Friends, the link in last week’s newsletter was incorrect, so I hope you will try again to look at the Underground Railroad website: https://library.guilford.edu/undergroundrr and think about how we personally might have “challenged racism” with regard to slavery in the 19th century. Some New Gardeners, like Levi & Vestal Coffin, worked directly with the Underground Railroad. Others joined the Manumission Society. Vestal Coffin, Enoch Macy and George Swain helped to free Benjamin Benson – the first African American in the U.S. to use the legal system to gain freedom, in 1820. Everyone could do something then, and we can all do something now.
– KHS ([email protected])