Destination Freedom with Public Historian EJ Murphy | Public History Podcast

Описание: In this episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly, Jake Wynn sits down with public historian EJ Murphy of the Destination Freedom Project at the Waverly Community House to explore abolition, the Underground Railroad, and how the political shockwaves of slavery reached even the smallest Northern communities before the Civil War.

Waverly, Pennsylvania may seem quiet today - but in the decades before the war, it sat along a regional freedom network connecting places like Wilkes-Barre, Montrose, and the Southern Tier of New York. Together, Jake and EJ dig into how this network functioned on the ground, what resistance looked like in Northern towns, and why the story of the Underground Railroad cannot be confined to a handful of famous cities or safe, celebratory narratives.

The conversation also tackles the real challenges of public history: telling these stories with limited documentation, reading between the lines of incomplete records, and grappling with how laws like the Fugitive Slave Act fundamentally changed daily life in communities far from the Mason-Dixon Line. This episode is a reminder that the fight over slavery was never distant or abstract in Pennsylvania.

Most of all, this discussion underscores why local history matters. When we look closely at places like Waverly, we see that the struggle for freedom was woven into everyday life and that even small towns were shaped by the defining moral crisis of the 19th century.

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Follow & Explore:
Jake Wynn - Public Historian: https://wynninghistory.com

Destination Freedom Project: https://destinationfreedom.org

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