History
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Enslaved African-Americans escaping from the southern United States used the Underground Railroad, a secret network of trails and safe homes, to flee to Canada in the mid-1800s. After the British Empire, including Canada, abolished slavery in 1834, Lewiston, New York, became one of the final stops on this route, where many local residents illegally volunteered to help escapees cross the Niagara River to freedom. The scene honors those who sought a new life in Canada and the local volunteers who aided them after they had traveled hundreds of dangerous miles while avoiding paid slave catchers. It includes Josiah Tryon, Lewiston's volunteer "Station Master" for the Underground Railroad, a quiet, humble, religious man who secretly escorted escaping slaves in his rowboat under cover of darkness, giving them hope and becoming a champion of justice and equality. It also includes Laura Eastman, the heroine of the historical fiction book Freedom Crossing, whose outstretched arm toward Canada made her a symbol of the triumph of the human spirit over oppression.
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Lewiston, New York · United States
