Gallery: Haunting Underground Railroad Images Retrace the Steps of Fleeing Slaves
Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales012JMB-ugrr-243
"Decision to Leave." Magnolia Plantation on the Cane River, Louisiana. “They worked me all de day, Widout one cent of pay; So I took my flight in the middle ob de night, When de moon am gone away.” – chorus of a George W. Clark Liberty Song.
Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales022JMB-ugrr-8041
"Southern Pine Forest." Following El Camino Real; LaSalle Parish, Louisiana.
Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales032JMB-ugrr-7973
"Stop for Food and Provisions." Outskirts of the Myrtle Grove Plantation; Tensas Parish, Louisiana.
Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales042JMB-ugrr-8087
"Determining True North in the Rain." Along the Southern Part of the Old Natchez Trace, Mississippi.
Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales052JMB-ugrr-7906
"Hiding Out Back." Slave Graveyard; Mount Locust Stand and Plantation; Jefferson County, Mississippi.
Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales062JMB-ugrr-3392-2
"Through the Underbrush." Along the Old Natchez Trace; Southern Tennessee.
Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales072JMB-ugrr-7785
"Hidden Passageway." Mammoth Cave, Kentucky.
Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales082JMB-ugrr-8199
"Underground Railroad." Crossing the River Jordan; Ohio River. "... \[an\] escaping slave, Tice Davids, fled ... the owner chased him in a rowboat as he swam across the Ohio River, where he suddenly disappeared without a trace upon reaching the shore, leaving behind the bewildered slaveholder to wonder if Davids had somehow ‘gone off on some underground road’.” – popular story of the origin of the term ‘underground railroad.’
Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales092JMB-ugrr-8194
"Hunter’s Bottom." Just Across the Ohio River; Outside of Madison, Indiana.
Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales102JMB-ugrr-5692
"Follow the Drinking Gourd." Jefferson County, Indiana “For the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom. If you follow the drinking gourd.” – lyrics from a spiritual gospel about the Big Dipper which points to the North Star.
Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales112JMB-ugrr-5386-2
"On the Way to the Hicklin House Station." San Jacinto, Indiana.
Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales122JMB-ugrr-491-2
"Look for the Grey Barn Out Back." Station with a Tunnel Leading to Another Conductor’s House; Centerville, Indiana
Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales132JMB-ugrr-8503
"A Safe Place to Regroup." Levi Coffin House; The President of the Underground Railroad; Newport, Indiana.
Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales142JMB-ugrr-8557
"The Old Slave House." Reverend Guy Beckley’s House North of the Huron River; Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales152JMB-ugrr-8380-END
"Freedom." Canadian Soil; Sarnia, Ontario. “Slaves cannot breathe in England \[and Canada\]: if their lungs receive our air, that moment they are free; They touch our country, and their shackles fall.” – Cowper
