Sunday, June 19th - Father's Day
On this morning we made our first "official" underground railroad stop: meaning that this was the first town with a strong historical connection to the Underground Railroad. The local church was run by conductors, people whom gave escapees shelter. The church had 10 hidden rooms where they hid slaves from the eyes of southern catchers.
We also visited the Stagecoach Inn, which was founded sometime in the 1830's as a place for overnight passengers on the stagecoach line to stay overnight. It originally had guestrooms and a tavern. But, it was also a way station on the Underground Railroad.
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| SnR on the front steps of the Stagecoach Inn, a way station for the Underground Railaroad. |
When we toured the town the mayor expressed how even though the town's population has decreased since it's conductor days, they are still striving to educate the population on the harsh conditions of the fleeing africans. In fact, both the mayor and commissioner are planning to open an underground railroad museum, thus creating the first underground railroad museum in all of Alabama. Crazy right?
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| Inside the Stagecoach Inn |
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| Stagecoach Inn |
Its amazing that in 2011, southern states still haven't begun to set up landmarks and museums for the Underground Railroad. It just goes to show you how there is still a lot of work to do to give people a broader understanding of the journey that many enslaved persons had to take to obtain freedom. We also need to remind ourselves of the courage that many Americans, who already had their freedom, demonstrated when they risked everything to make sure that other human beings were free.
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