Film documents Underground Railroad in N.C.
Movie on Museum of the Albemarle’s YouTube channel
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — About two centuries ago, slaves of northeastern North Carolina often “ran to the swamp” or ventured across fields and over waterways to free states.
A documentary tells the story on YouTube as part of Black History Month.
The film, produced by a museum in Elizabeth City, focuses on the Underground Railroad in eastern North Carolina including scenes and stories behind the effort.
It includes accounts of slaves, such as Harriet Jacobs of Edenton and Hannah Bond of Hertford County, who had books published about their experiences.
The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the early 1800s and used by an estimated 100,000 enslaved African Americans to escape into free states and Canada. Free Blacks, abolitionists and other sympathizers helped them get transportation and find hiding places.
Eastern North Carolina was among the more active areas where slaves sought
escape routes on the rivers and sounds and into the Great Dismal Swamp.
“A lot of people ran to the swamp,” said local historian Wanda McLean in the film. “And they lived there. They built shelters, they had children, they taught their children, they buried their dead.”
Some lived in the swamp for 30 or 40 years until the end of the Civil War, she said.
The Elizabeth City and Edenton waterfronts were busy ports 200 years ago where products like juniper
shingles, farm goods and lumber were shipped.
Landowners rented their slaves to logging companies for money. Slaves would escape on boats and head north, to the Great Dismal Swamp or beyond.
McLean founded the Northeast North Carolina Underground Railroad Foundation six years ago and was instrumental in getting sites around Elizabeth City recognized as part of the history.
The film features interviews
with McLean, Ben Speller of Edenton and other historians who have researched the period. Thanks to a state grant, it was produced by the Museum of the Albemarle and premiered there last year, according to a release from the museum. The public can now watch it on the museum’s YouTube channel.