Tracks To Freedom

The Ottawa Citizen is doing an amazing and interesting piece on the Underground Railroad in Canada. They actually have a reporter walking from northern Kentucky to North Buxton, Ontario and following a route the runaway slaves would have taken. He stays at historic sites and talks to locals and historians about their knowledge of the local aspect of the Underground Railroad.

This is a major feature for the Citizen that was just launched last week. I'm pretty sure It will be ongoing for most of the summer (as Chris is walking +500 miles I think). Another interesting thins is that Chris Lackner, the guy doing all the walking (and blogging several times daily as well) just graduated from Carleton. He was actually in my Canadian Studies course last year and wrote a very interesting essay on folklore in Newfoundland.

You can check out Chris' blog at http://community.canada.com/ontheroad/

The rest of the citizen's website on the Underground Railroad is also worth checking out. Lot's of photographs and historic documents as well as a pretty good history of the Underground Railroad.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/features/freedom/index.html

Finally, here is a photo of Chris begining his journey. What an amazing experience.




Source: The Ottawa Citizen and Canada.com