An effort to provide a comprehensive website about Pennsylvania's role in the Underground Railroad is newly underway. Backed by several major historical organizations and educational institutions, this effort is expected to launch next year.

You can read the press release on the Afrolumens Project site at our "Announcements" page, second article (link below).

Although the site will concentrate on Pennsylvania's history and documents, I am told it will incorporate the stories and data from neighboring states as well in order to properly interpret the story of the Underground Railroad as an interstate network from the slaveholding regions to freedom in the north.

I am optimistic about this effort because it is backed in part by Pennsylvania State University. Having been part of a smaller, regional effort that attempted the same thing several years ago (the Pennsylvania Society for Underground Railroad Study), I fully understand the difficulties of creating and maintaining a new organization. Our effort failed, but perhaps this one will succeed.