® Free Press Independent reporting on today’s Underground Railroad

November, 2007 urrfreepress.com Volume 2, Issue 6

F ree Press Announces Underground Railroad Prizes

U unrdrFerregeProreussn.dco mR ailroad Free Press has inaugu- The Underground Railroad Free Press Prize rated three annual prizes for outstanding for Preservation will be awarded to an indi-  contributions to contemporary Underground vidual, group or entity which has caused a Railroad work and will first award the prizes significant restoration of an Underground in 2008 in the fields of leadership, preserva- Railroad safe-house or route, newly identi-

Editorial tion and advancement of knowledge. fied an important Underground Railroad site

Good Deeds Should or sites, significantly promoted site preserva- Go Rewarded Panels of judges are being seated and de- tion or advanced the methods of Under- tailed criteria for each prize established. A Fifteen years ago, it would have ground Railroad site preservation. call for nominations for the prizes will go out been hard to identify many indi- in early 2008. Winners will be announced by The Underground Railroad Free Press Prize viduals or organizations of t hat Underg round Railroad Free Press later in for the Advancement of Underground Rail- day deserving of an Underground 2008 and the winners' awards and achieve- road Knowledge will be awarded to an indi- Railroad prize. Ten years ago, ments publicized to the American and Cana- vidual, group or entity which has produced a the number of worthy recipie nts dian press. significant addition to the store of Under- could have been counted on a ground Railroad knowledge and may be hand or two, but the last decade The Underground Railroad Free Press Prize awarded for a single contribution such as a has seen a major rekindling of for Leadership in the Underground Railroad landmark publication, a body of work, the Underground Railroad interest Community will recognize outstanding indi- arts, or creating or advancing a collection. with energy and good deeds n ow vidual leadership of a contemporary Under- aplenty. It is time to begin hon- ground Railroad entity or cause, or leadership Free Press will keep its subscribers and the oring those who have brought within the Underground Railroad community Underground Railroad community apprised of back this defining pillar to our as a whole. progress on this new undertaking. national consciousness.

Examples abound. Good books Latest Harris Underground Railroad Album Boosts Curricula for the use of teachers, parents and others in on the Underground Railroad Veteran Underground Railroad musicians Kim have flourished in the last five and Reggie Harris have released their latest teaching the Underground Railroad and its years. Since 1998, the Network album, Get On Board! Underground Railroad music. These scholastic aids may be down- to Freedom, the Freedom Center and Civil Rights Freedom Songs. The duo, loaded from the Harrises' web site at kiman- and Friends of the Underground well known for their 1984 Music and the Un- dreggie.com when available in 2008. Railroad were all launched. Most derground Railroad and 1997 Steal Away: visibly, many people in many Songs of the Underground Railroad, bill Get places gained new interest in On Board as a presentation of newly discov- identifying, preserving and pro- ered Underground Railroad songs. moting a rapidly growing list of Accompanying the Harrises on Get On Board Underground Railroad sites many are Danny Glover narrating Frederick Doug- of which had nearly been lost to lass writings, Sweet Honey In the Rock foun- time. And as Free Press's 2007 der Bernice Reagon, Peter Yarrow of Peter, Underground Railroad Survey Paul and Mary fame, Ossie Davis and Ruby showed, teachers, for the most Dee's son Guy Davis, Baby Jay and others. part on their own starting about 40 years ago, began adding the The Harrises and Appleseed Recordings which Underground Railroad into their issued Get On Board plan to offer lesson and Kim and Reggie Harris courses. Many school districts activity plans in conjunction with the album followed suit and today over 80 percent of US students are New Park Service Group Appoints Officers awakened to the topic before The new Friends of the Network to Freedom Treasurer- Robert Bryant, Professor of Soci- graduating from high school. Association, Inc., reported on in the last is- ology, Georgetown College And so today, there are many sue of Free Press, has appointed interim offi- cers pending regular election of officers at Secretary- Daniel Smith, Professor of His- people and organizations to give tory, University of Kentucky. thanks to for reviving the noble the group's first official annual meeting to be heritage that is the Underground held in Philadelphia in September, 2008. The The Association is the private-sector arm of Railroad. All merit our thanks interim officers are: the 's Network to Free- and the most industrious and ef- President- Alicestyne Adams, Director, Un- dom program. Also newly created is Under- fective of these champions now derground Railroad Institute, Georgetown ground Railroad Network Foundation, Inc., a deserve special recognition by College fundraising entity for the Association and the international Underground Network to Freedom. Both organizations are Railroad community for their Vice President- Dona Stokes-Lucas, Cochair, nonprofit corporations to which donors may Indiana Freedom Trails make tax-exempt donations. (continued on page two)

Toronto's York University rapid and substantial body of South's Swamps Spawned Underground Railroad Communities achievement. Freedom seekers from the deep south faced 1853 Frederick Law Olmstead, designer of

It is to issue these thanks that long odds trying to make it safely to free New York's Central Park, noted that, the Dis- Underground Railroad Free Press states, but some found new lives closer by mal Swamp was "formerly peopled . . . much has inaugurated its three annual deep in the large swamps of the Carolinas. more than at present; a systematic of prizes for outstanding contribu- them with dogs and guns having been made The Great Dismal Swamp, the nation's larg- tions to contemporary Under- by individuals who took it up as a business est, harbored maroon communities — remote, ground Railroad work. We are about ten years ago." indebted to Dr. Judith Wellman hard-to-find settlements of escaped slaves — of Historical Society of New York as did South Carolina's Congaree Swamp and After the Civil War, many maroon communi- Research Associates who planted other seldom-visited places. As far back as ties vanished as their people sought better the seed of this idea with us sev- 1728, surveyor William Byrd noted that, "It is lives but some lived on. Maryland's Hall Town, eral years ago. certain that many Slaves shelter themselves near where Free Press is published, lasted in this Obscure Part of the World, nor will any until at least 1900, and there are still towns of their righteous neighbors discover them." in the more remote mountains of Jamaica Historians John Hope Franklin and Herbert peopled by the descendants of maroons.

Aptheker estimate the Great Dismal Swamp's The Great Dismal Swamp also served as a peak maroon population at several thousand. route for runaways headed for ports How to Subscribe In his 1784 A Tour of the United States, John [the swamp extends into Virginia], and on its Free Press subscriptions are free. To sub- scribe, send email addresses of those you F. Smith, wrote of Great Dismal Swamp that, fringes as a place where enslaved and free would like to receive Free Press to "Run-away negroes have resided in these blacks made a living by timber harvesting. [email protected]. places for twelve, twenty, or thirty years and The US Fish & Wildlife Service, custodian of View or Add to Datebook upwards, subsisting themselves on corn, hogs, the Great Dismal Swamp, states that there Email us about upcoming events and we and fowls, that they raised on some of the are still many areas of the swamp thought will add them to our web site's Datebook. spots not perpetually under water." never to have been traversed by man. Click on Datebook at urrFreePress.com to view a comprehensive calendar of events. In 1817, Samuel Huntington Perkins reported Visit http://www.fws.gov/northeast/greatdis Send News, Letters, Articles or Ads the discovery of a woman and her six children malswamp for a bibliography on the Under- News, letters or articles: living in a remote part of the swamp, but by ground Railroad in the Great Dismal Swamp. [email protected] Advertising: [email protected] See the notice on our web site for Gettysburg to Virginia Underground Railroad Tour Guide specifications, rates and restrictions. Underground Railroad Free Press has pub- as especially deserving of preservation. Link Your Web Site or View Lynx lished a free guide of three tours of Under- Free Press's Gettysburg to Virginia Under- Visit urrFreePress.com/#_Links_1 to view ground Railroad sites along the 60-mile route Lynx, links to other organizations. To add ground Railroad Tour Guide may be down- from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, through your link, email its web address to loaded at our web site at no charge. [email protected]. Maryland to Waterford, Virginia. The area encompasses nearly 60 confirmed or believed These tours lie within the Journey Through Underground Railroad sites. Hallowed Ground [jthg.org], a new National Heritage Area, recognized as holding more Another tour includes Underground Railroad American history than any comparably sized ® sites midway along the route in history-rich Underground Railroad Free Press area in the country and home to significant News On Today’s Underground Railroad Frederick, Maryland. The third tour consists and unique historical, cultural, scenic and of several rural Underground Railroad safe- Peter H. Michael, Publisher natural legacies. The Journey Through Hal- [email protected] houses and routes and historic African- 301.874.0236 lowed Ground corridor follows US Route 15 American villages along Frederick County, on a particularly beautiful 175-mile course Underground Railroad Free Press is a free news- Maryland's Potomac-to-Doubs Underground letter published bimonthly by Cooling Springs from Gettysburg to Monticello, Thomas Jef- Farm, 2455 Ballenger Creek Pike, Adamstown, Railroad Route, designated by Scenic America Maryland, 21710, an Underground Railroad safe- ferson's home near Charlottesville, Virginia. house open to the public. Back issues are avail- able at no charge. Underground Railroad Free Abolition Hall of Fame Taps Lates t Inductees Press is distributed by email and by special ar- Nineteenth century abolitionists John Brown, vard-educated Wendell Phillips quit his law rangement via postal mail. Send changes of email addresses to [email protected]. Lydia Maria Child, Wendell Phillips and So- practice and tirelessly fought for emancipa- tion, and after the Civil War for women's Underground Railroad Free Press welcomes news journer Truth were enshrined by the National articles and letters to the editor of 300 words or Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum at an in- rights, universal suffrage, the labor move- less. All rights to submissions including email ment and especially Native American rights. and letters will be treated as unconditionally as- stallation ceremony October 20 at Colgate signed to Free Press for publication and copy- University in Hamilton, New York. right purposes, and subject to our unrestricted Lydia Maria Child, said to have been the first right to edit and comment editorially unless oth- white person to write a book urging emanci- erwise negotiated with authors. John Brown led an insurgency against Kansas enslavers and the 1859 raid on the federal ar- pation, was long the editor of the American Underground Railroad Free Press accepts taste- Anti-Slavery Society's National Anti-Slavery ful nonpolitical advertising and reserves the senal at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, one of right to reject advertising which for any reason the most direct causes of the Civil War. Standard and later, like Phillips, an advocate in our sole judgment is not acceptable. Submit for Native American rights. advertising in pdf, jpg, tiff, png, gif, other pic- ture format or text. Visit urrfreepress.com for Sojourner Truth, who when enslaved had 11 of rates and layout specifications. her 13 children sold away, after being freed The National Abolition Hall of Fame taps new honorees biennially. The first crop, inducted All contents of this and other issues of Under- became a spellbinding minister who life long ground Railroad Free Press are protected by preached for better treatment of African- in 2005, included Frederick Douglass, William copyright and may not be reproduced in whole Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Gerrit Smith or in part for any reason without prior written Americans and women. approval of the publisher. Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman. Free Press is a registered trademark. Called the greatest antislavery orator, Har-