NIAGARA FALLS – Chautauqua County residents played a significant roll in combating slavery and freeing many people between 1840 and 1860. That history will be highlighted by an upcoming workshop.
A national Underground Railroad (UGRR) training event will be held September 11-14, 2019, at Niagara University in Niagara Falls, New York. The program will be hosted by the following organizations: the National Park Service, the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program, and the Underground Railroad Consortium of New York State.
Additional hosts are as follows: the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area, the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center, Niagara University, and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
During the conference workshops, Chautauqua County Historian Michelle Henry will present the Anti-slavery Map for Chautauqua County, found at http://www.orbitist.com/ugrr. On the map are more than 1100 persons and/or sites which were documented by their appearance in anti-slavery records related to this county between 1840 and 1860.
Other research training workshops will be held on Thursday and Friday, September 12 and 13. The Thursday morning sessions will cover history and recent scholarship. Thursday afternoon sessions will address means of protecting UGRR authenticity.
Friday morning workshops will discuss best practices for preserving and promoting UGRR sites, and Friday afternoon sessions will examine community-driven investigations of the UGRR.
For further information and registration instructions, go to the website of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
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