To find a better life, thousands of African Americans escaped from slavery in the South on the Underground Railroad. This was not a regular railroad. The Underground Railroad was a chain of people and houses that would hide runaway slaves as they headed North or to Canada to freedom. They often traveled for months and in the midst of winter. Slaves used passwords or certain songs to identify who worked on the Underground Railroad. One of the conductors on the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman, a former slave who was known as "Moses" because she led African Americans to freedom. Harriet never lost a passenger on the Underground Railroad.