June 18-20 Marshall Lewis

June 18-20 Marshall Lewis

Saturday, June 18
After we left Gainsville the group continued onward to a town called Aliceville, where we were scheduled to stay in a national guard armory. Unfortunately out guide never showed up to open the facility. But once again our lucky streak continued as local Paster, (Charley Wilson), both opened up his home as well as his wallet as he provided us a place to sleep and bought us dinner from a local dive. His hospitality is greatly appreciated and I thank him for his support. It is because if people like him that allowed for the slaves to sucrasfully reach freedom, as well as SNR being able to complete our journey.

Sunday, June 19
On this morning we made our first "official" underground railroad stop: meaning that this was the first town in which it's history was engraved with slavery. 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. 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? 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 the journey that many enslaved persons had to take to obtain freedom. That night we stayed with local Quakers John and Andrea: with their children, Nicholas,Bea, and Olivia. On the farm they taught us how to milk goats and ride horses it was one of those nights where we could relax and enjoy ourselves after a long day; one that I think we really needed.

Monday, June 20
Today SNR embarked on it's first history lesson on the use of colored troops in the civil war. The group visited Brysons crossroads, where Union and Confederate troops collided in a battle which ended up in the retreat of the Union forces. In the fray the army commanded the us colored troops to send cover fire at the advancing southerners in an effort to cover their retreat. Amazingly in a mission that was ment to be one if a human shield, the us colored troops layer down some if the most devastating fire in all of the civil war and successfully halted the southern troops. This was just one example if how African americans began to earn respect for their actions and began to become recognized as equal, and I believe that we must all honor those whom died fighting in this struggle.



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