The Havre de Grace Maritime Museum will be presenting the first in a series of lectures on the Underground Railroad – "Other Voices of Freedom" – which will focus on the Upper Chesapeake Bay and Lower Susquehanna region. Our speaker for this first lecture will be Diana Harris, a Public History major at Harford Community College who is interning at the Museum under the supervision of Prof. Jamie Karmel and Museum President Bruce Russell.

Her topic is the songs of freedom and redemption from the era of American slavery, as well as songs about the Underground Railroad and the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century. Join us to learn through word and song about "coding" and pathways to escape and freedom, abolitionism, and the ongoing struggles of African Americans. Followed by a Q&A.

The Maritime Museum was recently awarded grants from the Maryland Historical Trust, the Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway, the Joseph Robert Foundation and the Harford County Cultural Arts Board to research the Underground Railroad as it existed in the greater Havre de Grace area, Harford and Cecil Counties, along the Susquehanna River up to Wrightsville, PA, and all around the Chesapeake Bay.

We are developing a permanent interactive exhibit through the unique perspective of the roles played by the waterways in the slaves’ road to freedom. Waterways provided a means of transport by boat on both the Chesapeake Bay and by ferry across the Susquehanna River. The estimated completion timeframe is April/May 2020.