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Eleutherian a ‘Trails to Freedom’ gateway site
Peggy
Vlerebome
Courier
Staff Writer
Maps have
been put together for three driving tours to Underground Railroad
sites, and will be unveiled Friday at Eleutherian College in
Lancaster.
The college is one of three “gateway sites” on the Southeast
Indiana Trails to Freedom driving tours.
The Eleutherian kick-off will be at 12:30 p.m. outside the
visitors center because extensive restoration work is under way at
the college building. The visitors center is next to the college
building.
The celebration will honor the conductors who operated in
Jefferson County before the Civil War, helping escaped slaves to
freedom.
Indianapolis actor Khabir Shareef will re-enact George DeBaptiste,
a businessman in the Georgetown section of Madison who was active
in moving escaped slaves to Lancaster. He described the college as
“the New England Settlement who operated a good station.”
State and county representatives will present information on the
tours project, the college and the restoration that is under way.
Eleutherian College admitted women and blacks as well as white
men, and was a key part of the Underground Railroad. It is a
National Historic Site.
There will be live music and refreshments during the event. Tour
booklets will be sold at Eleutherian.
The other two gateway sites will have celebrations in July. The
second kick-off will be from 3 to 5 p.m. July 7 at the Carnegie
Center for Art and History in New Albany.
Author and storyteller Judith Owens-Lalude will present “The
Long Walk,” a story about a woman and her daughter who escape
from their master. The “Freedom Ambassadors,” children from
the New Albany community, will read stories from the driving tour
booklet that will be available at each of the gateway sites.
Free grilled hot dogs, lemonade and ice cream will be available,
and the Deep River Songbirds, a men’s gospel quartet, will
perform.
The third trail kick-off event will be a candlelight tour from
7:30 to 9 p.m. July 14 at the Levi Coffin State Historic Site in
Fountain City. Before the event there, a show of slavery quilts
and Coffin House-related local artists’ works will open at the
Art Gallery at the Indiana University East campus in Richmond. The
opening will be from 6 to 8 p.m.
The Coffin House came to be known as the “Grand Central
Station” of the Underground Railroad.
The trail was put together by the Indiana Underground Railroad
Coalition and the state. The coalition is made up of
representatives from 15 counties, including Jefferson. The Indiana
Underground Railroad Initiative is administered by the Indiana
Department of Natural Resources’ division of historic
preservation and archaeology.
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