Photography, Family History, and the Underground Railroad–National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom hosts Virtual Photo Exhibit for a limited time; North Is Freedom Virtual Photo Exhibit, a partnership between the National Park Service, the Embassy of Canada, and Slovak-Canadian photographer Yuri Dojc, to be on web display until February 2022
Church Creek, MD – The National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program announces a new virtual exhibit, North is Freedom. Created in partnership with the Embassy of Canada and Slovak-Canadian photographer Yuri Dojc, the exhibit showcases photographs of Underground Railroad descendants and shares the stories of their ancestors. This partnership project helps elevate more complete stories of freedom seekers and their allies and highlights how their descendants keep their legacy alive.
“In the United States, there is this conception that a freedom seeker’s story ends once they reach freedom in a new nation, but in reality that is when their journey truly began,” said the Network to Freedom’s National Program Manager Diane Miller. “This project tells more complete stories of freedom seekers, and truly illuminates the dedication and resilience of individuals who utilized the Underground Railroad.”
This evocative photographic essay celebrates the descendants of freedom-seekers who escaped slavery in the United States from colonial times through the American Civil War. Some came entirely alone and unaided; others escaped with the help of a clandestine network of allies. Freedom seekers who chose to flee north to freedom settled from the Canadian Maritimes as far west as the Manitoba border. Some 150 years later, Slovak-Canadian photographer Yuri Dojc explores the Underground Railroad through his art, creating images of descendants. Black and white, young and old, these are the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren of once-enslaved African Americans who have contributed to the growth of our world.