The Underground Railroad (novel)
| Author | Colson Whitehead |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Slavery |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
|
Publication date
|
August 2, 2016 |
| Pages | 320 |
| ISBN |
The Underground Railroad is the sixth novel by American author Colson Whitehead. It is the winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction, and the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence.
The novel tells the story of Cora and Caesar, two slaves who make a bid for freedom from their Georgia plantations by following the Underground Railroad, which in the novel is an actual subway as opposed to a series of safe houses and secret routes.
The story is told in the third person, focusing mainly on Cora. Scattered single chapters also focus on Cora's mother Mabel, the slavecatcher Ridgeway, a reluctant slave sympathizer named Ethel, and Cora's fellow slave Caesar.
Cora is a slave on a plantation in Georgia and an outcast after Mabel ran off without her. She harbors a great deal of resentment towards Mabel for escaping, although readers later learn that her mother actually died from a snake bite and never reached freedom. Caesar approaches Cora about a plan to flee. Reluctant at first, she eventually agrees as her situation with her master and fellow slaves worsens. During their escape, they encounter a group of slavecatchers, who capture Cora's young friend Lovey. Cora is forced to kill a teenage boy to protect herself and Caesar, eliminating any possibility of merciful treatment should she ever be recaptured. With the help of an inexperienced abolitionist, Cora and Caesar find the Underground Railroad, a subway system that runs throughout the south that transports runaways northwards. They take a train to South Carolina.
Upon learning of their escape, Ridgeway begins a hunt for the pair, largely in revenge for Mabel, who is the only escapee he has ever failed to capture. Meanwhile, Cora and Caesar have taken up comfortable residence in South Carolina under assumed names. South Carolina is enacting a program where the government owns former slaves but employs them, provides medical treatment, and gives them communal housing. The two enjoy their time there and put off the decision to leave until Cora learns of plans to sterilize black women and use black men as test subjects in an experiment to track the spread of syphilis. Ridgeway arrives before the two can leave, and Cora is forced to return to the Railroad alone. She later learns that Caesar is killed fighting with Ridgeway.
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