Underground Railroad speaker Greg Roberts to share Ohio history at Orrville program
The Wooster-Wayne Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution will hold a free program on Ohio and the Underground Railroad at the Orrville Public Library 10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 11.
Greg Roberts, an expert on the Underground Railroad, will speak on the role Ohio played in the movement, as well as information on the trails northward that passed through the Northeast Ohio region.
The Underground Railroad was the resistance to enslavement through escape and flight. It was not underground and there was no railroad involved. Rather, the Underground Railroad was a large network of free Blacks and whites who provided safe houses and passage from slave states to free states in the North and Canada, where slavery was illegal.
The Ohio River basin was a key link in the Underground Railroad, with many routes passing through the area before heading farther north.
The Ohio River National Freedom Corridor, of which Roberts is director, is a nonprofit organization that commemorates and promotes the importance of the passages throughout the Ohio River watershed.
In cooperation with the National Park Service-Network to Freedom, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Kentucky and Indiana and the Freedom Corridor works together to preserve and interpret the shared Underground Railroad heritage, and to educate the public about the region's historical and cultural significance in the movement.
Roberts is a recognized authority on abolitionists and Underground Railroad history. He is a frequent speaker at historical societies and Underground Railroad conferences. He also is an expert on the life and times of Ohio’s own Ulysses S. Grant, 18th U.S. president.
PThe Wooster-Wayne Chapter, NSDAR, is a volunteer organization dedicated to preserving American history, promoting patriotism and securing America’s future through better education for children.
For more information about the chapter or the DAR, email woowaydar@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Greg Roberts program on Underground Railroad to be held in Orrville
