ICYMI: Toronto's oldest Black institution — a small brick church founded by slaves who fled to Toronto though the Underground Railroad —celebrates 200 years
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/torontos-first-baptist-church-200-years-9.7071006
undergroundrailroad
So it was only yesterday when I learned that some of the spiritual and work songs sung by Black slaves here in the US were used to communicate messages and directions on how to escape.
"Harriet Tubman; a significant American Abolitionist who saved many enslaved Africans from slavery through the Underground Railroad used songs such as “Go Down Moses," to indicate safety and “Wade in the Water” to signal escapees to get in the water to hide their scent."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_the_Underground_Railroad
#TIL #history #BlackHistory #UndergroundRailroad #slavery #music #songs
New lecture video "Black Georgians, Spanish Florida, and the Seminole" freely available at the Georgia Archives YouTube page; you can access this from the Archives' homepage.
From the beginning of the Revolutionary War to the eve of the First Seminole War in 1817, hundreds of people of color in Georgia and, to a lesser extent, South Carolina crossed the borders and boundaries separating the Lowcountry from Spanish coastal Florida and from the Seminole. This counter-narrative in American history is a potent reminder of the strength of Black resistance in the post-Revolutionary South and of this community’s ability to shape the balance of power in a contested region.
Dr. Paul Pressly is the author of ""A Southern Underground Railroad: Black Georgians, Spanish Florida, and Indian Country" from the University of Georgia Press.
#SpanishFlorida #Seminole #BlackHistory #Georgia #Florida #AmericanHistory #PeopleOfColor #UndergroundRailroad
@histodons
Edited 185d ago