Slavery and the Underground Railroad I know you're wondering, what railroad? Well the simple fact is that everybody has heard of the Underground Railroad, but not everyone knows just what it was. Firstly, it wasn't underground, and it wasn't even a railroad. The term "Underground Railroad" actually comes from a runaway slave, who while being chased swam across a creek and was out of the owner's sight. The owner said "...must have gone off on an underground railroad." That man was Tice Davids, a Kentucky slave who decided to live in freedom in 1831. The primary importance of the Underground