He was born in Massachusetts and became an abolitionist around 1840-41, first as a speaker. Sydney Howard Gay is little known today, but he was a fairly prominent abolitionist before the Civil War. Sydney Howard Gay is one of the main characters in the book. Being a journalist, he interviewed them, so the notebook is filled with fascinating information about who owned these slaves, where they came from, how they escaped, who helped them, how they got to New York, and where Gay sent them on their way to freedom in Canada. Sydney Howard Gay was very connected to the Underground Railroad, and between 18 he kept a record of over 200 men, women, and children who passed through New York City. It was these two little notebooks called "Record of Fugitives." It wasn't relevant to what she was doing, but she thought I might find it interesting. His papers are here, and she mentioned to me one day that there was this little document relating to fugitive slaves. I actually owe the discovery to a student of mine, who is doing a senior thesis here at Columbia on the abolitionist editor Sydney Howard Gay. Tell us about your discovery of Gay's "Register of Fugitives" and how that inspired you to tell this story. In his new book, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad, Eric Foner, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, sets the record straight.įrom his office on New York's Upper West Side, Foner explains how a chance find in the Columbia University archives led him on a journey of discovery, how one of George Washington's concerns after the War of Independence was to get his slaves back, and why-at a time when the shooting of black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, has inflamed race relations in the U.S.-the Underground Railroad is something to celebrate.
Long the stuff of mythology and local lore, the Underground Railroad has often been either overrated or undervalued.
But a lucky-and courageous-few managed to escape via a network of safe houses and dedicated helpers that came to be known as the Underground Railroad.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD STORY FOR KIDS PRINATBLE MOVIE
The 2013 movie 12 Years a Slave brought the darkest era of America's history into the forefront of the national consciousness.
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