Tour tracing history of Underground Railroad in Springfield to be given


Storrowtown's Meeting House

By Erin O'Connor

Staff Writer

WEST SPRINGFIELD - A program for adults will be featured at the Eastern States Exposition's Storrowton Village Museum May 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. in which its antique buildings will be used to present a guided tour tracing the history of the Underground Railroad of the Greater Springfield area.

"We talk about the original history and we tie that with what happened in Springfield," Dennis Picard, director of Storrowton Village Museum, said to Reminder Publications.

John Brown, the first white American abolitionist to advocate and practice insurrection as a means to the abolition of slavery, was said by Picard to have lived in Springfield.

The journey starts at the Museum's Meeting House, a church in Storrowton that originally came from Salisbury, New Hampshire. At the Meeting House abolitionist speeches are given.

"Some churches did support the abolitionist movement but not all," Picard said. "This church [Meeting House] was owned by four different congregations but the Baptists in Salisbury, New Hampshire were abolitionists."

All lectures and tours are conducted by volunteers with special training and a background of information.

Some of the activities that participants will take part in include visiting areas of Storrowton that represent activities that occurred on the Underground Railroad, hear part of a period Abolitionist speech in the Union Meetinghouse, try removing shackle chains in the Clark Blacksmith Shop, visit a hiding place in the Potter Mansion's basement and sign an Anti-Slavery Pledge in the Eddy Law Office.

The evening will end in the Red Barn with a meal of foods carried by escaped slaves and a discussion of the perils encountered by runaways and anti-slavery sentiments in the Greater Springfield area in the mid 1850s.

According to Picard Underground Railroad paths in this area went into the Connecticut River Valley and the Farmington River Valley.

The event is put on periodically depending on the interest. This event is currently sold out but a tour such as this one can be arranged depending on interest. Call Storrowton at 205-5051 for more information .