There were many well-used routes stretching west through Ohio to Indiana and Iowa. Others headed north through Pennsylvania and into New England or through Detroit on their way to Canada.

The Underground Railroad was not a literal railroad with tracks, but a clandestine network of secret routes and safe houses used by enslaved African Americans to escape to free states and Canada. Because it was a decentralized movement, its "locations" are spread across the Eastern and Midwestern United States. In 2026, many of these sites are part of the National Park Service's "Network to Freedom," which includes over 700 locations in 39 states. Significant hubs include Philadelphia (home to William Still's records), Cincinnati (the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center), and various "stations" in Ohio, New York, and Maryland. Recently, in March 2026, historians in Manhattan discovered a new potential "access point" hidden behind a cabinet in the Merchant's House Museum, proving that even in highly urbanized areas, secret passageways were used to shield freedom seekers from the Fugitive Slave Acts of the mid-19th century.