dictionary definition of the Underground Railroad

Webster's Third New International Dictionary gives the definition the Underground Railroad as follows: "a system of cooperation among active antislavery people in the U.S. before 1863 by which fugitive slaves were secretly helped to reach the North or Canada." (Gove 1986, 2489)

Gove, Philip Babcock. Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster Inc., 1986.