Cinema Review: Race to Freedom: The Story of the Underground Railroad

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I watched Race to Freedom with my two younger children last week and appreciated the safety of made for TV movies. It's a fictional account of the escape of 4 slaves from a North Carolina plantation making stops at Underground Railroad stations. The movie highlights the reality that some slaves were recaptured and punished and some died from the severity of travel conditions as well as the cruel irony of slaves forced to help recapture escapees. We also get to see the joys of folks as they enter the town of Buxton, Ontario, Canada, free from the reaches of American fugitive slave chasers. A liberty bell was commissioned by free blacks in Pittsburgh as a gift to the town of Buxton which was rung every time a fugitive made it to safety in Buxton. A great movie to fill in some of your historical ignorance.

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