My name is Amber Hobbs, and I am a Junior at Keene State College. I am double majoring in History (self-designed) along with a major in Secondary Education. I live outside of Boston on the North Shore. I was born and raised in Beverly Massachusetts and still live there today with my mom and older brother. My grandparents and my dad also live in Rockport, Massachusetts where I spend most of my summers waitressing, and in my free time, you can usually find me on my boat. After I graduate from KSC I hope to teach and get my master’s degree in Massachusetts. I would love to be able to teach and coach at a North Shore high school.

My research will focus on the Underground Railroad starting at the ending of the 18th century and continued through the beginning of the Civil War. African Americans, whites and other abolitionists helped runaway slaves try to escape to freedom. Slaves would run away from their plantations in the South in hoping to escape to the North or states where African Americans could be free. Many groups such as the Quakers, the African Methodists Episcopal Church, and other abolitionist groups created networks and shelters throughout the South to help the slaves escape to the North or the free states of the US. The Fugitive Slave Acts stopped some of the fugitive slaves from escaping and forced people to return the runaway slaves back to their slave owners in the South. Although the Underground Railroad was stopped and slaves were not yet free before it ended, it pushed the nation into fighting a Civil War and abolitionists wanting the abolition of slavery. Important slaves that experienced the underground railroad or escaped at this time will be researched and their stories will be told throughout my work along with the groups and individuals that helped them try to escape. The Underground Railroad ended in the 1860s during the time of the Civil War but its work moved above ground as part of the Union effort against the Confederacy.