Read Our Blogs

Underground Railroad: Network to Freedom

By Sarah PercivalPosted February 11, 2013

 

Join us on February 16th and 17th, 2013 from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. as Leesylvania State Park will celebrate our connection to local black history and the Underground Railroad Network for Freedom.

On September 23, 1861 a group of escaping slaves from Martha Fairfax-Robertson’s Ohio Farm swam to the USS Seminole and reported having witnessed two hundred men with two siege guns headed up to the point. Acting on this intelligence Lt. McCrea of the USS Jacob Bell conducted a reconnaissance on September 24th and found evidence of the earthworks being constructed. The following day the Union ships Jacob Bell and Seminole opened fire on the battery. After their tenth shot at the battery the Confederates opened fire with their four guns. The fight lasted from 10am to 3pm that day and resulted in the Seminole being disabled and surprisingly no one injured. Following the altercation the guns were removed from the battery and taken to Walker and Evans Port Batteries and the site was abandoned.

A partial list of the slaves at Leesylvania State Park
 
A partial list of the slaves at Leesylvania State Park
 
Come to Leesylvania’s Visitor Center to learn more about all aspects of the park's rich and diverse history as we celebrate Black History Month.  We will have books, posters, period clothing, and artifact reproductions on display. There will be a quilt display that explains in detail one of the methods used to send messages and directions to African Americans escaping slavery. With these displays we will show where slavery began, the daily lives of enslaved African Americans, and seeking freedom through the Underground Railroad.
 
A secret code is sewn into this quilt, a map to follow the Underground Railroad.
 
A secret code is sewn into this quilt to help follow the Underground Railroad
 
Learn how slaves would use secret codes to direct others to the Underground RR
 
Hanging the quilts outside "to dry" on lines, displayed a secret map to freedom
 
Can’t make it to this event? The following week, on February 21-23, Prince William County will be offering a day long bus tour visiting historical sites with significant African American history. Leesylvania State Park is a featured attraction along with Rippon Lodge Historic Site, Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre and Ben Lomond Historic Site. We’ll be sure leave up the displays from the Underground Railroad, just in case you didn’t make it out the first time. Register at www.Manassasbullrun.com for the bus tour or for more information.
 
For more information on this program and others like it, please visit the Virginia State Parks events page by clicking here.

Click here for directions to Leesylvania State Park or call the Visitor Center at (703) 583-6904.

LOCATION: Leesylvania State Park is in the southeast area of Prince William County, about 25 miles from Washington, D.C., and Fredericksburg. From I-95, take Rippon Landing Exit 156, then go east on Dale Blvd. to U.S. 1. Jefferson Davis Hwy. Turn right on Jefferson Davis Hwy., and then turn left onto Neabsco Rd. (Route 610) east for about two miles.

Drive Time: Northern Virginia, half an hour; Richmond, one and a half hours; Tidewater/Norfolk/Virginia Beach, two and a half hours; Roanoke, four hours

PARKS
Leesylvania State Park
CATEGORIES
Educational Activities  |  Explore  |  History  |  Learn  |  Learning Opportunities
SHARE THIS PAGE

If you have read the article and have a question, please email nancy.heltman@dcr.virginia.gov.

By Park