Underground Airlines Imagery

Underground Airlines Imagery

Equipment

The undercover agent explains, “I had with me in Indianapolis all my usual equipment… A variety of costume pieces-some wigs, some fake jewelry, and various basic elements of facial camouflage: a tube of spirit gum, a few shades of foundation, an eyebrow pencil. I had six different pairs of clear-glass spectacles and six different sets of colored contact lenses.” The equipment is mandatory for the undercover agent because they permit him to change his identities depending on circumstances. Evidently, the agent, on some occasions poses as a female based on the assortment of equipment that he has. The undercover agent covers his traces through the equipment effectively.

Father Barton

The agent explains, "The ATM stood under a little green awning, just to right of the front of the bank proper. As I ambled toward it I felt my body take on the young father's spirit, the righteous white man, walking upright and unafraid in a black neighborhood, a man of the people, wearing his serious sacred expression." The undercover agent is at the ATM, which Father Barton uses, to trace the father's movements. Evidently, the father's religiousness and his standing as a holy man would make him comfortable in a predominantly black area. He would walk confidently because they black consider him God’s messenger; hence, would not deem him an outsider due to his whiteness.

Mr. Bridge

The agent narrates, “More silence on the other end. Mr. Bridge, not interested in the nitty-gritty. Mr. Bridge, waiting for information. He and I had never met face-to-face, but we'd been talking on the phone now going on six years, and I had a clear picture in my mind of the man behind his desk in Gaithersburg. Upright behind his computer keyboard, with a round pale face and pink jowls. A conservative mustache, maybe, thick but well kept. Eyes flat like silver dollars." Imaginations regarding Mr. Bridge are based on the agent's assumptions and conclusion based on the on-phone interactions. The agent visualization surmises that Mr. Bridge would be a conservative guy dedicated to his work.

“Rescues and saviors”

The agent confirms, "There are rescues, though. There are saviors. It's piecemeal; it's small-group action, teams of northerners, daring or crazy, making pinprick raids into the Hard Four, grabbing people up and hustling them to freedom. There are ad hoc efforts, small organizations, cells, each running its own route of the Airlines." The rescues and saviors engage in actions that are antithetical to the Fugitive Act. They rescue slaves from the south where slavery is still predominant. Slave owners are threatened by the savior because liberation of slaves disrupts their guaranteed free labour. The rescues are spearhead by entities who do not endorse black’s enslavement. Based on the framework of the rescues, they are illegal.

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