Fort Sumter has been added to the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, highlighting a less understood aspect of the South Carolina fort where the Confederacy fired the first shots of the Civil War.
The National Park Service site joins the network along with 13 other locations, including refuges for those who escaped slavery and burial sites of people who risked their lives in search of freedom. They join a list of over 740 sites that tell the story of the Underground Railroad.
“These new listings, including the first in the Pacific Northwest, illustrate coast to coast efforts of freedom seekers and their allies to secure self-determination, liberty and justice for themselves and others,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams in a statement. “Their brave and tenacious pursuit of freedom from oppression reflects the foundation upon which our nation was built and serves as a reminder that our country’s journey to form a more perfect union is ongoing.”
The program was created by Congress in 1998 to preserve the historic structures, sites, routes, museums and other institutions that tell the story of the Underground Railroad.
