Loading question...
You are in free guest mode. Timed Practice Revision List Attempt History Progress Tracking Create a free account to unlock these tools
Prev Next
CELPIP Practice Reading: Reading for Information ID: #63093 Medium Underground Railroad routes into Canada

Read the following passage.

A. The 1793 Act to Limit Slavery freed no one already enslaved in Upper Canada, but one provision made any enslaved person free as soon as they reached Upper Canada, and a small number of freedom seekers came, mostly without help. Word spread further after the War of 1812, when enslaved servants of officers from the South brought back news of free Black men in red coats in British North America. On 1 August 1834, slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. By then a secret network, started early in the century by abolitionists based mainly in Philadelphia, had begun to be called the Underground Railroad.

B. The Underground Railroad was not a real railway. It was a hidden network of people and safe houses, and railroad words helped to mask its work. Guides who led escaping people north were called conductors, safe houses were stations, and the station masters who ran them gave meals, clothing and a place to hide. Helpers included free Black people, White and Indigenous sympathizers, Quakers and Methodists, Americans and Canadians. Many freedom seekers walked, while others rode in wagons or crossed lakes and rivers by boat, usually moving at night and resting during the day.

C. Arrivals rose sharply after the American Fugitive Slave Act became law in 1850, because it allowed slave catchers to pursue people who had escaped to the Northern states. Between 1850 and 1860, 15,000 to 20,000 freedom seekers reached the Province of Canada. Harriet Tubman changed her route so that it ended in Canada, and she began and ended her rescues in St. Catharines, where she moved in 1851. She made at least 10 trips and guided at least 70 people to freedom. Newcomers also built settlements such as Dawn, near Dresden, where Josiah Henson helped found a school, and the Elgin Settlement at Buxton, established in 1849.

D. The Underground Railroad is described as the largest anti-slavery freedom movement in North America, and it brought between 30,000 and 40,000 people to British North America. Henson's link to Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel made him one of the best known Canadians of his day and raised international awareness of Canada as a haven. At Buxton, many White settlers opposed the new community and feared it would lower property values. Black people were often kept in certain jobs because of their skin colour, and many were denied the right to live in some places. Parents had to send their children to segregated schools in parts of Ontario and Nova Scotia.

E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.

Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.

- 1.
A new American law caused far more people to flee to Canada.

- 2.
Tubman lived in Canada for about eight years before moving away.

- 3.
Under a rule from the late 1700s, people held as slaves became free once they entered Upper Canada.

- 4.
One guide made her base in Canada and led dozens of people there.

- 5.
Henson backed a new school because he had missed out on schooling as a child.

- 6.
In some areas Black children had to attend separate schools.

- 7.
Officials in Britain asked Upper Canada to pass the 1793 law.

- 8.
People fleeing slavery usually travelled after dark and stopped in daylight.

- 9.
After a war, people serving army officers took word home that free Black men could be found across British North America.

With a free account: Retry and compare every attempt.
Be the first! No community answers here yet — submit yours and help others learn.
Saving...