C14. Equally Free: Women and the Underground Railroad

We take a look at the women who were the public and private faces of the Underground Railroad and abolition movements and who became teachers, journalists, fighters, as well as UGRR conductors, and station keepers. We see many of the same women opening the way to change all American’s women’s lives, allowing them enter the public sphere, and establishing the road to suffrage and political enfranchisement. We will meet Charlotte Forten, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Sarah M. Douglass, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Rebecca Buffum, Abby Kelley Foster, Elizabeth Buffum Chase, Frederick Douglass, Charles Lenox Remond, and Wendell Phillips, among others.

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Susan Franz holds a Master's degree from Clark University and has taught at several local colleges. Working with other local historians, she was key in gaining National Park designations for Underground Railroad locations in the Blackstone River Valley. The research has been recognized by the African-American Trail and appears in the Atlas Obscura. She designed a permanent exhibit on the Underground Railroad at the Blackstone Heritage Corridor's River Bend Farm.