Walking in the Footsteps of Slaves

Walking in the Footsteps of Slaves

By Ronnie Manns

A quote attributed to George Santayana reads "Those who are unaware of history are destined to repeat it." And if we combined this saying with that attributed to President John F. Kennedy which reads “Our problems are man-made — therefore, they can be solved by man”, we should then have the recipe necessary to not only correct the issues of this world but end the cycle of repetition.  Above is a picture of Milton House in Milton, Wisconsin.  It is described as recognized by the National Park Service's Network to Freedom as the last, certified Underground Railroad station that can be toured in Wisconsin. The Milton House operated as a stop on the Underground Railroad or "UGRR" from its construction in 1844 through the Civil War. At the Milton House, visitors have the rare opportunity to walk the very pathways of freedom when visiting this unique structure.  Tours are fully guided though the 1844 Milton House Hexagon Stagecoach Inn, 45 foot long tunnel connecting to our 1837 Goodrich Pioneer Cabin, and much more. Average tour time is one hour”.  The journey in the footsteps of those slaves who used this as their last stop on the way to freedom, one could allow themselves to see what they might have seen and experience vicariously the feelings that they might have felt.  This may just give you a completely different idea about just how tough your life is compared to what those who paved the way for the rest of us lived.

One will never be able to truly understand or comprehend the intense fear a fugitive slave must have felt as they were ushered into this place to rest, get food and prepare themselves for what was to come.  None of us, who were not there, will ever know the paralyzing fear that a slave must have felt to know that just right above their heads were slave hunters searching and looking for them.  We will never know the agonizing anguish a slave felt crawling 45 feet on their stomachs through a tunnel that was so dark you literally could not see your hand in front of your face.  Thinking that with each stroke of their arms and legs, they could loosen the dirt walls that makes up this tunnel, or the thought of what their hands may grasp as they funneled their way to possible freedom and the uncertainty that the light they see at the end of this tunnel could mean a step closer to that freedom or straight into the arms of the awaiting slave hunters.  Having heard the stories of those who attempted to flee and was caught and brought back and even about those who never made it back to the plantations, this deep desire was a definite gamble and one that had the price tag of their very lives.

They knew that those hunting them had made it their lives work to catch them and in many instances had possibly become rich doing so.  They knew that others who had a deep desire for richness, may at any time turn on them and turn them in.  To trust that those offering to help and looking out for you were truly who they said that they were was trying especially when some of them had been known to sell them out because one hundred and fifty dollars back then was a definite incentive to do so.  Yet many kept pushing and moving forward to that Promised Land and for those who made it, the journey was worth it but you can be sure that of those who did make it, they would not wish to make that journey again.

These words were their only promise of freedom and it is unknown exactly how they knew but those who stood by this creed was well known by those like Harriett Tubman and Sojourner Truth as those who could be most trusted.  These brave souls were referred to as abolitionist and they worked just as hard as anyone to insure that any slave wishing freedom and coming into contact with them would be helped and they would allow themselves to be subjected to very strong penalties imposed by the Fugitive Slave Act which in essence said that all the law required was the say-so of the slave hunter to label any black person as a slave.  It stated that no slave or anyone accused of being a slave had the right to produce evidence that they weren’t a slave and it imposed a one thousand dollar fine and up to 30 days in jail for anyone harboring them.  This law made it easy for anyone of color to be labelled a slave even those who may have been born free but stumbled upon others with a deep desire for greed.

This enormous need for money inspired the abolitionist to pen this flyer and place it anywhere they believed it may do some good.  It should also be explained that this may be the root cause of Black America’s current distrust in police and those placed in authority today.

All this was done long before President Abraham Lincoln cobbled together the Emancipation Proclamation which many still see as the document that abolished slavery but if one reads this document closely, you may find that it was full of holes and it is believed that this was necessary to get more states to ratify it.  Either way, the plague above educates us that a young Abraham Lincoln had indeed seen his fair share of war and was discharged in or around July 20, 1832.

What this tour did was allow my young children to get an understanding of those who traveled these roads before us.  It allowed my mother to see what her mother and grandmother meant when they would say to them that they have it better than they did.  It reconfirmed for my wife her belief that not all people are bad and that each person should be measured by their actions and not by the actions of others and what it allowed for me is affirmation that our current situation is no more dire than we allow it to be.  It instructed me that we have the power to control how we live and our actions and it reinforced my strength in being the holder to my own destiny.

I recommend this tour for any and all wishing to walk a few miles in someone else’s shoes instead of just accepting what is being said as truth.  We all need to search and discover our own truth because until we do, we may continue to repeat history and never solve of man-made problems because if we continue there shall never be that beacon on a hill, that land of opportunity nor that more perfect union.  Until we walk in the footsteps of others who have gone before us, we will never reach our individual promised land.