Gallery: Haunting Underground Railroad Images Retrace the Steps of Fleeing Slaves

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    Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales
    01

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    "Decision to Leave." Magnolia Plantation on the Cane River, Louisiana. “They worked me all de day, Widout one cent of pay; So I took my flight in the middle ob de night, When de moon am gone away.” – chorus of a George W. Clark Liberty Song.
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    Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales
    02

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    "Southern Pine Forest." Following El Camino Real; LaSalle Parish, Louisiana.
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    Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales
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    "Stop for Food and Provisions." Outskirts of the Myrtle Grove Plantation; Tensas Parish, Louisiana.
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    Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales
    04

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    "Determining True North in the Rain." Along the Southern Part of the Old Natchez Trace, Mississippi.
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    Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales
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    "Hiding Out Back." Slave Graveyard; Mount Locust Stand and Plantation; Jefferson County, Mississippi.
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    Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales
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    "Through the Underbrush." Along the Old Natchez Trace; Southern Tennessee.
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    Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales
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    "Hidden Passageway." Mammoth Cave, Kentucky.
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    Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales
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    "Underground Railroad." Crossing the River Jordan; Ohio River. "... \[an\] escaping slave, Tice Davids, fled ... the owner chased him in a rowboat as he swam across the Ohio River, where he suddenly disappeared without a trace upon reaching the shore, leaving behind the bewildered slaveholder to wonder if Davids had somehow ‘gone off on some underground road’.” – popular story of the origin of the term ‘underground railroad.’
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    Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales
    09

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    "Hunter’s Bottom." Just Across the Ohio River; Outside of Madison, Indiana.
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    Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales
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    "Follow the Drinking Gourd." Jefferson County, Indiana “For the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom. If you follow the drinking gourd.” – lyrics from a spiritual gospel about the Big Dipper which points to the North Star.
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    Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales
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    "On the Way to the Hicklin House Station." San Jacinto, Indiana.
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    Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales
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    "Look for the Grey Barn Out Back." Station with a Tunnel Leading to Another Conductor’s House; Centerville, Indiana
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    Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales
    13

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    "A Safe Place to Regroup." Levi Coffin House; The President of the Underground Railroad; Newport, Indiana.
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    Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales
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    "The Old Slave House." Reverend Guy Beckley’s House North of the Huron River; Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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    Photo: Jeanine Michna-Bales
    15

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    "Freedom." Canadian Soil; Sarnia, Ontario. “Slaves cannot breathe in England \[and Canada\]: if their lungs receive our air, that moment they are free; They touch our country, and their shackles fall.” – Cowper
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