in the area or if there were slave hunters nearby. If the freedom seeker stayed in a slave cabin, they would likely get food and learn good hiding places in the woods as they made their way north. Hiding places called "stations" were set up in private homes, churches, and schoolhouses in border states between slave and free states. John Brown had a secret room in his tannery to give escaped enslaved people places to stay on their way. People who maintained the stations provided food, clothing, shelter, and instructions about reaching the next "station". Often, enslaved people had to make their way through southern slave states on their own to reach them. The network extended throughout the United States—including Spanish Florida, Indian Territory, and Western United States—and into Canada and Mexico. The Underground Railroad was initially an escape route that would assist fugitive enslaved African Americans in arriving in the Northern states; however, with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, as well as other laws aiding the Southern states in the capture of runaway slaves, it became a mechanism to reach Canada. Canada was a haven for enslaved African-Аmericans because it had already abolished slavery by 1783. Black Canadians were also provided equal protection under the law. The well-known Underground Railroad "conductor" Harriet Tubman is said to have led approximately 300 enslaved people to Canada. In some cases, freedom seekers immigrated to Europe and the Caribbean islands. Harriet Tubman One of the most notable runaway slaves of American history and conductors of the Underground Railroad is Harriet Tubman. Born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, around 1822, Tubman as a young adult, escaped from her enslaver's plantation in 1849. Between 1850 and 1860, she returned to the South numerous times to lead parties of other enslaved people to freedom, guiding them through the lands she knew well. She aided hundreds of people, including her parents, in their escape from slavery. Tubman followed north–south flowing rivers and the north star to make her way north. She preferred to guide runaway slaves on Saturdays because newspapers were not published on Sundays, which gave her a one-day head-start before runaway advertisements would be published. She preferred the winters because the nights were longer when it was the safest to travel. Tubman wore disguises. She sang songs in different tempos, such as Go Down Moses and Bound For the Promised