The National Park Service, National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom (NTF) Program, the Underground Railroad Consortium of New York State, the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area, Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center, and Association for the Study of African American Life and History will host an Underground Railroad Training event in Niagara Falls, New York, September 11-14, 2019.

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Field session tour to Canadian Underground Railroad sites
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Reception, Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center

Thursday, September 12, 2019
Track 1-History

8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Welcome and Setting the Stage
9:00 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. Keynote Address on History, Karolyn Smardz Frost
10:00a.m. to 11:00 a.m. History, Case Studies

Case Study Session A
The Cataract House and the Underground Railroad in Niagara Falls: History, Archaeology, and Transnationalism, Bill Bradberry, Chair

  • Judy Wellman, The Cataract House and Its Waiters: A World-Class Hotel and a Major Underground Railroad Station.
  • Karolyn Smardz-Frost, Digging for History: Cecelia Jane Reynolds and the Archaeology of the Underground Railroad in the Niagara River Borderland
  • Doug Pirelli, Public Archaeology and the Underground Railroad: The Cataract House as a Case Study

Case Study Session B
Three Underground Railroads in Three Centuries

  • Don Papson, Three Underground Railroads: Fugitives From Slavery; Chinese Aliens; Asylum Seekers
  • Jaykob Neddo, “All but the Chinese”: Chinese Exclusion, Race, and Rhetoric in Plattsburgh, 1882-1926
  • Robin Caudell, Echoes of a Past Not Past: The Chinese Underground Railroad

Case Study Session C
Native Americans and the Underground Railroad

  • Darryl Omar Freeman, The First Freedom Line: The Untold Story of Native American Underground Railroad Activities (Aiding Freedom Seeking African Americans Journey to Freedom)
  • Roy E. Finkenbine, Crossing Michigan, Crossing Boundaries: Lessons Found in Odawa Oral Tradition
  • Diane Miller, Wyandot and Shawnee Underground Railroad Involvement

Case Study Session D
Negro Fort at Prospect Bluff, Florida

    • Rhonda Kimbrough, Archaeological Mitigation of Hurricane Damage
    • Dale Cox, Primary Source Research Brought to Life
    • Bill Steele, The Negro Fort: A Story of Ancestors and Descendants

Case Study Session E
Along the Canadian Border

  • Jennifer De Bruin, The History of Slavery along the St. Lawrence River
  • Bryan Thompson, Who’s Under That Load of Hay? The Abolitionist Movement and the Underground Railroad in St Lawrence County
  • Matthew Wilson, Bridge to Freedom: Suspension Bridge

11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Small group discussion/Workshops
12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Lunch

Track 2-Authenticity

1:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Judy Wellman and Cheryl LaRoche, Keynote Address on Authenticity
2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Best Practices, Case Studies

Case Study Session A
Documenting the Underground Railroad in New York State

  • Michelle Henry, The Anti-Slavery Map, Chautauqua County Region, 1836 – 1863
  • Deirdre Sinnott, The 1836 Escape, Capture, and Rescue of Harry Bird and George: Woodstock, VA to Utica, NY and Canada West
  • Malcolm Boston, Female Underground Railroad Conductors along the Erie Canal and in Western New York”

Case Study Session B
African American community

  • Gloria Whittico, Toward a Jurisprudence of Liberation: A Case Study from the Southern Chesapeake Bay Littoral Joseph Mason: Former Slave turned Conductor in Painesville Ohio
  • Lorraine McConaghy, New Research: The Black Underground Railroad Network of FREE BOY

Case Study Session C
Slavery, Sanctuary, Sacrifice: An African American Community in Rural Upstate New York Reclaims its Voice

  • Peter Evans
  • Marjory Perez
  • Jim Wood

Case Study Session D
Ohio as Haven and Anti-Slavery Battleground

  • Peter Cultice, Putnam and the Ohio Underground Railroad
  • Debra Robinson, Research Adventures: Genealogy to Applied History
  • Victoria Robinson, A Flight into and Out of Freedom and Back Again: Piecing Together My Ancestors’ Involvement with the UGRR

Case Study Session E
Authenticity in Documenting and Telling the Story

  • Paul Stewart, Underground Railroad 101
  • Larry McClellan, Three [Network to Freedom] Site Applications South of Chicago
  • Richard Dana and Amy Thomas, The McCurdy Legacy

3:45 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. Small group discussion/Workshops
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Niagara Falls Dine Around

Friday, September 13, 2019
Track 3 Heritage Tourism and Economic Development

8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Summary of discussions from Day One and setting the stage for Day Two

9:00 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. Marci Ross and Sara Capen, Keynote Address on Tourism and
Development

10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. History, Case Studies

Case Study Session A
How Living History Presentations Enrich Underground Railroad History

  • AKWAABA: The Heritage Associates
  • Ruth Anderson
  • David Anderson/Sankofa, PhD
  • Carolyn Edwards, PhD
  • Maggie Moore Holley
  • Robin Nowell
  • Shirley Scott Struthers
  • Eunice White

Case Study Session B
Designing Tours of the Underground Railroad

  • Nancy Stearns Theiss, Touring the Underground Railroad Along the Ohio River
  • Eric Robinson, “A TOUR UNLIKE ANYTHING I HAVE EVER SEEN” The Alton Underground Railroad Tour

Case Study Session C
Capturing the Public Imagination

  • Heather Ersts, Maryland, Most Powerful Underground Storytelling Destination in the World
  • Mary Liz Stewart, Erie Canal Tourism Initiatives
  • Robin Krawitz, Pardon Me!

Case Study Session D
Is the Underground Railroad and Abolition Heritage of Peterboro Relevant Today?, Carrie Martin, chair

  • James Corpin, Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark (GSENHL) Tells Its Important Stories
  • Tom Bennett, Moral Conviction to End Slavery
  • Max Smith, Heaven and Peterboro

Case Study Session E
“An interest… which I cannot explain”: Crossing the Dorchester Landscape with Stories and Photos of Harriet Tubman’s Native Land

  • Phillip Hesser, Harriet Tubman’s Dorchester Homecoming – How It Mended Dorchester County
  • Charles Ewers, Crossing the Landscape – Celebrating a Shared Native Land through Photography and Testimony
  • Kimerly Cornish, Re-visioning: Harriet Tubman in Contemporary Visual Culture

11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Small group discussion/Workshops
12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Lunch

Track 4-Community Engagement, Relevance, Legacy

1:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Saladin Allah, Keynote Address on Relevance
2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Best Practices, Case Studies

Case Study Session A
Surviving Off the Land: The From Slavery to Freedom Garden

  • Samuel W. Black, Surviving Off the Land: A From Slavery to Freedom Study
  • Camila Rivera-Tinsley, From Slavery to Freedom Garden: Educating a Community

Case Study Session B
Keeping the History Alive – Underground Railroad Consortium of NYS

  • Mary-Liz Stewart, Saving the Local History
  • Jim Hotchkiss, Mapping the Consortium Sites

Case Study Session C
“Rocking the Cradle:” Anthony Burns’ Boston

  • Ryan McNabb,The Social Justice Team of National Parks of Boston
  • Shawn Quigley, Rocking the Cradle and Ghosts of the Revolution

Case Study Session D
The Modern Legacy of Oppression

  • Bruce Purnell, The Underground Railroad to the Overground Freeway
  • Liz Regosin, Crossing the Boundaries of Oppression: Isaac T. Hopper’s Fight for the Formerly Enslaved and the Formerly Incarcerated
  • Jim Himan, A COUNTRY DIVIDED AGAIN. Will Right Overcome Wrong?: Three Case Studies

Case Study Session E
Community commemorations

  • Peter Bunten, The Underground Railroad In Context: A Local Commemorative Example
  • Gregg Tripoli, Engaging our community through a collaborative endeavor
  • Adam Arenson, After the Underground Railroad: Mapping the Networks of African North Americans

3:45 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. Small group discussion/Workshops

Saturday, September 14, 2019

8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Niagara and Buffalo Tour