Underground Railroad expert to speak at Pellissippi State

“Grassroots.” It’s a term used today, frequently by politicians, to refer to a groundswell of opinion or activity that emerges from the community.

The word is thought to have originated in 1912, when it was used to describe the Progressive Party, which swept Teddy Roosevelt into the presidency that year. The party “came from the grass roots and grew from the soil of people’s hard necessities,” according to one of its founders.

The term is early 20 th century, but the concept of grassroots action is much older. It describes, for example, the legendary political and social phenomenon of the 1800s, the Underground Railroad, says Prince Brown Jr., a professor and the founding director of the Institute for Freedom Studies at Northern Kentucky University.

A well-known storyteller and researcher, Brown will speak on “African-Americans in the Civil War” at Pellissippi State Technical Community College on Feb. 7 at 10:45 a.m. in Goins Auditorium on the Pellissippi Campus.

 “The Underground Railroad was the first multiethnic, multicultural, democratic social movement in the history of the United States,” said Brown.

“It is the quintessential example of grassroots democracy at work. The enslaved—untaught, downtrodden—individuals who had the intelligence and courage to liberate themselves need to be held up as heroes and heroines to all Americans, regardless of their generation.”

Brown is co-author of “The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States,” a collection of classic and cutting-edge sociological research. The South Carolina native, who previously taught courses at Pellissippi State, is one of six guest writers selected to speak as part of the college’s Common Academic Experience, which this year focuses on the Civil War novel “Sharpshooter” by David Madden. 

For the past six years, Brown and his staff have extensively researched runaway slave ads as a way to develop an expandable, interactive database to study slavery and the Underground Railroad. More than 18,000 names are in the database, which has the framework for expansion in the future.

“Reading old newspaper ads is an extremely labor-intensive activity,” Brown said.  “This past year has been devoted to a quality check on the data, and we are now in the final phase of that stage of the research.”

According to Brown, NKU’s Institute for Freedom Studies uses the Underground Railroad movement “as a model for teaching tolerance, inclusiveness and democracy by acknowledging and embracing the historical and present-day reality of the multicultural heritage of American society.”

The center was formed as an interdisciplinary group of faculty and staff at NKU in 1999 and received a $900,000 grant from Congress in 2001.

“The grant enabled us to expand our activities to include teacher training institutes on the subject of the Underground Railroad, undertake historic preservation initiatives, do Underground Railroad area tours, sponsor conferences and work with local history societies,” he said.

Northern Kentucky University is located near Cincinnati, home of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which opened in 2004. Cincinnati was the home for a time of Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” exposed the horrors of slavery on a national level. Several dozen sites in the region are documented Underground Railroad stations—places where slaves were helped in their flight from the pre-Civil War South. Some sites still stand within just an hour’s drive of the NURFC.

Among revelations Brown and his staff learned in their research is that the Underground Railroad movement took root and evolved from within the consciousness of the members of the enslaved community.

“This is contrary to popular interpretations suggesting that the enslaved were, for the most part, rescued by sympathizers and collaborators.”

Brown formerly taught at Knoxville College, where he was chair of the Department of Sociology and director of the Division of Social Sciences from 1976 to 1988. He left that post to teach sociology courses at Pellissippi State and was appointed dean of Liberal Arts in 1989. He joined the faculty at NKU in 1991.

His appearance at Pellissippi State is free and open to the public.

Q&A WITHPRINCE BROWN

Pellissippi State : What triggered your decision to begin collecting information for a fugitive slave database that focused on the Underground Railroad.

Prince Brown: The decision was driven by several factors. One was the recent revival in academia of interest in the UGRR movement and its underlying significance in American history and culture. Another reason was the decision by a number of Greater Cincinnati area social justice and heritage preservation organizations to build the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center ( www.freedomcenter.org ) to memorialize and commemorate the movement and its core founders and leaders.

Pellissippi State: The remarkable Harriet Tubman had a strong connection to where you grew up on Port Royal Island, near Beaufort, S.C. Did that play a role in your interest in the Underground Railroad?

Prince Brown:  Yes. Harriet Tubman was not only a nurse, teacher and cook for supporters of the Underground Railroad, but she and Col. James Montgomery led a Union raid with three gunboats carrying 150 African-American soldiers. Nearly 800 slaves were freed during the raid she planned and executed. Beaufort was captured by the Union navy late in 1961 and remained a Union stronghold for the duration of the Civil War. One of the first black units in the Union army was made up of ex-slaves recruited from the Beaufort area.

Pellissippi State : The Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863. How is the topic of slavery relevant today?

Prince Brown: The topic is relevant to anyone whose consciousness developed and evolved through socialization in the United States, including the Gen Y/Millennial/iGen population, who comprise most of the college population today. That consciousness is not imbued with a well-rounded understanding of the manner in which slavery and its legacy (racism/legal segregation/discrimination) shaped and influenced how we relate as individuals and as ethnic group members in American society today. The roots of racism lay in the violent institution that was slavery. We need only look at the discussions about a black man being a viable candidate for president to see how ideas about race create social tensions and divide society into competing camps. The legacy of slavery is still with us and affects our individual and collective well-being.

Pellissippi State : As we get further and further removed from the Emancipation Proclamation, how are young people today getting their information about slavery?

Prince Brown: Fortunately, there is an abundance of new scholarship, nationally and internationally, that addresses the slavery issue from a less ideological perspective than has previously been the case. And there are new museums like the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and the African-American National Museum, which is now making its way through the federal funding process. Also, archaeological research is now becoming a powerful factor on the slavery issue. 

Pellissippi State : Can you cite an example of a runaway slave ad?

Prince Brown: The following ad was placed in the Richmond Enquirer in September 1809 by Tennesseans who followed a runaway to Virginia. This ad is typed exactly as it appears in my source file.

Ten Dollars Reward – Runaway from the Subscribers, in the early part of April last, near South-West-point, in Tennessee, a negro man, named Moses. We suppose him to be about six feet high, well made, a little inclined to be knock-kneed, of a dark complexion, speaks slow when spoken to, and inclines to lisp a little[. H]is clothes cannot be described, as he took off a number, and of various kinds.

The said negro was purchased by the subscribers (in February last,) of Martin Turner, of this City, and generally calls himself Moses Turner. He has a wife in this place, and it is supposed he is now lurking some where in this town, as we have been informed he has been seen here, previous to our arrival. The above reward besides legal charges will be given to any person who will deliver the said Negro to Richard Terrel or J.A. Grant, or secure him in any jail so that they get him again. R. Terrel, J.A. Grant  Sept 15.  

All persons are strictly forewarned from harboring or employing the above Negro.  Also, all Captains of Vessels, or any other person, are forewarned from taking the said fellow out of the State under the strictest penalty of the Law. R.T. & J.A.G.

Pellissippi State: Can you recommend a good book or two for people who want to know more about this topic?

Prince Brown : I would recommend two books on slavery and a National Geographic article on the evolution of the UGGR:

Anne Farrow, Joel Lang and Jennifer Frank, “Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery” ( New York, New York, Ballantine Books, 2005).

Alfred W. Blumrosen and Ruth G. Blumrosen, “Slave Nation: How Slavery United the Colonies & Sparked the American Revolution” (Naperville, Illinois, Sourcebook, Inc., 2005).

Charles L. Blockson, “Escape from Slavery: The Underground Railroad,” National Geographic (Washington, D.C., Vol. 166, No. 1, Pp. 3-39, July 1984).

Related Information:

Pellissippi State Technical Community College
2000 - 2008©