Digital Collections -> Pathfinders -> Many Roads to Freedom -> Introduction and Credits

MANY ROADS TO FREEDOM:
INTRODUCTION AND CREDITS


INTRODUCTION

Many Roads to Freedom: Abolitionism and the Civil War in Rochester is an online history tour covering people, events, places and writings in the Rochester area relating to abolitionism, the Civil War, and its aftermath. The tour consists of images and information on abolitionists, the local Underground Railroad, slave narratives, anti-slavery speeches and abolitionist newspapers, as well as Civil War era news on the war effort and local military units. There are letters and war memorabilia from the collection of Henry Achilles, a local Civil War soldier, as well as regimental histories. Our collection of Currier & Ives political cartoons from the era is also included. In addition, previously unpublished and/or rare material on Rochester's Douglass Monument is featured. Most items are from the collections of Rochester Public Library's Local History Division.
All texts are presented as Adobe Acrobat PDFs, ready to be searched via our optical character recognition software. All images are in jpeg format. All images and texts may be saved or printed for personal or educational use, and high resolution images can always be ordered.


CREDITS

This project was made possible
through the Lloyd E. Klos Historical Fund, the Killian J. and Caroline F. Schmitt Foundation, and the Regional Bibliographic Databases and Resources Sharing Program. On August 26, 2009, it was officially recognized as part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program.
 
"The Logo star is a composite of both the emotional and physical aspects of the enslaved African American who escaped via the Underground Railroad. The face is symbolic of all freedom seekers who used the Underground Railroad to flee the horrors of slavery. The star has dual symbolism: the hopes and dreams of the escapee, and the North Star, which served as a major navigational tool for nighttime movement when most travel along the Underground Railroad routes took place, under the protective cloak of darkness."

Important note: The historical documents presented here reflect the attitudes and perspectives of earlier times and, therefore, may contain materials or references offensive to some viewers. Rochester Public Library and its partner institutions do not necessarily endorse the views expressed in the collections.