New York State has announced that it is giving out a grant to the Underground Railroad Consortium of New York State to start developing a trail that those interested in history can follow exploring the escape from slavery. The Consortium is proposing the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad New York Corridor, a 500-mile route that will include most of the state. According to the Consortium:
Grant funds will support the development and promotion
of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Scenic Corridor in New York State
and contribute to efforts seeking State and National Byway and All-American
Road Designations. To help establish the corridor, URCNYS will create a
comprehensive Corridor Management Plan with the guidance of Hargrove
International, a noted leader in cultural heritage tourism. URCNYS also
established a full-time sta position of Corridor Coordinator to work with
Corridor stakeholders. To Promote the Corridor, URCNYS will produce a
Tubman Corridor Driving Guide and Map in digital and print formats as well as
a Tubman Corridor Audio Guide. These will all be accessible via a Tubman
Corridor website.
Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth were New Yorkers at the time of the Civil War and Reconstruction. While New York had slavery until the early 19th Century, the effort for New York Emancipation left a legacy of organizations calling for the end of slavery in the United States. Over the last half-century many sites connected to the Underground Railroad have been identified throughout the state from Long Island to the North Country and Western New York. In addition, Abolitionists like John Brown lived in the state before the Civil War.
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