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Day One
Our Route
Photos, text, and historical information for each of our eight days on the Underground Railroad.

Reflections on the Railroad
Journal entries from our trip participants, posted from the road.

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Multimedia
Video and audio from the trip, including songs, reenactments, and interviews. (Requires QuickTime.)

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Wilberforce University
Wilberforce, Ohio

Wilberforce University is the oldest African American private four year university in the United States. Founded in 1856, the university originally enrolled students from a number of southern states in the years before the Civil War. Fires destroyed detailed records of these students. They may have been the "mixed-race" children of plantation owners, or the children of free ex-slaves in Southern cities, or a combination of the two.
Wilberforce, named after the late 18th century British abolitionist, was chartered to operate without regard to race, gender, or national origin. Now 143 years later, the university has about eight hundred full time students who attend this very warm, supportive, and inclusive school. The current home of the president of the university was another station on the Underground Railroad. The library has one of the largest archives of abolitionism in the U.S., including the complete church records of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Hardy and Cheryl Brown's son, Hardy Jr., graduated from Wilberforce and is at present a stockbroker with Sun America.
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External Links

Wilberforce University

Wilberforce Library Archives
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