Yet this stop was only part of a much larger mission for me. Josiah Henson is but one name on a long list of courageous men and women who together forged the Underground Railroad,a secret web of escape routes and safe house that the used to liberate slaves from the American South . between 1820 and 1860,as many as 100,000 slaves traveled the Railroad to freedom.
In October 2000,President Clinton authorized $16 million for the National Underground Railroad freedom Center to honor this first great civil-rights sruggle in the U.S. The center is scheduled to open in 2004 in Cincinnati. And it's about time.For the heroes of the underground Railroad remain too little remenbered,their exploits still largely unsung.I was intent on telling their stories.