When friends hear that I am going to the Albany Mall, they often think I am going shopping, albeit 180 miles from where I live on Long Island. The Albany Mall is not a shopping center, I tell them, it is the center of New York State government. I was up there Tuesday on business and I was happy to see a display on the history of the Underground Railroad in my home state. This is not an expensive display of rare objects, it is a series of banners along the underground Southern Concourse put up for Black History Month. The exhibit begins by identifying New York’s Paths to Freedom.
Freedom in the world is a theme.
In addition to presenting the facts about the Underground Railroad, the exhibit attempts to dispel myths. The exhibit counters the quilts myth.
There is a distinction made between the facts and interpretation.
Here are some of the panels I saw.
The Revolutionary period was a time when slavery was ended in some states, but the Constitution provided for an interstate obligation to return ranaways even from Free States.
While New York was a destination for escaped Blacks, it had hed slavery only a generation earlier.
This is not a “destination vacation” sort of site, but if you are in Albany you might want to check it our.
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