Two MS Coast islands now recognized as Underground Railroad sites. What to know.
Ship and Horn Islands have officially been recognized as Underground Railroad sites, the Gulf Islands National Seashore announced Thursday in a press release.
The Mississippi Coast islands were welcomed into the National Park Services’ National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program on Sept. 29.
The federal program commemorates people and places that were part of the network to help free enslaved people. It currently represents 695 locations in 39 states, plus Washington D.C. and the U.S Virgin Islands.
According to a press release from the National Park Service, after the start of the Civil War people seeking freedom used small crafts to travel the waters of the Mississippi Sound with the goal “finding liberation at the hands of U.S forces.”
In October 1861, the first recorded freedom seeker came to Ship Island, where they enlisted in the U.S Navy.
In 1863, a minimum of eight freedom seekers reached Horn Island and were picked up by the USS Calhoun, a U.S Navy gunboat.
Two of the men who enlisted in the U.S Navy were Solomon Gregory and Ebenezer Jenkins, who settled in Moss Point as free men after the war.
“The designation of Horn and Ship Island presents us with further opportunity to tell the inspirational, yet difficult stories of enslaved individuals struggle for freedom,” said Superintendent Darrell Echols in the press release. “Gulf Islands National Seashore is honored to be in a position to bring these powerful and previously seldom told stories to this and future generations of visitors.”
