How did thousands of slaves escape from the United States to Canada?

Discover Canada describes the escape route in a single, vivid sentence. The guide writes: Thousands of slaves escaped from the United States, followed "the North Star" and settled in Canada via the Underground Railroad, a Christian anti-slavery network. The route the test wants is the only one named in this passage: the Underground Railroad.

The wider context in Discover Canada is the Empire-wide and U.S. abolitionist timeline. After the British Parliament moved against slavery — banning the trade in 1807 and abolishing slavery throughout the Empire in 1833 — Canada became a destination of refuge for enslaved people fleeing the United States, where slavery remained legal for decades longer. The earlier Canadian step matters too: under Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, Discover Canada says, Upper Canada moved toward abolition in 1793, becoming "the first province in the Empire to move toward abolition." So the Underground Railroad arrivals were coming to a country whose own slavery had ended decades before.

The guide gives the route a few defining features. It was secret — the literal name "Underground", even though there were no actual underground tunnels — and it was Christian and abolitionist in character: Discover Canada calls it "a Christian anti-slavery network." Travellers used the night sky for navigation, following "the North Star" across the United States toward British North America. The destination was Canada itself; Discover Canada says the escapees "settled in Canada" at the end of that journey.

The question is testing one of the most-recognised images in Discover Canada's slavery section. New citizens are expected to know both where the escapees came from (the United States), where they went (Canada), and by what means (the Underground Railroad). The guide is unusually direct on this point — there is only one route name in the relevant sentence.

The answer also matters thematically. Discover Canada situates the Underground Railroad as a piece of Canadian moral identity — a country that, alongside Britain, became a haven from American slavery. The phrase "the North Star" is itself a small literary detail that the guide chose to keep, which suggests it expects new citizens to remember the imagery of the journey, not just the policy outcome.