Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad, presenter: Dr. Timothy Walker.

Описание: On Sunday, February 9, 2025, Dr. Timothy Walker, professor of history at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, presented a talk based on his edited volume, Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad.

Sailing to Freedom highlights little-known stories of freedom-seeking by sea and describes the less-understood maritime side of the Underground Railroad. While research on the Underground Railroad has focused almost exclusively on overland escape routes from the antebellum South, Sailing to Freedom expands our understanding of how freedom was achieved by sea and what this journey looked like for untold numbers of African Americans.

​The talk described the importance of enslaved African Americans’ maritime and waterfront labor in southern ports, and how escapes were managed along the East Coast, moving from the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland to safe harbor in northern cities such as Philadelphia, New York, New Bedford, and Boston. With few exceptions, successful escapes from enslavement in the Deep South were achieved not overland, but by water.

Dr. Timothy Walker is a scholar of maritime history, colonial overseas expansion, and trans-oceanic slave trading. He directs the National Endowment for the Humanities “Landmarks in American History” workshops series for middle- and high school teachers, titled “Sailing to Freedom: New Bedford and the Underground Railroad” (2011–2025).