Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad

Photographer Jeanine Michna-Bales has spent more than a decade meticulously researching fugitive slaves and the ways they escaped to freedom. While the unnumbered routes of the Underground Railroad encompassed countless square miles the path Michna-Bales documented encompasses roughly 2 000 miles and is based off of actual sites cities and places that freedom-seekers passed through during their journey. Whether they were slaves trying to escape or free blacks and whites trying to help both sides risked everything for the cause of freedom. From the cotton plantations south of Natchitoches Louisiana all the way north to the Canadian border this series of photographs by Michna-Bales helps us imagine what the long road to freedom may have looked like as seen through the eyes of one of those who made this epic journey.

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