National Park Service unveils new Underground Railroad sites

[applegrove]

National Park Service unveils new Underground Railroad sites

Jacob Knutson at Axios

https://www.axios.com/national-park-service-underground-railroad-sites-988be219-444e-46b0-9208-a3135fceec1f.html

"SNIP......

The National Park Service on Friday unveiled 16 additions to its National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program.

Why it matters: The program preserves sites connected to the network of havens across the U.S. that offered shelter and aid primarily to enslaved African Americans on their journey to free states and Canada and promotes educational or research programs pertaining to the Underground Railroad.

Each of the now 682 listings in the extensive network located in 39 states, Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands provides insights into the experiences of freedom seekers who escaped slavery and the allies who assisted them.

What they're saying: “Today’s announcement reminds us of the dark pages in our history books, but also highlights the incredible strength and resilience of Black communities,” Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said. 

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[doc03]

1. There was a lot of Underground Railroad activity in this area. I am in Ohio a few

miles from Wheeling WV and the Ohio river. The run away slaves would cross the river at night then
spend the day behind a water wheel at a flower mill. Then the next night they would follow a creek
to its end then another couple hundred yards up a hill they were guided by a light in the Quaker church a couple miles away.

[applegrove]

2. So great that you know the story. It is important to be connected to brave people

from the past.

[doc03]

4. There is small Underground Railroad Museum in Flushing, Ohio. The owner John Mattox passed away

a few years ago but I believe it is still open by appointment. He had a lot of information and artifacts on the
Underground Railroad.

https://www.ugrrf.org/

[electric_blue68]

3. That's wonderful knowing the story in your own area.

[wnylib]

7. I'm from Erie,PA, on Lake Erie.

The shortest distance on the lake between the US and Canada is at Erie. Escaped slaves hid in homes and a tavern until they could cross a bay to a natural peninsula, then wait to cross the rest of the way to Canada. They had to watch for patrol ships on the lake, until they reached the Canadian shore.

At Buffalo, hired slave trackers tried to stop one boat from leaving, but were fought off by free Blacks, their allies, and the escaped slaves on the boat. The boat made it to Canada.

[electric_blue68]

8. Great stories...

No wonder, with your location. I was picturing Ohio
and thinking 'yeah, north part is close to Canada...'.

Here in NYC they could go either N, then W or straight N which may have been a little shorter (but not ) route.

[wnylib]

17. Depends, I think, on whether

people traveled on foot or by boat, Boat would be faster, and maybe less tiring, especially for families with children, but maybe riskier since it was easier to patrol rivers and streams than land.

The Ohio River has tributary branches that go into northwestern PA near Erie and all the way into southwestern NY. Some parts of those tribs are not very navigable, requiring some foot travel, and places to stop along the way.

Very difficult travel over several hundred miles, but freedom is a mighty strong motivator and sustainer.

Erie, PA's residents were divided between supporters of tge Fugitive Slave Act requiring escaped slaves to be returned, and opponents who strongly supported abolition. So abolitionists had to be wary of their own neighbors and relatives.

[electric_blue68]

5. I think I'd forgotten about this...

but I'm excited to be reminded.

As an NYC'r I know there're sites around.
While I lived in Brooklyn I think a house was going to be demolished but it had a cellar that a stip. People rallied ane saved it. 👍.

Slavery never should have happened .
We can salute the brave runaways, the empathy and actions of those who helped them. 💖

[applegrove]

6. +100.

[AllaN01Bear]

9. shame that they even couldnt find peace in the north.

[applegrove]

10. Yes and they were mistreated in canada. Many black nova scotians

who have been 'squatting' on the same land for generations are insisting they get title to it finally. My all my white ns ancestors got free land 200 to 250 years ago there. Not african canadians.

[Lucinda]

11. ❤️ ✿❧🌿❧✿ ❤️

[RicROC]

12. Rochester, NY

My family feels that the old farmhouse was part of the Underground Railroad because of a secret room found in the attic. Unfortunately, the house has since been torn down when my father retired from farming.

But contacting the National Park Service might be a good resource for us.

[applegrove]

13. Yes. Interesting and heartwarming to find that in the past. Was it your families homestead way back?

[RicROC]

14. yes, in 1902

my great-grandfather from Germany bought the farm (literally) and passed it down to my father, who sold it when he retired in the 1990's. I lived on that farm until going to college.

[applegrove]

15. That is quite the life. I spent a week on a farm two summers in a row i think it was.

Farm vacation. Oh the food was sooo good. I also helped hay on a 'friend of my mom's' farm. Never worked harder in my life.

[dflprincess]

19. The village my family lived in in western New York

had a house that was known to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. We were very near the Niagara River (near Buffalo) with Canada just on the other side of the river.

[peppertree]

16. We can presume that white supremacist thief Zinke is not too happy about this.

[BobTheSubgenius]

18. My stepson and his family own and live in one of those 682.

I think it's one of the coolest things ever.

[cannabis_flower]

20. Interesting article about the Underground Railroad to Mexico in Texas

The Underground Railroad ran south as well as north. For enslaved people in Texas, refuge in Canada must have seemed impossibly far away. Fortunately, slavery was also illegal in Mexico.


Researchers estimate 5,000 to 10,000 people escaped from bondage into Mexico, says Maria Hammack, who is writing her dissertation about this topic at the University of Texas at Austin. But she thinks the actual number could be even higher.

“These were clandestine routes and if you got caught you would be killed and lynched, so most people didn’t leave a lot of records,” says Hammack.

There’s some evidence that tejanos, or Mexicans in Texas, acted as “conductors” on the southern route by helping people get to Mexico. In addition, Hammack has also identified a Black woman and two white men who helped enslaved workers escape and tried to find a home for them in Mexico.


https://www.history.com/news/underground-railroad-mexico-escaped-slaves