For Release: January 31st, 2000
Network encourages education and preservation through informative Web site
By the middle of the 19th century, more than one-fifth of Kentucky's population was held in bondage. More than 200,000 enslaved African-Americans built the houses, tilled the fields and raised the children of many white Kentuckians. For their efforts, many were chained, beaten and separated from their families. Thousands of slaves attempted to escape. Some found help, some made it on their own. Many did not make it at all.
KET looks at the fugitive slave movement in the new one-hour documentary, Kentucky's Underground Railroad--Passage to Freedom, Monday, Feb. 14 at 9/8 p.m. CT on KET, and Friday, Feb. 18 at 8/7 p.m. CT on KET2.
"The underground railroad is in your mind," explains Nona Marshall of Maysville's Underground Railroad Museum. No stations were built and no tracks were laid, but the underground railroad (as it was originally and negatively penned by angry slave owners) existed in the form of individuals, black and white, who assisted slaves in their flight.
Because Kentucky itself was bitterly divided over the issue of slavery and because the state shares 700 miles of Ohio River border with the North, many Kentucky people and sites played fascinating and critical roles in the story of slavery, abolitionism and the underground railroad. Kentucky's Underground Railroad--Passage to Freedom brings the stories to viewers using resources from the University of Kentucky and Transylvania University libraries, The Filson Club and the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. In research and production for more than two years, the program was shot on location in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ontario, Canada.
Free blacks in towns such as Louisville, Maysville, and Covington, Ky.; New Albany and Ripley, Ind.; and Cincinnati, Ohio, played major roles in the race to freedom. Abolitionists in these towns used their proximity to the Ohio River--the dividing line between non-slave and slave states--to further the cause of freedom, and these communities were very influential in the history of slavery and abolition in America. In fact, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin after visiting friends in Washington, Ky., and witnessing the brutal treatment of men, women and children during a slave auction.
"They resisted slavery with their feet. And they are to be much admired for that and remembered," said Larry Gara, author of The Liberty Line, describing the non-violent action of running. Moving tales of bravery, resourcefulness and triumph are contrasted with tragic stories of those who failed and suffered the consequences. Some paid the ultimate price in what has been called America's first civil rights movement.
Much of that history was necessarily secret and is in danger of being lost. For many years, historical sites have been ignored, undocumented, or worse, destroyed. KET, with the cooperation of the Kentucky African American Heritage Commission and the Kentucky Heritage Council, provides preservation information online at http://www.ket.org/underground. The site provides information on grant applications, reports of current research projects and findings, methods for documenting sites and forms to document findings. The site is designed to enhance viewers' understanding of Kentucky's underground railroad, offer teachers and students additional resource material in many areas of humanities content and provide a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the documentary. Partial funding for Kentucky's Underground Railroad's Web site is provided by the Kentucky Humanities Council and The Kentucky Department of Education Division of Equity.
Kentucky's Underground Railroad--Passage to Freedom is a KET production, produced and directed by Guy Mendes. Mary Marshall Hester is associate producer, and Lynda Thomas is Web site editor. The program is closed-captioned for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. Viewers can find out more about programming on KET by visiting the KET Web site at http://www.ket.org, a Kentucky.com affiliate.
Contact: Todd Piccirilli
Image(s) may be reproduced in connection with the print and online promotion of KET programs and services. No other uses are authorized without securing prior permission from the copyright owner. All rights reserved.
Josiah Henson, an inspiration for Uncle Tom in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. (courtesy The Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site)
Newspaper ad, circa 1859.
Eugene Settles recalls his grandfather's account of his escape from slavery in Mason County.
View or link to a public version of this release.
- Downloadable image(s) included. Please 
