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| Twenty-six educators and community leaders from Inland Southern California gathered at 7:30 p.m. on August 2 in Covington, Kentucky, eager to begin a week-long intense study of one of the most important chapters in the development of democracy in America. On the "Footsteps of Freedom" travel study the educators explored the historical sites and locations along this major 'line' of the Underground Railroad from northern Kentucky, through Ohio and Michigan, and into southern Canada. This series of trails, safe houses, barns and tunnels was maintained by abolitionists for slaves escaping from slavery in the years before the American Civil War. Many of the sites along this pathway to freedom for thousands of enslaved have been lost or forgotten. To reverse this trend, Congress recently enacted The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act, signed into law by President Clinton at the end of July, 1998. Through this legislation, The National Park Service was directed to link the historic buildings and structures relating to the Underground Railroad as well as identify routes, geographic areas and corridors. Linking the sites into a coherent comprehensible historic network will be a challenge of no small measure. The 'railroad', never formally organized or even really mapped because secrecy was the key to its success, was really a number of routes out of slave states to areas where slavery was illegal. Slaves had long escaped to free northern states, but after a series of national legislation beginning with the 'Missouri Compromise' of 1820, arrest and return of the escapees was required by law. The northern United States was no longer safe from the clutches of slave bounty hunters. From the time Mexico outlawed slavery in 1829 and the British Empire eliminated slavery in 1832, freedom awaited the enslaved who risked international travel. Both Mexico and Canada became viable destinations for escaped slaves and communities of these newly free Americans developed in these countries. The educators participating in this Footsteps to Freedom program are leaders in making the stories of these brave freedom fighters part of the K-12 curriculum in California. Of all races and religions, some of the conductors of the Underground Railroad were famous abolitionists, but most were ordinary people who quietly risked everything to do what they thought was right. Their stories and the international connection they demonstrate are important models of courage and sacrifice in the global struggle for human dignity and freedom. Text by Cheryl Brown, The Black Voice, and Margaret Hill and Sandra Boe, Inland Empire Consortium for International Studies. Additional text by James Hill, Instructional Coordinator Upland High School, and pictures by Richard Folger, Emerson Elementary School, Riverside Unified School District, Sindi Wasserman, Chino Unified School District and James Hill. Website design by Enterprise for Economic Excellence. Modified 1998, 1999. by Amy Wahe, Zoltan Bircsak, and Robert Daeley, San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, Curriculum and Instruction. |
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