Shining Light on the Underground Railroad in Illinois & Wisconsin

A history program exploring the historic events, attitudes, and laws that led up to the Underground Railroad and the Civil War. Discover the people and places along the escape routes, including those in less documented Illinois and Wisconsin. From the earliest American settlements of the 1500s to the end of the Civil War, enslaved African Americans resisted through escape (from wherever slavery existed) and flight to gain their freedom. Learn how the still-secretive Underground Railroad efforts changed through the years, and what mis-conceptions we have about it. Discover mysteries that are just now coming to light about the widespread networks of secret routes and hidden safe houses used by (at least 30,000 - 500,000) African Americans in their escape into free states, and from there to Canada, etc.