UPDATED UNDERGROUND RAILROAD GUIDE
FEATURES 41 PLACES TO VISIT IN MARYLAND
BALTIMORE, MD (January 14, 2009) – A new edition of The Underground Railroad: Maryland’s Network to Freedom – a map-guide to 41 sites, programs and facilities that depict the struggle of the enslaved attempting to escape to freedom through Maryland’s Underground Railroad – is now available at Maryland’s 11 Welcome Centers.
The updated guide presents detailed information about places where visitors can become familiar with the personal stories of slaves in Maryland who used any means possible – including wagons, trains and ships – to outrun slave catchers and civil authorities during the decades that led up to the Civil War.
“Maryland’s rich African-American heritage is clearly documented in the easy-to-use Network to Freedom guide, a comprehensive resource that allows visitors to gain a better understanding of this tumultuous time in our State’s history,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. “We are pleased to offer this information free to the traveling public so that they may enhance their visit to Maryland.”
All of the sites included in the Maryland guide are associated with the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program, a program mandated by Congress in 1998. The guide includes such places and programs as: The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway and the Frederick Douglass Driving Tour of Talbot County on the Eastern Shore, Sotterley Plantation in Southern Maryland, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin/Riley Farm in Rockville.
The new cover of the guide is a reproduction of a colorful painting by award-winning artist Mark Priest from his Harriet Tubman Series – a collection of works that illustrate historical events along the Underground Railroad.
Copies of the guide are also available through the Maryland Office of Tourism web site, www.visitmaryland.org, or by calling 800-719-5900.
In 2006, Maryland became the first state to publish a state-wide guide linked to the Park Service’s national program. The Tourism Office secured a grant from the National Park Service to produce the new guide.
