Underground Railroad Bicycle Route
The Underground Railroad Bicycle Route is a 2,000-mile bicycle touring route from Mobile, Alabama, to Owen Sound, Ontario. It was developed by Adventure Cycling Association with the Center for Minority Health (now called the Center for Health Equity) at the University of Pittsburgh.[1] The route was built to loosely follow the Underground Railroad, the network of paths that African American slaves used to escape to the Northern United States and Canada.[2]
Route
The route begins on the shores of the Gulf Coast of the United States in Mobile, Alabama, where the last slave ship to bring slaves to the United States docked in 1860.[3] Cyclists then follow the Drinking Gourd north, with stops to visit historic Underground Railroad sites like museums and safe houses. Since its development in 2007, the original route has been augmented by spurs to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cincinnati, Ohio, and an alternate route through Detroit, Michigan. The endpoint is Owen Sound, Ontario, "the Underground Railroad's most northerly safe haven."[3]
Terrain
The route varies from flat farmlands and rolling hills in Alabama and Mississippi to steep climbs and descents in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana.[4] The route is mostly rural aside from the spurs into Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, and the alternate route through Detroit.
Areas visited
Historic sites
- John Rankin House
- John P. Parker House
- Ulysses S. Grant childhood home
- Whitehall Plantation Museum
- National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
- Slave Market in Mobile
- Africatown in Mobile
- Harriet Beecher Stowe House
- Oberlin Heritage Center
- Lenawee County Historical Museum
- Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
- Historic First Congregational Church
- Gateway to Freedom Monument
- Tower of Freedom Underground Railroad Monument
- Buxton National Historic Site and Museum
- First Baptist Church Chatham
- Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society
- Uncle Tom's Cabin Historical Site/Josiah Henson House
- Wilberforce Settlement Plaque
- Grey Roots Museum and Archives
- BME Church
- Historic Second Baptist Church
- Elmwood Cemetery
- Carnegie Center for Art & History
- Farmington Historic House Museum
- Springboro Historic District including conductor homes of the Underground Railroad.
References
- ^ Bynum, Marvin (April 2007). "The Underground Railroad Bicycle Route Aims to Diversify Cycling". Athletic Business. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
- ^ Bleyer, Jennifer (28 May 2009). "A Bike Trail that Traces the Way to Freedom". New York Times. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
- ^ a b "Biking the Freedom Trail". Associated Press. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
- ^ "UGRR route description". Adventure Cycling Association. 22 January 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
- ^ "New Cycling Route Bring Underground Railroad Alive". Adventure Travel News. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
- ^ "If you go...Underground Railroad Bicycle Route". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
External links
- Official website
- v
- t
- e
- William Brinkley
- John Brown
- Owen Brown
- Samuel Burris
- Levi Coffin
- Richard Dillingham
- Frederick Douglass
- Calvin Fairbank
- Isaac S. Flint
- Thomas Garrett
- Frances Harper
- Laura Smith Haviland
- David Hudson
- Daniel Hughes
- Peg Leg Joe
- William Cooper Nell
- Harriet Forten Purvis
- Robert Purvis
- John Rankin
- Hetty Reckless
- Gerrit Smith
- William Still
- Calvin Ellis Stowe
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Charles Turner Torrey
- Harriet Tubman
- Delia Webster
- Emeline and Samuel Hawkins flight (1845)
- Pearl incident (1848)
- Kentucky raid in Cass County (1847)
- The South Bend Fugitive Slave Case (1849)
- Christiana Riot (1851)
- Jerry Rescue (1851)
- Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852 book)
- Joshua Glover rescue (1854)
- Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856 book)
- Dover Eight (1857)
- Oberlin–Wellington Rescue (1858)
- Tilly Escape (1856)
- Ann Maria Jackson and her seven children (1859)
- Thirteenth Amendment (1865)
- Abolitionism in the United States
- Fugitive slaves
- Fugitive slave laws
- Quilts
- Reverse Underground Railroad
- Signals
- Slave catcher
- Songs of the Underground Railroad
- The Underground Railroad Records (1872 book)
- National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
- Harriet Tubman Memorial (Boston)
- Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park
- Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park
- Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center
- Underground Railroad Bicycle Route
- The Railroad to Freedom: A Story of the Civil War (1932 book)
- A Woman Called Moses (1978 miniseries)
- Roots of Resistance (1989 documentary)
- The Quest for Freedom (1992 film)
- Freedom: The Underground Railroad (2013 board game)
- The North Star (2016 film)
- Underground (2016 TV series)
- Harriet (2019 film)
- The Underground Railroad (2021 miniseries)