​Watch the Cast of Underground Explain Why You've Never Seen Slavery Like This

On the whole, Americans don't know much about the Underground Railroad, which wasn't an actual railroad but a secret network of passageways and safe houses slaves used to escape to the North and Canada before and during the Civil War.

Go behind the scenes of Underground with John Legend

That fascinating and dangerous experience is dramatized WGN America's Underground - not in a stuffy documentary way, but as a suspenseful thriller. In the clip above, cast members including Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Aldis Hodge and Christopher Meloni talk about how Underground portrays slavery like you've never seen it before: through characters on a courageous run for their lives.

"Underground's stories are relevant for everyone all over the world," says Alano Miller, because it's about people who had hope and wanted freedom. "It's American history," he says. "It's not African-American history, it's American history."

Underground premieres Wednesday March 9 at 10/9c on WGN.