Hi Ed,

Thanks for your response.

A very nice article on Dr. Boswell and it is great to hear of your role as Frederick Douglass in this upcoming presentation. A new career?

I especially want to thank you for the 'Freedom Quilt' post. My thoughts are that any discussion(s) on the UGRR are meaningful and can be very enlightening.

There are so many twists and turns to what the UGRR was about.. how it was operated, who were the players, where was it located, when was it started, routes of escape, why the use of railroad terminology, etc. Close scrutiny and study of each aspect is a must to get a fuller understanding of just how brave the 'runaway' slave was and how much was at risk for those that aided those runaways.

One overlooked cause for the 'secretiveness', my word , of the UGRR is that in helping the runaways it was in violation of Federal Law ... "The fugitive slave laws were laws passed by the United States Congress in 1793 and 1850 to provide for the return of slaves who escaped from one state into another or into a public territory" .... heavy fines, penalities and possible imprisonment could be imposed for violating those Federal Laws.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_Slave_Act_of_1850

Please excuse me for getting away from the quilt question. I just believe that the claims of UGRR activities should be reviewed with the same eye for detail and factual accuracy as our family histories and genealogies.

I'm now getting off of the soapbox.

Art Thomas