The book of Midnight Rising by Tony Horwitz is about an abolitionist by the name of John Brown in the United States. This book follows the life of Mr. Brown and his family through the ups and downs of their lives. The definition of an abolitionist is "someone how is against the act of slavery". Throughout the age of slavery, there have been enforcers and sympathizers, many of which are mentioned in the book Midnight Rising. The Underground railroad played a very large part throughout this time. The underground railroad was not really underground, nor was it really a railroad, it was just a path that abolitionists used to help slaves escape their brutal lives. Slaves were bought like animals and used to work for the people who bought them. Female slaves usually washed clothes, made dinner and picked crops, while males usually preformed more labor intensive jobs such as plowing, planting, herding, and of course picking crops.The life of a slave was not pleasant, for they were beaten if they misbehaved or even if the slave owner felt like beating them.This is however not true for all of the slaves and owners, for some owners respected slaves and gave them good lives and something more to look forward too.