Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Underground Railroad--Who Knew??!!

We've been having fun with our out of town guests. I found out that the tip of Florida used to be a point on the Underground Railroad, until the lighthouse was built on Key Biscayne. We think of slaves fleeing north, but some of them fled south, where they were helped by Native Americans, who, in these parts, were VERY hostile to whites until the 20th century--depending on your view of gambling, you might think they still are VERY hostile. Where did they go? To the islands, of course. It's the very reverse of the migration we see today.



But once this lighthouse was built, this escape route effectively closed (actually, this lighthouse is one that's been rebuilt many times, so technically, the lighthouse that closed the escape route is no longer this exact one).


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