November 2014 Volume 10, number 51

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREE PRESS® Independent reporting on today’s

urrFreePress.com 2014 Peace Nobel Awarded for Work Freeing Children from Slavery In This Issue

Freedom from child labor and to an education are recognized by a Nobel Prize. 1

A small town saves an almost forgot- ten historic church.

1 Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai For their work speaking out against Says Satyarthi, "Everyone must ac- An Academy Award winner lends a the slavery and exploitation of chil- knowledge and see that child slavery strong voice to historic preservation. dren, Indian social organizer Kailash still exists in the world in its ugliest Satyarthi and Pakistani schoolgirl face and form. And this crime against Malala Yousafzai were named as the humanity is intolerable, unacceptable 2 recipients of the 2014 Nobel Peace and must go." Prize. The Nobel Prizes for peace, An Underground Railroad book wins economics, medicine, literature, phys- By far the youngest Nobelist ever, Malala Yousafzai, 17, has become a a national book prize. ics and chemistry will be presented legend in her own time. As an eleven on December 10 in Oslo, Norway. year old, she began speaking out 2 By naming the two, the Nobel Com- against Taliban restrictions on educa- mittee honors age and youth, Hindu tion of girls in Pakistan's remote Swat Anthony Cohen, descendant of two and Muslim, Indian and Pakistani, Valley where she lived. By the next Underground Railroad freedom seek- and male and female, all taken to- year when she became a regular ers, again walks the path of one. gether a stroke for peace in itself. blogger for the Urdu edition of the 2 British Broadcasting Corporation, the Mr. Satyarthi, 60, educated as an elec- Taliban had destroyed more than a trical engineer, left his college teach- hundred girls schools in the region. After 150 years, Tennessee is far ing post in 1980 to found the Save the overdue in labeling an unconscion- Childhood Mission. Tirelessly argu- On October 9, 2012, when she was fif- able Civil War massacre for what it ing that child labor perpetuates pov- teen, a Taliban gunman boarded the was. erty, unemployment, illiteracy, popu- youngster's school bus and shot her 3 lation growth and other social ills, he in the head. After regaining con- has done as much as anyone to show sciousness in a hospital in Britain a child labor as a human rights issue. Please see Nobel, page 4, column 3 Tolson's Chapel One of an occasional series on Underground Railroad and related sites After its congregation disbanded in 1998, Tol- pleted by the Friends group in 2014. son's Chapel sat deteriorating on a back street of rural Sharpsburg, Maryland, until local his- Tolson's Chapel dates from 1866 and served as torian Edie Wallace did something about it. an African Methodist Episcopal church until 1998. It was also used as the American Union Creating a nonprofit, mustering local interest School for African American children from and launching a fund drive worked. In 2002, 1868 until 1899. The church is named for its the nearby Save Historic Antietam Foundation founder and first pastor, John R. Tolson, a became the chapel's owner and in 2008 former slave from Virginia. deeded it to Friends of Tolson Chapel which Wallace had founded. Renovation was com- Visit tolsonschapel.org for more. Tolson's Chapel Underground Railroad Free Press 2 Oscar Winner Lupita Nyong'o and the National Trust for Historic Preservation Fight to Save Richmond's Historic Shockoe Bottom Shockoe Bottom, the oldest neighborhood in league baseball stadium would be built in Richmond, Virginia, was once a bustling center Shockoe Bottom, literally burying most of the of the slave-trade. By some estimates, more remainder of the neighborhood's history. 300,000 men, women and children were bought Said National Trust for Historic Preservation and sold in the Bottom and shipped throughout president Stephanie Meeks in launching a cam- the Deep South. Solomon Northup whose life paign to save the neighborhood, "We see was depicted in the Oscar-winning film 12 Years Shockoe Bottom as not just a state of Virginia a Slave was held in a Shockoe Bottom jail before treasure, but a national treasure. Much of what being sold south. was there has been destroyed and what is there Today much of the historic neighborhood is be- is buried. We'd like to have a comprehensive ar- ing torn down and gentrified, its nineteenth cen- chaeological exploration of this site." tury tobacco warehouses converted to town- Meeks enlisted the assistance of Lupita Nyong'o houses, and many of its open areas now paved whose portrayal of Patsey in 12 Years a Slave over into parking lots. The last straw came when won the 2014 Academy Award for Best Support- Lupita Nyong'o the City of Richmond announced that a minor Please see Richmond, page 4, column 1 Underground Railroad Novel Wins Prize For Tony Cohen, Ano- Ann Heinz's Last Stop Freedom, an Under- ground Railroad suspense thriller, has ther Historic Trek been awarded the Dragonfly E-book Award for Historical Fiction. Amazon's review describes Last Stop Free- dom's story line as, "A desperate flight from brutal oppression—and everything to lose if it fails. Two women, one white, the other black, find themselves trapped 100th Anniversary in bondage on a South Carolina planta- tion in 1850s America. Their unique friendship gives each the strength to en- dure until circumstances threaten not only to rip them apart but to place their very lives in jeopardy. They undertake a harrowing flight with the aid of the Un- derground Railroad. Will slavery’s pow- erful tentacles hold them? Or will they Ann Heinz Anthony Cohen find the freedom they crave." what is expected of her, and with what As this issue of Free Press reaches you, she knows is the right thing to do. With a Underground Railroad pioneer Anthony Writes reviewer Wendy Thomas, "Julia quick pace and nice use of credible dia- Cohen is beginning his historic walk from agrees to marry Nathaniel Hamilton, a logue, Heinz brings us along as Julia, Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, retracing plantation owner in South Carolina but who had only wanted to be out in the the footsteps of his great-great grand un- this just moves her from one house of re- world to have adventure and escape her cle Patrick Sneed who had fled from slav- pression to another. Her only source of father's rule, matures into a young ery in Savannah along the Underground comfort becomes Fanny, the black slave woman of strength who becomes com- Railroad to freedom in Canada in 1849. in the house who listens to her and gives mitted to a cause that, although not During the Civil War, Sneed joined the her emotional strength. When Nathaniel popular and dangerous for all involved, cavalry and in 1864 rode threatens to sell Fanny, Julia must step up is the absolute right thing to do. with Union Army General William and make some decisions in order to take Sherman in his March to the Sea. back control over her life. "Heinz is an accomplished and prolific

writer who does a wonderful job of Cohen says that he will travel by foot, "What follows is an intriguing story of bringing us along to watch Julia's awak- boat, rail, horseback and other nine- cultures and morals clashing—North vs. teenth-century conveyances as he makes ening as she moves from being the child South, men vs. women, black vs. white, the 250-mile journey. He plans stops in of her father to becoming the strong, in- religion vs. free will. Heinz does wonder- dependent woman she is capable of be- key communities along the way that fig- fully in weaving these points of view into ing." ure into his family story, and expects his a solid story filled with beautiful imagery journey to be complete by November 30. and accurate history. Heinz deftly shows Ann Heinz has also authored Will Thou His reprise of his relative's march is noth- us the inner turmoil of her main character Be Mine, Final Victim, Free Fall, and Ex- as Julia struggles with what is allowed, treme Influence. Please see Third Walk, page 4, column 3

Underground Railroad Free Press 3

Editorial: A National Disgrace Whitewashed

This article by Free Press publisher Peter H. Nathan Forrest had been a plantation those killed in the battle; from the lengths of Michael appears as a chapter in his owner and slave trader, and afterward the three lists—one hundred sixty-four Un- forthcoming Running on Empty: Along an became a founder of the . Epic 12,000-Mile Road Trip, America Has ion blacks, sixty-four Union whites, fifteen Its Say on Economic Inequality, due for After Reconstruction ended, town after Confederates—the visitor can begin to get an publication in 2015. southern town erected statues of Forrest idea of what happened. Another display tip- or memorialized him in other ways. toes toward candor by mentioning "the con- troversy" of the numbers killed by race and Day 64- Between trips, our friend Fergus Bordewich's article and a later exchange Bordewich happened to email me about of emails left the impression that the Please see Cover-up, page 4, column 1 his op-ed piece appearing in The Wall Tennessee Department of Parks which Street Journal. The subject was the 150th operates Fort Pillow State Park could do anniversary of the Civil War massacre at more in its portrayal of the Battle of Fort things you can Fort Pillow, Tennessee, on , Pillow to recognize the historical fact 1864, when 1,500 Confederates over- that a massacre had taken place. Since do at Free Press whelmed 550 white and black Union our route took us near the park, my cu- soldiers in the Battle of Fort Pillow after riosity prompted me to visit to see just which a heavy majority of black Union how the massacre is officially portrayed. Click on links at urrFreePress.com soldiers were massacred even though to do any of the following. Union forces had surrendered. The laws Driving west from Covington, Tennes- of war recognized by both sides stated see, one would not guess from the Subscribe that shooting stops with surrender and peaceful countryside that it once was in- View or Add to Datebook flicted with a racial massacre. Getting to that surrendered soldiers automatically Send News, Letters, Articles or Ads become prisoners of war with recog- Fort Pillow on the Chickasaw Bluffs Join the Community or View Lynx nized POW rights. overlooking the in- volves turns onto ever more rural roads Make a Free Press Prize Nomination The massacre sprang from Southern in- way off any beaten track. The fifteen Rate an Underground Railroad Site furiation that the North would use black miles or so between US Route 51 and soldiers to fight whites, and that black the river cover deep countryside with List an Underground Railroad Site Union soldiers were having success in nothing more than a few sleepy cross- Read Underground Railroad Surveys doing so. Under the command of Gen- road stores and the occasional farm. The eral Nathan Forrest, Confederate forces, further one gets from the highway, the after the Union commander had surren- more forest takes over farm land until dered, wasted no time systematically when reaching the park entrance one is killing more than three hundred black well into solid forest. troops, women and children, some shot, Underground Railroad Free Press® others bayoneted, clubbed to death, sa- Fort Pillow, named for Confederate Independent Reporting on ber-hacked, burned alive or buried General Gideon Pillow, did not consist Today’s Underground Railroad alive. Death rates tell the story: Confed- of a single constructed walled fort but of a series of earthen breastworks some of Peter H. Michael, Publisher erates one percent, Union whites [email protected] twenty-two percent, Union blacks sixty- which have been restored and may be 301 | 874 | 0235 three percent. All of the approximately visited. The fort and adjacent area one-third of black soldiers who survived where the Battle of Fort Pillow took Underground Railroad Free Press is a free news- letter published by Underground Railroad escaped through thick woods or in a place comprise about a half-mile square Free Press, 2455 Ballenger Creek Pike, Adam- single skiff which made it across the overlooking where the river used to run stown, Maryland, 21710. Back issues are nearby Mississippi River. Records show in 1864. The park map available at the available free at our website. Free Press is dis- visitor center locates and describes tributed by email. Send email address changes that the Confederates took no black and new subscriber email addresses to pub- prisoners, only the 296 white soldiers twenty-one places involved in the battle [email protected]. who had surrendered and been spared. but makes no mention of the main mas- We welcome news articles and letters to the sacre site for which Fort Pillow is most editor. All rights to submissions including For the remainder of the Civil War, noted. The Tennessee State Parks color emails and letters will be treated as uncondi- black soldiers going into battle shouted brochure listing all of the state's parks tionally assigned to Free Press for publication the rallying cry “Remember Fort Pil- and copyright purposes, and subject to our contains a one-paragraph description of unrestricted right to edit and comment edito- low!” Fort Pillow State Park which does not rially unless otherwise agreed with authors. Among many racial incidents, the Fort mention the massacre. The description Free Press accepts tasteful nonpolitical adver- mentions the battle, wildlife and arche- tising which we reserve the right to reject for Pillow Massacre has been reckoned the any reason which in our sole judgment is not war's ugliest. Forrest and his Confeder- ology but, as far as the massacre is con- acceptable. Submit advertising in pdf, jpg or ate troops immediately began denying cerned, the brochure says only that the text formats. Visit our website for rates and that any massacre had taken place, but a "Battle of Fort Pillow remains controver- layout specifications. Congressional investigating committee, sial" without saying why. Contents of any Free Press issue are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in relying on numerous escapee and civil- Visitor center displays begin to move whole or in part for any reason without prior ian eye-witness accounts, verified that closer to the truth but avoid getting all approval of the publisher. Underground Rail- road Free Press is a registered trademark. without doubt it had. Before the war the way there. One display lists by name

Underground Railroad Free Press 4

News Squibs Hopper -Gibbons Safe-House Maryland Emancipation Day Third Walk They are still at it. As Free Press has re- When Lincoln issued the Emancipation ing new to Cohen who over two months ported, neighbors of New York City's Proclamation on New Year's Day, 1863, it in 1996 famously retraced another Un-

Hopper-Gibbons House, the only docu- only pertained to states which had se- derground Railroad ancestor's 1,200-mile mented Underground Railroad safehouse ceded. Maryland, though a Union state, journey from Sandy Spring, Maryland, to in Manhattan, have tried for several years didn't abolish slavery until November 1, Amherstburg, Canada. He was followed to get the home's owner to dismantle a 1864, when its rewrote its constitution. on that trek by a writer and film crew re- recent illegal fifth story. Having lost with sulting in a groundbreaking Smithsonian On November 1 of this year, Maryland the City, its Historic Districts Council, magazine article which proved to be the celebrated the 150th anniversary of the and in a lower court, the owner has now spark in rekindling the nation's waning freeing of black Marylanders. Since 1864, taken the case to an appeals court. memory of the Underground Railroad. Maryland has called itself the Free State. Two years later, the federal government

launched the first of its three Under- Richmond ground Railroad programs, the National Park Service's Network to Freedom. ing Actress. Nyong'o began promoting General Forrest in the color brochure, the the preservation of Shockoe Bottom park map and a number of exhibits in- In 1998, Cohen spent three months walk- among her four million social media fol- cluding an entire display devoted ing Underground Railroad routes from lowers and advocating against the sta- to him. The reason Forrest was never Mobile, Alabama, to Windsor, Canada. dium, raising the issue into a national prosecuted for war crimes and the Fort Cohen's current walk is being recorded discussion. Nyong'o appealed to Rich- Pillow Massacre is that his fellow Ten- by a film crew and will be featured in the mond Mayor Dwight Jones to withdraw nessean Andrew Johnson succeeded to upcoming documentary Patrick and Me support of the stadium, centerpiece of an the presidency upon Lincoln's assassina- which will chronicle Cohen's search for economic development project. "Evidence tion and went easy on Forrest despite his slavery-era ancestor. Patrick & Me is of America's slave history must be pre- Congressional inquiry findings of Forrest scheduled for nationwide release in 2016. served, as the legacy of slavery affects all being guilty of war crimes. American people," she wrote to Jones. The film is being supported by a recently At the very least, Tennessee State Parks launched crowdfunding campaign. Free Nyong'o's intervention led to a rethinking soft-pedals the Fort Pillow Massacre and Press readers may follow Cohen's pro- by the City of Richmond. Jones invited unashamedly continues to idolize native gress on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Nyong'o to visit the former capital of the son Nathan Forrest without mention that Tumblr and YouTube. Readers may do- Confederacy to see Shockoe Bottom and after the war the federal government nate to the documentary project and fol- the City's revised plan to preserve its found him to be a common war criminal low the walk to Savannah at shermans- slave-trading past including a newly pro- because of the massacre. Given the im- march2014.com. posed slavery museum. "Our plans show perative that parks have in presenting where we want to invest in that history history faithfully to the public, the way Nobel and lift that history up for future genera- that Forrest is portrayed and the massacre week later, she vowed to devote her life tions to learn from," Jones wrote. is white-washed amounts to a 150-year to advancing universal education for cover-up by the State of Tennessee. The National Trust for Historic Preserva- children. tion lists Shockoe Bottom as one of Amer- In 1877, Nathan Forest died wealthy in On July 12, 2013, nine months after she ica's Most Endangered Historic Places. Memphis which still has a city park was nearly killed, Malala Yousafzai named for him. Nearly a century and a Cover -up stunned the United Nations General As- half later, the nation's memory of Forrest goes as far as to say that "different his- sembly and the world in one of the most was reawakened when late in 2013 stu- torical interpretations" contend with one moving addresses which the body had dents and parents at the Nathan B. another as to the marked disparity in ever heard. The occasion was her first Forrest High School in Jacksonville, Flor- casualties by race. I did not see the word public outing since being shot and oc- ida, used a worldwide Internet petition to "massa cre" in the visitor center or any- curred on her sixteenth birthday. Here successfully pressure the Duval County where in the park, and, if I hadn't read up was one humanity's few truly wise peo- Board of Education to change the school's on it before arriving, would have had no ple but this one only in her teens. name. Parent Ty Richmond's Change.org way based on the displays and brochures petition drew 162,150 signatures. The Today Malala Yousafzai lives with her of knowing the gravity of what had actu- school is sixty-two percent black. family in exile in Birmingham, England, ally happened. where she is a senior at Edgbaston High Leaving the visitor center, I took a walk The only photograph on the park's trail School. She is applying to universities. along a park path toward the area where guide is of Forrest, but a life-size photo the massacre had happened. There it was Malala is Pakistan's second Nobelist, the cut-out of a group of Col- again: another place with the ghostly rev- first, a physicist. Kailash Satyarthi is In- ored Troops is placed to face a wall in the erent hush of what should never have oc- dia's second Nobel peace laureate after visitor center. The few exhibits devoted to curred, as if the place itself is traumatized Mother Teresa. Six other Indians as far blacks and the euphemized massacre are by what it remembers. Even birds were back as 1913 have won in literature, eco- much over-shadowed by what amounts quiet. nomics, chemistry and physics. to an official modern-day State paean to