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

"Getting to know our history is so alive in so many places has been almost unbelievable."

"I keep reflecting back to the Walls. As a person my family is very important to me and I have not made the effort I could to give my own kids my family's history."

"If we don't take the time to know who we are and where we came from we will loose the importance of being in the place. Everyone's history is important."

"We found out about a bunch of outstanding people of Upper Ontario. Mary Shadd was my personal favorite because of the many amazing things she did during her time . . . a time when blacks were expected to be slaves and women were expected to have babies. Ms. Shadd was the first woman admitted to an all-male, black university (Howard, I think). She was a lawyer, an abolitionist, and a recruiter for the Civil War."

"For my female students the example of Mary [Shadd] should be inspiration. She was a teacher, recuited soldiers for the Civil War, and co-authored the Black newspaper the Provential Freedman. Her brother Issac bought a part of the Hurricane farm. . . . Being the best only involves me competing with myself. Here I begin and end the achievement. I am also responsible for my own success and failure. Once I accept this I am an adult."

"I was really surprised to learn about Jane and John Walls. I figured that although John was Black, since Jane was White, they should be able to walk across the border with no problem. Jane should have walked across with her freed slave, John. But, in talking to his great-grandson, he said that since they had gotten married, this was illegal and put the whole family in the situation of crossing as fugitives together."

"Empowering research is not just for the pros. 'Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.' -- Malcolm X."

"Today I learned the fact behind the fiction of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The story of Josiah Henson and his arrangements in Dawn, Canada. His sacrifice of 100 acres of land to establish the school for the community tells of his value of education for the people who crossed into freedom. He did everything in his power to ensure a formerly enslaved people would have free and equal opportunity for education."

The "Footsteps to Freedom 1999" Route

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