Today we had a walk that was round the north of town. Our first stop was the Slave Haven Underground Railroad museum, on the way up we walked past a couple of churches, the main one being St Mary’s Catholic Church which seems to run a night shelter as everyone was leaving as we walked past it. The Church was built in 1864 by German immigrants who had wood shipped from Germany to make the Altar and hand made all the bricks used in the walls. We continued walking as the Slave Haven is right on the edge of town and eventually arrived just as a tour was starting. The Underground Railroad Museum is housed on the Burkle Estate. Jacob Burkle who was a German immigrant was among those in the anti slavery movement that risked their lives by harbouring escaping African slaves. Jacob Burkle operated a stockyard on this site and it wasn’t until the late 1980s that it became known that he operated a clandestine network. It was really interesting as this is the first time we have heard the slave story from the slave point of view. The museum is run by a couple who explained the realities of transportation. They have photos of recreations of the way the slaves were transported from Africa, we had seen layouts of the ships in the museum in Liverpool but what they hadn’t represented was the fact that the people were stacked on what looked like book shelves. They also explained how the slave markets worked and had examples of pamphlets describing the type of slaves they had for sale, they listed men, women and children all separately, the guide kept stressing that they didn’t sell families they sold the skills that were needed and if that meant that a woman was sold but her 18 month child wasn’t needed then she would be sold and the child would be sold separately probably for a discounted rate. Jacob actually had two slaves who he eventually helped escape, but once they had successfully escaped to Canada he then put a notice in the paper saying they had escaped as this helped keep the pretence that he was pro slavery. They also explained the way the safe routes were communicated both through songs and also through the pattens on things like quilt covers, the woman that was showing us round had a fantastic voice as she sang some of the songs and explained the meaning, even Swing Low Sweet Chariot had instructions on how to escape to Canada. At the end of the tour they showed us the loose bricks on the outside of the house that provided access to the cellar where the runaways could hide until it was safe to continue the journey. Unfortunately because no one actually knew this story they don’t know how many people escaped via this route or the fate of these people but hopefully it was a lot and they all successfully got away. From here we walked to Mud Island and the Mississippi River Museum. This has a representation of the entire length of the Mississippi River outside, it is massive as 30inches equals 1 mile. As it was quite hot we went into the museum to have a look round, at first I wasn’t sure about it as it had a lot of display boards describing the various countries and battles that have happened along the Mississippi but at the end of the first room you walk into a massive mock up of a river boat which was really good, you walk through where the passengers stayed, then up to the wheel house and finally down to the lower levels where there was a mock up of a dock, further round the museum there was information on how the ships on the river changed and how they are being used today and finally the story of how music evolved from the music of the slaves to Rock and Roll. After we finished in the museum we walked the Mississippi which was actually really interesting as it showed how few large towns there are along the river then having finished that we decided to head back to the mainland! Considering it is Saturday there is no one around, I am not sure where they all are but we walked along the waterfront and down Main Street and only saw about a dozen people! By this time it was about 4pm so we headed back to the hotel for a bit of a relax and recharge in preparation for tomorrow.
