Insight: South Texas church and cemetery named national Underground Railroad sites

A historic South Texas church and cemetery have been named a national site that was part of the Underground Railroad that helped slaves seek freedom in Mexico in the 1800s. The National Park Service last month added the Jackson Ranch Church and Martin Jackson Cemetery in San Juan, Texas, to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The only other site listed in Texas is Mission San Jose in San Antonio, according to the National Park Service. Seventeen other sites were also listed in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania. But what makes the South Texas listings unique is that these locations helped slaves to go south to Mexico, where slavery was illegal.