Guilford celebrates Underground railroad history
Meghan Spivey
Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: Features
As Greensboro celebrates its bicentennial, Guilford recognizes a vital but overlooked part of that 200 year history: the Underground Railroad.
"There is a shadow history to Greensboro," said Max Carter, director of the friend's center and campus ministry coordinator. "There is some hesitancy to dredge it all up. That part of the history isn't that well known. I think that Quakers represent this underside of history, this forgotten history in N.C."
The New Garden Quaker community that Guilford College was founded on preceded Greensboro by sixty years. It was an anti-slavery abolitionist community. By 1808, the year of Greensboro's establishment, many leaders of the Underground Railroad lived here.
In 1819, the Underground Railroad was born. The first documented account of an enslaved African being helped to freedom occurred in what is now Guilford College.
"I will tell you this: My ancestors do not want to be forgotten," said Jerry Gore, founder of the organization Freedom Time.
He and his associate Peggy Overly, president of Freedom Time, started the week off on March 31 with their event "Crossing the Danger Zone: Flight on the Underground Railroad."
Gore didn't just speak on the history of the Underground Railroad. He brought it into perspective. It may seem that slavery has been abolished for a long time, but it's only been 143 years. Gore's great-great-grandfather was a slave.
Gore reminded people of his own problems growing up with racial unrest.
"I was seventeen before I could sit and drink a coke in a restaurant," Gore said.
Gore and Overly sang spirituals and explained their role in the Underground Railroad. Songs that are familiar to many as church hymns became haunting after Overly revealed their origins as instructions on escape. The song "Wade in the Water" instructs runaway slaves to wade into water so that the dogs chasing them lose their scent.
"I thought it was a wonderful opportunity for Guilford to hear history made real," said Carolyn Beard Whitlow, Dana professor of English and coordinator of African American Studies. "I was moved by and informed by the rendering of the spirituals. I was taken with how ingenious the use of spirituals was as a method of communication and a mode of inspiration."
"There is a shadow history to Greensboro," said Max Carter, director of the friend's center and campus ministry coordinator. "There is some hesitancy to dredge it all up. That part of the history isn't that well known. I think that Quakers represent this underside of history, this forgotten history in N.C."
The New Garden Quaker community that Guilford College was founded on preceded Greensboro by sixty years. It was an anti-slavery abolitionist community. By 1808, the year of Greensboro's establishment, many leaders of the Underground Railroad lived here.
In 1819, the Underground Railroad was born. The first documented account of an enslaved African being helped to freedom occurred in what is now Guilford College.
"I will tell you this: My ancestors do not want to be forgotten," said Jerry Gore, founder of the organization Freedom Time.
He and his associate Peggy Overly, president of Freedom Time, started the week off on March 31 with their event "Crossing the Danger Zone: Flight on the Underground Railroad."
Gore didn't just speak on the history of the Underground Railroad. He brought it into perspective. It may seem that slavery has been abolished for a long time, but it's only been 143 years. Gore's great-great-grandfather was a slave.
Gore reminded people of his own problems growing up with racial unrest.
"I was seventeen before I could sit and drink a coke in a restaurant," Gore said.
Gore and Overly sang spirituals and explained their role in the Underground Railroad. Songs that are familiar to many as church hymns became haunting after Overly revealed their origins as instructions on escape. The song "Wade in the Water" instructs runaway slaves to wade into water so that the dogs chasing them lose their scent.
"I thought it was a wonderful opportunity for Guilford to hear history made real," said Carolyn Beard Whitlow, Dana professor of English and coordinator of African American Studies. "I was moved by and informed by the rendering of the spirituals. I was taken with how ingenious the use of spirituals was as a method of communication and a mode of inspiration."
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