Through Darkness to Light by Jeanine Michna-Bales

Author:Jeanine Michna-Bales [Jeanine Michna-Bales]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Published: 2017-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

Slaves picking cotton in South Carolina, c. 1860. Rob Oechsle Collection.

Advertisement offering slaves in exchange for cash or sugar in The Daily Picayune, February 4, 1840. Louisiana Division/City Archives, New Orleans Public Library.

Advertisement announcing “Negroes for Sale” and listing their trades in The Daily Picayune, February 5, 1840. Louisiana Division/City Archives, New Orleans Public Library.

PART II

THE JOURNEY: A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY

Much has been written about the Underground Railroad, but there is scant visual documentation. The goal of this photographic series is to evoke a sense of one journey out of bondage: to capture what it may have felt like to run in fear for roughly three months in pursuit of freedom.

For those seeking emancipation, there were countless routes, forged both alone and with the help of the Underground Railroad. The 1,400-mile path from Louisiana to Ontario documented in these photographs is represented by the sites through which freedom seekers passed or that offered them respite during their journey northward. I pieced it together from books and original documents from the period, academic papers, and a multitude of other sources compiled or written by historians of slavery and the Underground Railroad (notes on individual photographs can be found on page 184). Some locations are based on word-of-mouth descriptions and oral histories. In these instances, I applied careful consideration and did further research. Sometimes I uncovered supporting documentation, but other times none was found. But to disregard these sites is as fraught as including them, as the verbal transmission of information was integral to the Underground Railroad. From the veil of secrecy surrounding the Underground Railroad, new material is still coming to light.

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