Myth, Reality & Mapping the Underground Railroad An Interactive Workshop & Panel Discussion

Saturday, May 5th • 9 am–3:30 pm
St John’s Church • 101 Chapel Street | Portsmouth NH
Cost: $35 Tour & Symposium (includes lunch) • $25 Symposium only (includes lunch) • $20 Tour only • Register here

Join Robbins House Co-President Maria Madison tomorrow in Portsmouth, NH for her Living History Presentation: Before Rosa Parks, there was Ellen Garrison Jackson, and panel discussion on Stories of the Underground Railroad in Our Region.

This symposium will take a critical look at the true nature of the Underground Railroad movement as it wove its way through the different avenues of old established New England towns, including oral history, African American cultural landscapes, archaeology, geography, and material culture. The program offers a hands-on workshop that will give the newly interested and the veteran researcher ideas on how to research their town’s involvement in the UGRR and new paths to explore. Through sharing their own local story of a place or a particular person and by using a place-based approach centered on maps and mapping, participants can piece together the history of a place, a region and ultimately their state.

Click here for more information

Program Outline

9:00 am Guided Tour
Stories of the Underground Railroad in Portsmouth, NH
Tour Guide & Sankofa Scholar Angela Matthews
10:30 am Panel/ Discussion
Bridging the Past to the Present: Stories of the Underground Railroad in Our Region
Maria Madison, Co-President of The Robbins House, Concord MA
Lynn Clark, Former Director of the Indian Museum, Warner NH
L’Merchie Frazier, Director of Education and Interpretation, Museum of African American History, Boston MA
Jane Williamson, Director Emerita for Rokeby Museum, Ferrisburgh VT
12:30 pm Lunch
1:00 pm Living History Presentation
Before Rosa Parks, there was Ellen Garrison Jackson
Maria Madison as Ellen Garrison Jackson
1:30 pm Interactive Workshop
Mapping the Underground Railroad in Your Town
Dr. Cheryl LaRoche, Department of American Studies, University of Maryland, College Park.