Little Calumet River UGRR Project presents Underground Railroad program at county library

Andrew S. Hughes, South Bend Tribune
Updated ·2 min read

SOUTH BEND — The organization Little Calumet River UGRR Project presents “Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad in Northern Indiana” at 6 p.m. Oct. 25 at the St. Joseph County Public Library, 304 S. Main St.

Following a welcome and introductions by Brother Sage Gillam and Sara Maloney, the event includes presentations about the following:

• Freedom Seekers and the UGRR in Northern Indiana, the Chicago Detroit Freedom Trail, potential sites and doing specific research/site developments/historic designations/etc. by Larry McClellan

• “National Park Service — Network to Freedom” by Barry Jurgensen of the National Park Service

• “Developing the Trail in Illinois and Indiana — recent activity” by Tom Shepherd

• “Michigan/Cass County Connections” by Gillam

• “Next Steps” and encouraging participation McClellan and Gillam

The Little Calumet River UGRR Project organization seeks to commemorate the journeys of freedom seekers and the responding networks of the Underground Railroad with the designation of a National Historic Trail for the routes followed from Chicago to Detroit, including through northern Indiana and southwestern Michigan.

From the 1830s until the Civil War, many individuals and families escaping enslavement in Southern states came into Illinois with most of these traveling toward Chicago.

In northeastern Illinois, there were two streams of movement for freedom seekers. Coming up through the Illinois River valley, many chose to continue northeast to Chicago, then overland around the bottom of Lake Michigan and into northwest Indiana. From there they traveled across southern Michigan and on to Detroit and freedom in Canada.

The second stream of movement also came out of the Illinois River valley but continued east across Will County and southern Cook County in Illinois into northwest Indiana and on to Michigan and Detroit.

Following these two streams, 3,000 to 4,500 people escaping from their enslavement came to and through the Chicago region in the decades before the Civil War. Almost all continued toward Detroit and Canada.

For more information, find the Little Calumet River Underground Railroad Project on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Underground Railroad topic of program at St. Joseph County Public Library