* In ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' and ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', Simon was helped in his rescue of his sister from a government lab by some unspecified co-conspirators who apparently are these.
* Played for laughs in the ''Series/{{Friends}}'' episode "[[https://youtu.be/D4zEqse0F2o The One with the Two Parties]]": Phoebe smuggles people from Monica's boring party to Joey and Chandler's fun party across the hall, acting like she was freeing them from one of the places mentioned in the Real Life section below.
-->'''Party Guest:''' What about my friend Victor?
-->'''Phoebe:''' No, only the three of you, any more than that and she'll get suspicious.
-->'''Party Guest:''' All right, let me just get my coat.
-->'''Phoebe:''' There isn't time! You must leave everything! They'll take care of you next door.
-->'''Party Guest:''' Is it true they have beer?
-->'''Phoebe:''' Everything you've heard is true.

* ''Series/KingdomAdventure'': It's heavily implied that The Prince has one of these set up for lumans who escape Pitts' custody. [[spoiler: Pitts' favorite form of execution is to have his prisoners FedToTheBeast, but the "beast" is actually a vegetarian with human-level intelligence, ''and'' he's one of the good guys, to boot, so obviously, he doesn't eat the victims, and just after a prisoner gets dumped into the pit, a friend of his lets them go and directs them to another luman. This route of escape keeps the victims alive, and it keeps Pitts from catching on to any of this.]]

-->'''Elliot Stabler:''' What is this, some kind of DV Underground Railroad?
-->'''Woman:''' You could call it that.

* ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'' reveals that an organisation known as The Path formed to help Jedi and non-Jedi Force users to evade being caught by TheEmpire. Members include surviving Jedi (such as Quinlan Vos), people with friendly ties to the Jedi, people with Force-sensitive loved ones, and at least one Imperial Officer who became disillusioned with the new regime. They run a network of saferooms and hidden tunnels where they can move without being caught by Stormtroopers.
* ''Series/QuantumLeap'': In "The Leap Between the States" Sam leaps into his own great-grandfather, a Union officer in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, and comes across a southern belle and her [[HappinessInSlavery seemingly devoted slave]] who are secretly helping other slaves escape north.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': In the episode "Counterpoint", Voyager helps a group of telepathic refugees on the last stage of an established escape route through the Devore Imperium. Captain Janeway ends up in a romantic tryst with the Devore officer charged with disrupting the route. [[spoiler:He turns out to be stringing Janeway along so he can shut down the route, but fortunately Janeway anticipates this.]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' supplement ''Aztlan''. The Aztlan Freedom League helps refugees from Aztlan escape to the Confederated American States.
* Fantasy Games Unlimited's ''Psi World'' adventure ''Underground Railroad''. The Free State operates, with the aid of a psionic underground in the Confederacy, a series of escape routes for psis who wish to get out of the repressive police state of the Confederacy.

** The first one she comes across, run by Zlatko [[spoiler:is actually a trap. He promises deviant androids a chance at freedom just to lure them in to have their memories reset so he can sell them. And those are the lucky ones [[BodyHorror compared to what he does to the ones he keeps.]]]]
** The second one, run by Rose and Adam [[spoiler:is the real thing. Adam is scared of what will happen if the authorities find out and doesn't understand why they have to put themselves at risk for a bunch of machines, but Rose goes out of her way to help androids in need, seeing them as people in the same exact situation their ancestors were in.]]

** The Kirkwall Circle in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' is the most abusive one out there, so the presence of a "Mage Underground" should come as no surprise. There's even a sidequest ''called'' "Underground Railroad." [[spoiler: By act 3, the increasingly-paranoid Meredith has dismantled it, which doesn't do much for Anders' mental state.]]
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' has The Twin Lamps, who serve as one to free slaves and help them return to their homelands. Given that slavery is legal in Morrowind, they need to be discreet.
* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' took the Underground Railroad and ran with it in one of the sidequests, essentially by combining it with the plot of ''Film/BladeRunner'' and having the [[PlayerCharacter Lone Wanderer]] either assist in protecting an escaped android, or helping capture him and return him to his creators in Massachusetts. They are expanded on in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', where they're one of the factions you can side with.
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'': [[LaResistance The human resistance]] ran a network of safehouses and supply caches to help people escape City 17, with the help of [[TheMole resistance agents planted]] in [[StateSec Civil Protection]]. When the manhunt for Gordon Freeman is set off, much of the network ends up being broken by the Combine, [[spoiler: although the resistance group that was running the network manages to survive and fight on.]]
* Geralt learns some ways into ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'' that two of the four crime lords of Novigrad are helping shelter the city's mages in the wake of Redania and the Eternal Fire's [[BurnTheWitch latest witch-burning craze]]. When [[CapeBusters the witch hunters]] clamp down and the pogroms proceed in full, they seek Geralt's help in getting them out of the city and to Kovir. Being crime lords, they're more pragmatic than heroic, having traded their help in exchange for money and extensive magical favors.

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E13TheColorYellow The Color Yellow]]": The Simpsons had an ancestor who was a part of this. Bart suggested it should've been called "Aboveground Normalroad". [[spoiler: To be more precise, a fugitive slave and a woman who helped him are ancestors of the Simpsons]].

** Norway had its own network, usually smuggling refugees over the border (and also many Jews) to neutral Sweden - and also back again, as the resistance network planned their moves in Sweden, smuggling their people back in to do their job. Woe for the ones getting caught on the way. The "railroad" usually went through uncharted forest terrain where the resistance knew the Germans were not actually looking. Another route went by fishing boats to the British isles (an even more daring attempt as you had to break the German Submarine lines).

* ''Series/KingdomAdventure'': It's heavily implied that The Prince has one of these set up for lumans who escape Pitts' custody. [[spoiler: Pitts' favorite form of execution is to have his prisoners FedToTheBeast, but the "beast" is actually a vegetarian with human-level intelligence, ''and'' he's one of the good guys, to boot. This route of escape keeps the victims alive, and it keeps Pitts from catching on to any of this.]]

* ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'' reveals that an organisation known as The Path formed to help Jedi and non-Jedi Force users to evade being caught by TheEmpire. Members include people with friendly ties to the Jedi, people with Force-sensitive loved ones and at least one Imperial Officer who became disillusioned with the new regime. They run a network of saferooms and hidden tunnels where they can move without being caught by Stormtroopers.

See also RestrictedRescueOperation. The "final stop" on one of these is often an OutcastRefuge where the escapees can live in (relative) peace. Typically motivated by ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight, although some may be recruited by ScrewTheRulesIveGotMoney.

See also RestrictedRescueOperation. The "final stop" on one of these is often an OutcastRefuge where the escapees can live in (relative) peace.

* In ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'', Jane Kim establishes a rehab group called the Garden of Cocoons, where she trains Fixies, or people who were rendered emotionless by the Fixer drug, to be reborn as "Saeras". You can attend her 3-day training session, and she'll give you a role in spreading the word of her group by selling books about it with fake covers. While your customers know they got fooled, they thank you for supporting her cause, anyway, and encourage you to continue doing so.

* In ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'', Jane Kim establishes a rehab group called the Garden of Cocoons, where she trains Fixies, or people who were rendered emotionless by the Fixer drug, to be reborn as "Saeras".

* ''LetsPlay/HermitcraftServer'': A more [[https://youtu.be/6NezU7X4SEE?t=399 literal]] example pops up during Grian's 42nd episode where he begins to build one to ''each and every shop in the district''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' took the Underground Railroad and ran with it in one of the sidequests, essentially by combining it with the plot of ''Film/BladeRunner'' and having the [[PlayerCharacter Lone Wanderer]] either assist in protecting an escaped android, or helping capture him and return him to his creators in Massachusetts. They are expanded on in ''Videogame/{{Fallout 4}}'', where they're one of the factions you can side with.

* In ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'', Jimmy mentions that one of his ancestors had come to Canada via the Underground Railroad.

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': An underground railroad that helped battered spouses escape their abusive husbands was central to the plot [[spoiler: read: was the target of the Serial Killer Of The Week, who was a ColdSniper hired by one of said spouses and was killing his way to the escaped wife]] of the episode "Sniper, Sniped".

See also RestrictedRescueOperation.

* In TheOrphanTrainAdventures book "A Family Apart", Frances overhears a conversation about the Underground Railroad. [[spoiler:Later, it turns out that her new foster family is involved, and she even brings a couple of runaway slaves to the next farm on the route.]]