 Escaped slaves would move north along the route from one way station to the next.Although the fugitives sometimes traveled on boat or train, they usually traveled on foot or by wagon.The region was shaped by the relative absence of slavery (except for Missouri), pioneer settlement, education in one-room free public schools, democratic notions brought by American Revolutionary War veterans, Protestant faiths and experimentation, and agricultural wealth transported on the Ohio River riverboats, flatboats, canal boats, and railroads.