September focuses on those who chose to refuse enslavement of people, either of themselves or of others. The National Park Service program, enacted by Congress in 1998, began listing documented sites, programs, and resources for those researching the Network to Freedom, also known as the Underground Railroad.
“This program honors, preserves and promotes the history of resistance to enslavement through escape and flight, which continues to inspire people worldwide. Through its mission, the Network to Freedom helps to advance the idea that all human beings embrace the right to self-determination and freedom from oppression.
The program is a catalyst for innovation, partnerships, and scholarship connecting the legacy of the Underground Railroad across boundaries and generations. The program consists of sites, programs, and facilities with a verifiable connection to the Underground Railroad. There are currently over 900 Network to Freedom locations in 40 states, plus Washington D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada.”
Archer Alexander (1806-1880) is listed on the National Underground Railroad for the location of his burial, St. Peter’s U.C.C. Cemetery 2101 Lucas and Hunt Road in Normandy (St. Louis County, Missouri, where he is buried in an unmarked common lot grave. (A movement to place a memorial has begun.)
Also, the Program Archer Alexander and the Underground Railroad by Dorris Keeven-Franke is listed on the Network to Freedom. (Contact dorris@archeralexander.blog for more information.)
In February of 1863, Archer Alexander would fall in with 16 other freedom seekers, and they crossed the Missouri River from Cottleville (St. Charles County) to the Bon Homme Bottoms (City of Wildwood) at Howell’s Ferry, and, using an old farm-to-market road (today is Olive Street Road in St. Louis County) make his way to the home of an abolitionist and Unitarian Minister named William Greenleaf Eliot and freedom on September 24, 1863. The point that they crossed the Missouri River on that bitter cold February night is listed on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom and is part of the City of Wildwood’s African American Heritage Trail.
And, in 1876, the culmination of the formerly Charlotte Scott’s dream for a monument to the best friend that the colored people, including Archer Alexander, ever had was achieved with the dedication by President Ulysses S. Grant and Frederick Douglass of the Emancipation Memorial. Facing the U.S. Capitol, in Lincoln Park in Washington, D.C., the Freedom Memorial captures the moment of Emancipation as Lincoln watches Archer Alexander rise, having broken his own chains of enslavement. The memorial is breathtaking and begs reflection by all who pass it.
Let us not forget our past mistakes; otherwise, we may repeat them. The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom is here to remind us every day in one of over 900 listings across our nation. See https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1205/index.htm for more information and a map displaying all 900 listings.
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