Workshops

Workshops - Session 1 (10:35 AM - 11:25 AM)

1.1) Myth and Fakelore of the UGR
Kate Clifford Larson, Ph.D., Simmons College (A)

Histories of the UGR have spawned numerous myths and legends that figure prominently in our individual and collective memories. These myths and legends – some fanciful folklore, others creative fakelore – have dramatically influenced the retelling and memorialization of the UGR. Some of these myths will be discussed, including quilt codes, lawn jockeys, coded songs and symbols, tunnels, and more. Where do these myths come from? Why do they persist in spite of no documentation, or strong evidence to the contrary? What purpose do they serve, and what does it matter?

1.2) Nzinga’s Daughters (M)

Using music from the African Diaspora, the courage, ingenuity, and inspiration of those enslaved is celebrated and remembered. As well, the inspiring journey of the creation of Nzinga’s Daughters will be shared.

1.3) The Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence Revisited
Tony Opalka, Architectural Preservationist (A)

The Myers Residence was home in the mid-1850s to Albany’s leading abolitionists, office of the Albany Vigilance Committee, meeting place of abolitionists, and haven for Freedom Seekers. Its history, architecture, restoration, and interpretation will be explored in this workshop.

1.4) Northward to Freedom
Maren Stein, Ph.D., Russell Sage College, Emerita, and Don Papson, President, North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association (A)

Little known information about the routes from the Capital Region to Canada via Lake Champlain will be presented. People, places, land and water routes related to this corridor will be highlighted. Also, participants will be able to view a DVD dramatic presentation about the UGR in the North County.

1.5) Making the Underground Railroad Visible: A Collaborative Teaching Experience
Dr. Elaine Handley and Dr. Mary Nell Morgan, Associate Professors, Empire State College (A)

In keeping with the new scholarship on the UGR that focuses on collaboration between freedom seekers and those who assisted them, a college course has been collaboratively designed that focuses on the history, literature, and art of US slavery, with a major component dedicated to the UGR. At the heart of the course is how attitudes, behaviors, institutions – even identities – continue to reflect impulses generated in a system that, in its overt form, vanished long ago. The presentation will contain lively samples of the stories used in the course, as well as an overview of the course content, and a report on student response to the course.

1.6) The UGR Escape on the Schooner Pearl 1848: a Convergence of Opportunity, Motivation, and Political Action in the Nation’s Capital
Mary Kay Ricks, researcher and author (A)

It is remarkable that an escape on such a grand scale from a city in slave territory had any chance of succeeding at all. This workshop will present the factors which converged in the nation’s capital that led to it. The unusually well documented escape also reveals much of the inner workings of an Underground Railroad cell.

1.7) Troy’s Underground Railroad
Maurice Kenyatta Massey, Joseph Landor, Larniqwa Merritt, Timothy Camp, Mrs. Sandra Luraas of Redemption Christian Academy (M)

Learn about the Troy, NY Vigilance Committee and its members, code words of the UGR, view a dramatic presentation on freedom seeker Charles Nalle, enjoy spirituals sung by Redemption’s choir.

1.8) African Doll Making
Teen Council Members of Jack and Jill (Y- 5-10 yrs.)

Learn about the toys of enslaved children by using materials similar to those available to them and their caregivers, making a doll to take home.



Workshops - Session 2 (11:30 PM - 12:30 PM)

2.1) The Geography of the UGR in New York State
Tim McDonnell, Coordinator, NY Geographic Alliance (A)

The routes that Freedom Seekers took across NYS, both known and suggested, were largely determined by geography. This workshop will focus on how the physical and human landscape determined how the UGR functioned in the Empire State

2.2) Harriet Tubman - the Love in that Cabin
Carolyn Evans, Re-enactor (M)

Through the medium of histo-drama, the courage of Harriet Tubman and her faith in the hand of the mighty Switchmaster will be retold. Weary, but not tired, Harriet was called upon and she answered.

2.3) Isaac T. Hopper and the Invention of the Underground Railroad.
Fergus M. Bordewich, Author (A)

This workshop will show how the Underground Railroad was created by the confrontational Quaker Isaac Tatum Hopper and his colleagues in the Philadelphia of the 1790’s. It will explain how the particular political and cultural climate of Philadelphia made the first stirrings of the UGR possible. It will also show how the pragmatic techniques pioneered by Hopper became models for the UGR as it expanded in later years.

2.4) The Development of the African American Infrastructure and Its Role in the Anti-Slavery Movement
Harry Bradshaw Matthews, Assoc. Dean, Hartwick College / President, USCT Institute (A)

This presentation will provide a timeline of important events in the Freedom Journey and provide for discussion regarding systematic involvement of Black people in gaining their freedom for 4 million enslaved kindred.

2.5) Be Thou My Vision
Donald “the Soul Man” Hyman and Michael Schaefer, Actors (M)

This interactive workshop brings forth the essence and dynamic power of the Massachusetts abolitionist meetings of the 1800’s. It commemorates the movement spearheaded by black and white orators whose powerful, persuasive speeches would fan the “persistent flames of abolition” and lead to the eventual demise of the institution of slavery in the United States.

2.6) After the Crossing Point – Then What?
Lezlie Harper Wells, Owner, Niagara Bound Tours (A)

This workshop will focus on how freedom seekers arrived in Canada, how they lived, and what challenges they faced as they tried to set up new lives in the Niagara area.

2.7) Telling the Stories Full Circle - Sharing UGR Stories in Ghana, Africa
Vanessa Johnson, Griot (A)

Because students in Ghana do not have access to information about the slave experience and the UGR in the United States, Ms. Johnson has taken stories of this period and its people to the students of Ghana. During this workshop, Ms. Johnson will share monologues from the voices of the enslaved in America and from the UGR movement, and share the responses of Ghanaian students to these stories.

2.8) UGR Trivia Game
Teen Council Members of Jack and Jill (Y - grades 7 - 12)

Test your knowledge of UGR facts and fiction! Collaborate with teammates at the premier of this challenging competition!




Workshops - Session 3 (2:00 PM - 3:00 PM)

3.1) Beneath the Underground: Flight to Freedom and Communities in Antebellum Maryland
John Gartrell, Research Archivist, Maryland State Archives (A)

This groundbreaking study focuses on the practice of flight and resistance in the state of Maryland. Documents of the Maryland State Archives have been used to uncover the once unknown participants and accomplices of flight through intensive record stripping of archival sources. The availability of this information online will be presented.

3.2) An African American’s Voice Among the River Folk: Pages from the Diary of James F. Brown, Freedom Seeker
A.J. Williams Myers, Ph.D., SUNY New Paltz (A)

The intriguing words of a Freedom Seeker and his revelations of life in the middle Hudson Valley during the antebellum period will be the focus of this workshop.

3.3) The Black and Indian Alliance, the Seminole Wars, and the UGR to the South
Kristina Centonoze, Miranda Distefano, Eileen Horenburger, Students, Russell Sage College (A)

From the late 1700s through the 1830s, the UGR ran into Florida, as African Americans escaped slavery, joined the Seminole Indians, became part of Seminole society, and fought with the Seminoles against the Slavocracy. This panel will explore the history of the Black and Seminole alliance and examine how this alliance is remembered in museums.

3.4) Get on Board: Songs of the UGR and Civil Rights Movement
Kim and Reggie Harris, Performing Artists (M)

Bring your thoughts, questions and voices to this participatory workshop on freedom songs. From the sorrow songs and secret codes of the enslaved to the marching songs of self-determination of the Civil Rights movement, these songs hold great power and hope for past and present oppressed communities.

3.5) Be Thou My Vision
Donald “the Soul Man” Hyman, and Michael Schaefer, Actors (M)

This interactive workshop brings forth the essence and dynamic power of the Massachusetts abolitionist meetings of the 1800’s. It commemorates the movement spearheaded by black and white orators whose powerful, persuasive speeches would fan the “persistent flames of abolition” and lead to the eventual demise of the institution of slavery in the United States.

3.6) Fact and Fiction: Teaching the UGR as a US History/English Cross-Curricular Unit
Clay Hatfield, Teacher, Eagle High School and Audra Rys, Teacher, Berne-Knox-Westerlo High School (A)

Integration of the historic facts of the UGR with its fictional components as portrayed in literature is the focus of this workshop. Suggestions on research topics, activities, and creative writing themes will be included.

3.7) The Impact of Mass Incarceration on African Americans
Alice Green, Director, Center for Law and Justice (A)

The impact of the mass incarceration and disproportionate confinement of African Americans is thought to be similar in many respects to that resulting from chattel slavery. This workshop will examine the adverse social, political and economic effects on individuals, families, and communities and what we must do to force positive change.

3.8) Journey to Freedom - Can You Escape?
Maurice Kenyatta Massey and Redemption Christian Academy Staff Member (Y - 10 yr. and above)

A computer-based interactive experience of spirit and determination. As an enslaved person, you, the player, determine the steps in your journey to freedom.




Workshops - Session 4 (3:15 PM - 4:15 PM)

4.1) Black Newspapers: Critical Instruments of Resistance
Ms. Jacqui Williams, Director, FIGAH (A)

Early Black media assisted the Underground Railroad movement and formerly enslaved people of African descent. Attention will be given to issues championed by Mary Shadd Cary and Ida B. Wells Bernett and the effect of their work on their lives.

4.2) Tracking the Underground Railroad in the Mid-Hudson Valley
Rebecca Edwards, Ph.D., Vassar College, and Researchers of Mid-Hudson Anti-Slavery Project (A)

This workshop will describe how our community has begun to research the UGRR in Dutchess and Ulster Counties in New York, and the connections made with other communities. We will also discuss a few strategies we have used to offer public interpretation and build community interest and support.

4.3) Blacks & Indians in the Era of Slavery in the British Colonies and the US
Andor Skotnes, Prof., Russell Sage College(A)

African Americans and Indians were the two peoples most displaced and oppressed by the European conquest of the Americas. This workshop will explore the various ways, in British North America and the US during the period of slavery, that these two peoples interrelated, including common resistance to the Slavocracy and cooperation in the escape from bondage.

4.4) Henry Northup and the Rescue of Solomon Northup
Clifford Oliver Mealy, Re-enactor (A)

Learn about the man behind the rescue of Solomon Northup who was kidnapped into enslavement for twelve years. Learn about Solomon’s boyhood friend and family namesake who came to his rescue and through whom Solomon regained his freedom.

4.5) “The Negro Motorists Green Book”
Gretchen Sullivan Sorin, Director/Distinguished Professor, Cooperstown Graduate Program (A)

As travel held an important meaning for African Americans in the 19th c., it became in the 20th c. a way for Blacks to assert their rights as citizens. The Black middle class chose their automobiles as weapons to fight discrimination.

4.6) Freedom’s Crossing or Adventures in Co-Naming Streets in NYC after Black Abolitionists
Jacob Morris, Director, The Society for Equitable Excellence and Jim Driscoll, Director, Queens Historical Society (A)

This workshop will focus on a discussion of New York City’s role in the UGR and how Public History activities have been used to improve awareness of the City’s nexus and magnitude in that history.

4.7) What Do You Think?
Facilitators to be determined (Y - grades 7 - 12 and A)

Join with peers in a facilitated discussion about excerpts from UGR documents and freedom seeker narratives, sharing your thoughts and feelings about the material under discussion. Peer groups will join together for conversation during the last quarter of the workshop.

4.8) African Interpretive Dance
Tammy Robinson, educator (Y - up to 10 yrs.) (workshop being confirmed)

Through the art form of dance, learn about the preservation and adaptation of African cultural practices and experiences by those who were enslaved.
 

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Design Elements (c) 2000 Stylish Webs
Textual Content (c) 2000 Paul Stewart