In responding to some of the criticism leveled against my report and the people I cited, I hope that the critics understand that when I referred to the "textbook variety" of the Underground Railroad I meant the sterotypical illustrations and notes usually found. I grew up in Mississippi and attended school there between 1944 and 1961 (including one year at Tougaloo College, an American Missionary Association private school, segregated, except for faculty. No "props" were given to black people in their longing for or fight to escape slavery. In fact, most southern "historians" represented the black escapees as being miserable and longing to return to slavery.
That attitude prevails today in certain bastions of the Old South ans Confederacy. Check with curator Gordon Cotton of the Old Court House Museum in Vicksburg, one of the centers for perpetuating the old South myth.

Chuck Siler's reference to St. Malo as the only documented case of Maroon leadership was not quite accurate, as I know of black leaders Alligator, Bledsoe and Cheechoter (Osceola's wife)among the Seminoles.

I have a number of other interesting examples of the flight to freedom that I wanted to refer to, but felt it necessary to limit myself to what I did because of time constraints. Check out Biddy Mason's story (from Mississippi to Los Angeles). Read of future black millionaire Ben Montgomery's flight from Davis Bend and return and purchase thereof (see Janice Sharpe Hermann's "Pursuit of A Dream." Or look up George Fisher's escape from Georgia and association with General John C. Fremont before the Civil War actually began. Or check out the story of Madison (?) Washington and the confiscation of the the New Orleans-bound ship "The Creole" and the daring escape to the Bahamas despite

And, yes, the Park Service is including all varieties of escape from slavery under the rubric "Underground Railroad Network to Freedom." I find the idea liberating myself.

For all those who missed the Bound for Glory on the Bayou gathering, I can only offer you my condolences, because for me this was one of the most meaningful experiences of my adult life here in the United States. The whole atmosphere was intoxicating, the women were the sexiest bunch of females I've encountered since leaving Adana,Turkey in 1964.
Please don't miss the gathering in Florida early next year.