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The Freedom Trail

It was the start of the Underground Railroad

Jo An Fox-Wright Maddox
4 min readDec 26, 2024
Photo by Kirt Morris on Unsplash

I lived in Auburn, New York, for most of my life, and we all knew Harriet Tubman, because she retired to Auburn and is buried in Ft. Hill cemetery there.

I have learned that the beginning of the Underground Railroad was the Freedom Trail, and part of that was a church that my grandmother and her family attended: Bristol Hill in Volney, New York.

My cousin-in-law was pastor of Bristol Hill in the late 1900’s. Ouch. That sounds so long ago suddenly, like ancient history. Anyway, while he was pastor, he was approached by some local historians who were interested in the church’s history, and my cousin-in-law was eager to help them with their research.

Fast forward to the present, and my cousin-in-law Jim wants to publish a book on both the history of the church and its association with the abolitionist movement. There is also one member of the congregation who stands out. He might have been a part of the Freedom Trail, or he might just have been a gambler, forgerer, and counterfeiter, although those were skills that would have been useful in helping escaping slaves.

Jim tried working with some editors but was not satisfied with them (or the amount of money they wanted.) Then he remembered that there’s a writer in the family (that would be…

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Jo An Fox-Wright Maddox
Jo An Fox-Wright Maddox

Written by Jo An Fox-Wright Maddox

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