June 8

Monday, June 8 was moving day. Initially, we planned to walk on the 8^th, but there’s already so much going on when we move base camps that we chose not to walk. We packed our suitcases as well as all the supplies we’re carrying with us and loaded the cars and the pickup. Paul and Mary Liz (from the historic Stephen & Harriet Myers Residence) came over, and we returned the sheets, comforters, towels and other supplies they provided for us. They’re donating everything to a local nonprofit shelter.

Tuesday, June 9

Due to meetings, phone calls, emails and other planning details for upcoming events, we didn’t start walking until 12:30pm. It’s already in the 80’s and expected to rise to about 90°. We are driving only about 15 minutes and walking the final section toward Syracuse that we would’ve walked on Saturday in order to save time today. We plan to make up the rest this weekend. As with all our plans… we shall see.

Matthew tells us about a garbage truck that pulled up into the parking lot of the hotel where the Harriet statue is parked. The driver jumped out of his truck and couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He took a picture and sent it to his mom and then called her. “Mom, there’s a bigger-than-life bronze statue of Harriet Tubman here! We’re related to her! I’m at work so I can’t really talk, but I wanted you to know about it.” Then he hopped into the cab before Matthew could even tell them what was going on. Witnessing such moments reminds us of one reason we’re walking: the positive impact on people we encounter.

We are starting in Sullivan near an underground railroad museum on the Canal Trail. Lynda joins Matthew, Tony and me for the first few miles. The trail is not paved here, so it is a little easier on the feet. We’re walking right by an abandoned remnant of the Erie canal. This is designated as a birding trail. I hear a lot of them singing as we walk. We spotted a bright orange bird that we believe was a Baltimore Oriole (at least that’s what Google told us). We see lots of fish in the canal slowly swimming around, butterflies and dragon flies moving around and back-and-forth over the river and around us, big black and yellow bumblebees buzzing, a good-sized garter snake, and one tiny turtle swimming halfway across the canal. To top it off, the grass on both sides of the trail has been recently mowed so the air smells fresh and alive.

Today was pretty much just walking. We didn’t talk much, mostly walked individually, separated by about 100 yards from each other. And it was hot. My legs broke out in a heat rash once again. Trusting that Arnica Gel will help. I hand-washed my clothes and hung them out to dry on the clothesline. We had a tremendous thunderstorm overnight, so they got an extra rinse cycle. Hopefully they’ll be dry, or mostly dry before the rain starts again this afternoon.

We had dinner out at a Thai restaurant. Kip and Matthew joined Lynda, Tony and me. Then it was home and bedtime.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on June 9.

Wednesday, June 10

This morning we were scheduled with the Erie Canal Museum for a walking tour focused on African American history connected to the canal. Derrick Pratt, the Museum Educator, led our tour. He was a terrific guide.

We learned that New York City had the second highest number of enslaved population per capita. Only Charleston, SC was higher. Gradual manumission in New York began in the 1700s. On July 4, 1827, slavery was outlawed in New York, though slavery in some locations continued until the 1850s.

The canal was not ideal for Freedom Seekers, though it was used for this purpose. New York State workers were required by the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act to report “suspicious” black people. If someone was running away, they were committing a federal crime. If someone did not report a potential Freedom Seeker, they were also breaking the law. Hard to imagine such a heinous, heartless law enacted by Congress. The canal also ran through the middle of cities. It was too easy for Freedom Seekers to be seen. Freedom seekers could also move more quickly than boats on the canal, which typically travel below the 4-mph speed limit, typically 2 miles an hour. Walking and railroads were safer.

Frederick Douglass moved to Rochester and began publishing the North Star newspaper in 1847. By 1851, Syracuse became a significant stop on underground railroad. The Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, in 1851, spoke here strongly in support of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. Calling people who opposed it traitors.

By 1850, Utica had firmly established itself as a major center of textile manufacturing. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 had a major impact by providing efficient transporting of cotton and wool from the South and Midwest, and then for finished textile goods to be shipped out. These factors allowed Utica’s textile mills to quickly expand. The other impact was that many people who relied on textile mills for their livelihoods adamantly opposed abolition. White people in this area had strong self-benefiting reasons to support slavery. A large anti-slavery convention in Utica was mobbed by pro-slavery forces.

Syracuse House in the 1830s was the best hotel in Syracuse. It’s now the location of a bank. The Davenport family visited here from Mississippi in 1839. They brought their “servant,” Harriet Powell with them. Word spread that a young woman was being held in slavery by the Davenports and plans were developed to free her. African American employees of the Syracuse House approached Harriet, and she agreed to accept their help. Her escape created a furor. A $200 reward was offered for her capture. During her escape, she met 24-year-old Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This interaction led to Cady Stanton becoming a staunch abolitionist. There are many stories like this one. Black employees at hotels helped support the underground railroad and freedom seekers. They were eyes and ears in many places.

We learned of the Jerry Rescue in Syracuse in 1851. The ice cream stand across the street was the jail where he was held. Bells of the city rang, which was a signal that enslavers were present. Thousands of people participated in Jerry’s rescue. This was an enormous event in American history. It inspired abolitionists to do whatever they could, including breaking the law to help freedom seekers. He made his way from here up to Ontario, Canada. 12 people were indicted for breaking the fugitive slave law. None of them were convicted. One was convicted of a lesser offense. He died in jail before his appeal came through.

We learned that Erie Boulevards are located in many cities and are typically where the canal used to run.

The building of the Interstate Highway system made a huge difference in transportation. It also resulted in displacing the redlined areas to run highways through. 1,300 black families would be displaced from the 15th ward. Protests were ignored. The Syracuse Way Lock building was scheduled to be destroyed. In 1962, it was saved and is now the Erie Canal Museum. Between 1940 and 2000, the population of Syracuse shrunk by 30%. As black families who are displaced moved into other areas, there was a great deal of “white flight.” Oneida County today is the ninth most segregated county in the country.

Ironically, I-81 is scheduled to be taken down and an historic district is scheduled to be built here. This is a community grid. It’s not a magic bullet to end discrimination but is an important tie to the abolition movement and a step in the right direction. This was such an informative, 2-hour tour that was much appreciated. I continue to learn so much.

Today was another day off from walking. It turned out to be a good choice from a couple of perspectives. One is that it poured rain in the afternoon with lots of thunder and lightning. The other is that I’ve developed a rash on both of my legs that has appeared when we walk on hot days. I’ve been rubbing Arnica gel on it, and it has gone away after a couple of days. It doesn’t itch or hurt. I’ve never experienced this before. I would think it’s related to my aging body, but it’s also happened with Matthew. Perhaps it’s something we are both contracting from the grass we occasionally walk on as an alternative to the asphalt? I don’t know. We just keep walking.

Thursday, June 11

What luck we continue to have on this canal. This morning we encountered the replica boat that is traveling to Buffalo at Lock 18 right as we began. I don’t know if we’ll be able to pull it off, but we are hoping to catch a ride at some point between here in Buffalo.

We spoke to people connected to the boat, the Seneca Chief, and we’ll see what works out. We watched the Lock fill once again so they could pass through and that took up some time, so we’re starting to walk a little before 10 AM.

Matthew and I were walking along the road on the shoulder when a guy in a pickup truck pulling a trailer going the same direction stopped in the middle of the road. My assumptions kicked in immediately. He looked like a good ol’ boy with his hat on backwards, missing a couple of teeth, and an upside-down cross tattoo on his arm. He says, “You guys walking?”

“Yes. We’re walking to Canada.”

His eyes bug out “Whoa!” Then he adds, “Well, I’m going to North Utica. If you wanna hop in, I’ll give you a ride.”

We thanked him and said we needed to walk to maintain our integrity.

He throws both hands out the window and points at us and screams, “You guys rock!”

We respond, “YOU rock! And thanks for the offer.”

He drove away with a big smile on his face that matched the smiles on ours.

Matthew and I talked after how we may have felt differently if we walked past him on the street, or if we encountered him in a bar with a group of his friends. Who knows? Assumptions are funny things. Meeting as we did is all we know and it was three guys exchanging warm greetings with kindness. That’s what we know for sure.

The canal trail shifted to a road which was then the canal trail. So the last several miles were on a road, but it wasn’t very busy. Not much in the way of historic signs today but we did pass the historic Herkimer Church.

Walking for 16 miles and 85° heat and almost 70% humidity. It was a rough one. Mary Beth made us a delicious pasta dinner.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on June 11.

Friday, June 12

We had eight people signed up for Companion Walking today. Two have withdrawn and one is no longer sure. The forecast is calling for some rain this afternoon. But the chance of rain has reduced since yesterday. We shall see…

Tony, Matthew and I start at the post office where we stopped yesterday. It’s only 75° at 9 o’clock in the morning, but it’s 88% humidity, the highest we’ve had so far that I have noted.

After a little over three miles, we met our companion walkers at the trailhead along the canal. Only three showed up. A man was passing, pulling a big wagon with a dog in it. Tony ran over to catch up with him. He’s walking from Missouri to Vermont with his dog. Tony gave him some food and a drink and $20 and wished him well. We all have our stories, don’t we? I wish we had time to swap stories with him, but we’re headed out in opposite directions. We stopped to watch several boats enter this lock at the same time.

The mosquitoes are relentless. Thank goodness they mostly like Matthew. It’s kind of swampy for a stretch, which is why I guess they congregate here.

Our walk concluded at the site of a major Revolutionary War conflict, The Battle of Oriskany, led by General Herkimer, who is quite famous in these parts. His home, church, and burial site are all historic landmarks. He was wounded in this battle and died soon after.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on June 12.

Saturday, June 13

Today begins with just Tony, Matthew and me for the first four miles. There is construction on the Canal Trail so we are on a highway detour to start. Then we will meet companion walkers back where the trail resumes.

We had two companion walkers along with Lynda join us after we had walked almost 4 miles. It was a trailhead with parking. Erica and Jasmine. Erica walks long distances regularly and walked about 10 miles with us. Jasmine and Lynda caught an Uber back to where we left the cars after about 7 miles. Most of our walk today was on the Canal Trail with a bit on roads. Not quite as hot today, not quite as muggy, and a cool breeze helped. As did shade when we encountered it. I saw a couple of beavers (no photos as they swam underwater quickly as we walked by) and we’ve seen several turtles along the way as well. It’s really pleasant, encountering the wildlife along the way.

I also talked with our companion walkers about our walk, and learn learned about their lives as well. This has become one of the true highlights of this journey, is meeting and talking with people along the way as we walk, at activations, in stores, wherever.

We were slowed down again today by something we encountered at historic Fort Stanwix where they were demonstrating blowing off a cannon. My goodness was it loud. I took a video of the whole thing. CLICK HERE to watch (and don’t turn your sound up too loud!)

We passed this monument to The Oneida Carrying Place which connected the navigable waters of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers with a local creek that led to Lake Oneida and the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Long before Europeans arrived, the Six Nations had established travel and trade routes. We’re pleased to see this history highlighted prominently. One key reason we are on #FreedomWalk2026 is to highlight the very history that many people with political and financial power are trying to bury.

Erica and I talked about the difference between us walking in 2026 and freedom seekers walking in 1856. I said I can’t imagine how much different, how much more difficult it would be knowing you’re putting your very life on the line, not being able to trust anybody, not knowing where you’ll be able to sleep or what you encounter in terms of wildlife or dangerous plants or where your next meal might come from. I said, “I don’t know. Maybe we can try to imagine it…”

She interrupted with “No, we can’t imagine. We freak out when the power goes out to our homes, and the internet goes down for an hour. We really can’t imagine the harrowing nature of what they faced.”

We think about them as we walk and hold them up as some of the strongest people who ever walked the Earth.

After 13 1/2 miles, it’s just Matthew, Tony and me. We walked about four additional miles before we stopped for the day. This has been one of our longest days so far, but with a day off tomorrow, no problem.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on June 13.

Moving day from Poughkeepsie to Albany. Tony and I rode the train along the Hudson River, a rail line that was used during Underground Railroad times.

We met Paul and Mary Liz Stewart at St. Agnes Cemetery. The Stewarts started and led the Underground Railroad Education Center in 2003 and oversee the restoration and tours of the Stephen and Harriet Myers home, which was a headquarters for Underground Railroad activity in this region in the mid 1850’s. They purchased the home in 2004, raised significant funds and had scores of volunteers to help bring the house back to the condition it was in during the 1850’s.

At St. Agnes cemetery, we visited the burial site of fourteen African American people whose remains were found in 2005 during construction work near the estate that was owned by the Revolutionary era Schuyler family. All evidence indicates these six women, one man, two children and five infants were owned by the Schuylers. The cemetery donated the burial site and the town of Colonie funded the tombstone and marker in honor of these fourteen people who deserved to be buried with dignity and respect. Rather than being buried off to the side, as most enslaved people were in the past, this site is beautiful with a magnificent view.

We visited several additional gravesites of African American leaders in the abolition and Underground Railroad efforts including Stephen and Harriet Myers, Nathaniel Paul, Lydia Mott (sister-in-law of Lucretia Mott), and Dinnah Jackson, Albany’s first property holder of African descent.

Then things became very interesting. Paul and Mary Liz drove us to the location where Charles Nalle, who had escaped enslavement, was arrested in 1860 under the Fugitive Slave Law. Harriet Tubman helped him escape from the courthouse. While standing there as Paul shared this history, a man walked up who lived there and invited us in to see the basement cell where Nalle had been held. Down, down we went. It was incredible. HERE is more on the story of Charles Nalle, and though it’s not very good/clear, HERE is a link to a video I recorded walking back up out of the cell so you can see how far down we went. The serendipity of meeting the man who lives in this building was powerful!

Tuesday, June 2

Our first event this morning was meeting with K-6 grade students at Roots Academy at West Hill. The school used to be named after the Schuyler family, a very wealthy and prominent family from this area that also enslaved people. Students and parents came up with ideas and settled on the name Roots. Connection was honoring the long history of this community.

We next drove to Stephen and Harriet Myers Middle School where we met with two classrooms, one 7th grade and one 8th grade.

Due to our time with students at these schools, some of the most important interactions we have on #FreedomWalk2026, we got started after 2:00pm and walked about 12 miles. As a result of all the recent Activations and other events, we began walking for the first time in 10 days. Lynda picked us up and we got back to the dorms at Russell Sage College where we’re staying for the week. We showered, ate a late dinner, and went to bed. We have an early start and a long day’s walking planned for tomorrow.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on June 2.

Wednesday, June 3

Lynda dropped Tony, Matthew and me off at 84 Lumber, where we stopped walking yesterday, at 8:15. A nice, early start. The temperature is in the low 60s, the sky completely blue, and we moved right along at a pace of about 3 mph. I cranked up Andy Grammer singing “Good to Be Alive” on my phone. It IS good to be alive right about now.

Matthew stopped to apply some sunscreen, so he was several hundred yards behind us for a while. He said a pick-up truck passed him and yelled out the window, “Hey, you’re way behind your buddies!” He was laughing as he yelled. Matthew got a kick out of it as well.

Another guy in a pick-up truck pulled up to the gas station where we stopped for a few minutes. He asked Tony what he was doing. Tony explained that we’re walking to Canada and the guy said, “With that little backpack?” Tony explained our process and the support team and had quite the pleasant encounter. Even though it feels like we’re in deep red rural country politically, when you’re kind, people are pleasant. That’s been our experience so far.

Richard and Pat, who we met at Oakwood Friends School (Pat sang several songs at the bonfire Activation), joined us at noon in Duanesburg. We stopped for a break after 13 miles and sat on the grass in the shade of a big tree and shared stories. It turns out that living near the Hudson River and being a musician, Pat knew Pete Seeger. They lived pretty close to each other. She sang with him. He liked her singing. I expressed my envy. She spoke of driving him to a music festival and Pete bringing her up on stage to sing a song with him. She sings with him on a song on the second side of his final album. It was a spoken word album. I suppose it’s no coincidence that I was listening to Pete Seeger just yesterday sing his song about “sailing up, sailing down, up and down the river” about cleaning up the Hudson.

We finished 16 miles around 3pm. Richard and Paul headed home. We went grocery shopping and had Paul and Mary Liz over for dinner.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on June 3.

Thursday, June 4

My longtime friend Phil Smith drove here from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to join us for a day of walking. It’s more than four hours in each direction to drive here and he was so excited to join us on this important journey and to spend at least a day with his old friend Tom. We met in September 1969 when we both began the 10th grade at Western Christian High School. Though there was a 40-year span after we graduated when we didn’t see each other, we stayed connected, particularly through Facebook. It was about 15 years ago when I was on a book tour in Pennsylvania and contacted Phil. I drove to his office in Lancaster and we spent half a day together, reminiscing, talking about where our lives had taken us, and thoughts about what the future held. We’ve stayed in close touch since then. Two years ago, we went to a high school reunion organized by the class of ‘74. We spent a great time there along with other classmates from our class of ‘72. To have Phil make the effort to come here and walk today means the world to me.

As luck would have it, we began with a very steep walk uphill on Mountain Road, appropriately named. One very pleasant aspect of today’s walk is we’re on a rural road with hardly any cars. We pass many large farms and lots of trees. Once we reach the top (and end) of Mountain Road, we were rewarded with an incredible panoramic view of where we come from.

The steep hill slowed us down. With a lot of miles left to walk, I asked how we’re doing on time. Matthew said we don’t care. Phil lived and worked in Rwanda for about 6 or 7 years. He said there’s a phrase in Rwanda that “people from the west have watches. People from Rwanda have time.”

Phil and I did a lot of catching up today, talking about mutual friends and family and what’s going on in our lives. He’s so glad to be here to be with me, but also to support this important work. He and Tony started talking and it turns out that 30 years ago Tony was in Lancaster County, which is where Phil lives. Some guy offered Tony a buggy ride to show him the farms that his great grandfather and great, great grandfather had owned and helped people on the Underground Railroad. They were part of the River Brethren denomination. They not only considered slavery a sin, but to not help Freedom Seekers was equally a sin. Phil’s roots are also in River Brethren. It appears that he’s even happier that he came today with this serendipitous connection. It looks like Tony and Phil have developed a really nice connection and that they’ll stay in touch after this journey is completed so Tony can do more research in Lancaster County.

Then Phil and Mathew walk and chat together for a long stretch. That’s Phil. Friendly and curious, as are Mathew, Tony and me.

Today is so rural and so peaceful that we have plenty of time to talk. We can walk side-by-side taking up a full narrow lane on this road. There are so few cars that there is no concern about traffic. It was quite the lovely day. I told Phil I can’t imagine him selecting a better day to join us than today.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on June 4.

Friday, June 5

It’s just Tony, Matthew and me today. We’re still on a rural road and it’s busier than yesterday, but there is still not too much traffic. We look forward to getting to some trails to walk on for a while. Matthew and I acknowledged that walking on the left side of the road with traffic coming toward us is safer, in that we see what’s coming, but the road slats to the left a bit which is impacting our ankles. So, I crossed over and began walking with the traffic to balance out the ankle leanings.

We turn off to the right of Highway 162 onto Sprakers Hill Road. It appears that it will add a little bit of distance, but we’re back on a very quiet road on which no trucks are allowed so it should be much more pleasant. Tony is a couple hundred yards ahead of me and entering a very shady stretch. This is most welcome as the temperatures continue to climb. It’s currently 75° with that real feel thing showing 87°.

We arrived at the Canal Trail, which runs the entire 350+ miles from Albany to Buffalo for people to bike or hike or cross-country ski in the winter. We are walking parallel to the highway, which is about 50 yards north. A gully filled with trees and bushes lies between the trail and the highway. It’s a section of the Erie Canal that was abandoned when the Lock system was built in the Mohawk River to make it navigable and better than the old Erie Canal.

We passed a man walking his dog along the Canal Trail. Tony was about 20 yards ahead of me and they said hello to each other and then the man stopped to talk with me. He apparently noted our backpacks and the sweat on our shirts.

“Where did you start?

“A about 11 miles back.” The look on his face told me he was impressed. “We started in Sandy Spring, Maryland and we’re walking to Canada.”

He had a similar reaction that so many people have: amazement. Then I told him what we’re doing and why and about the Harriet statue.

“How old are you?”

“72.”

“I’m 75. I couldn’t do that. How old are your partners?

“Tony is 62 and Matthew is 67”

He shook his head in amazement. As we prepared to part, he shook my hand and said, “Take good care of yourself. Stay safe.”

Another warm encounter. As most of them are.

We continue to walk along the Canal walkway. For about half a mile or so it’s a road with people’s houses on either side, each on large pieces of property with “no trespassing” signs prominently displayed. I stopped at one spot looking at a gazebo by the edge of the river and walked toward it to take a picture. I did not pass the “no trespassing” sign. It was an idyllic view. And then I heard a car screech to a halt, and the driver leaned on the horn and a large man in the passenger seat screamed at me.

“What the hell are you doing?!?”

“I was just taking a picture of this beautiful scene with this nice gazebo next to the river.”

He scowled and waved me off.

I said, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend, it’s just so beautiful here”

He didn’t say another word. The driver peeled out and they drove up their driveway. That was the end of it. Some people sure are strong in defending their no trespassing signs. I had not crossed that sign, because it was close to the gazebo. But I guess stepping off the road onto the grass riled these folks up. I silently wish them well and continued on my way. And, to be honest, I presumed they probably had guns. I picked up my pace to catch up with Matthew and Tony.

As we approached Lock 15 on the Mohawk River/Erie Canal, a boat was moving into the lock. Our timing was perfect. I’ve never seen a lock in operation before. We took a 20-minute pause to watch. Paul was the man working the lock. He gave us a quick lesson in how the operation works. It was fascinating watching the water rise in the lock and the boat make its way upriver once the gates opened. Another boat then entered the lock from upriver where the water would once again be lowered so that one could head downriver. I recorded the process and you can watch it HERE.

Today became our longest walking day to date. 17 miles in about 6 hours. It was also our second truly peaceful walking day in a row, off the busy highways and onto rural roads and the canal trail. We’ve walked almost 60 miles over five days this week. Tomorrow is Activation day and then walking again Sunday,

After stopping at Stewart’s for another ice cream cone and some energy drinks, we began our 75-minute drive back to Albany. Tony began playing songs from movies like Poseidon Adventure and Billy Jack. He asked me to name a theme, and he would pick a song. I said contentment. He played “Happy Together” by the Turtles. That was the first 45 I bought when I was about 13 years old. As I listened to it, all I could think of was Lindi and me.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on June 5.

Saturday, June 6

Another friend drove a long way to join me today. Marty lives in New Hampshire. It’s a 2½ hour drive each way to Albany. Marty and I were born in the same hospital in Pomona, California less than two months apart in 1954. He took me out for a wonderful breakfast and then walked to Washington Park.

Our Activation today is at the Stephen and Harriet Myers House. Tours of the house are led by Paul Stewart. He and his wife, Mary Liz, led the effort to preserve and restore this historic house that was built in 1847. They purchased the dilapidated structure for $1,500 and, so far, $1.5 million has been raised to restore it. That work is ongoing. Stephen began helping Freedom Seekers in 1831. The room where we gathered on the second floor is where planning took place. Paul also showed a powerful documentary that PBS produced called Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom. Lots of folks stopped by. Many were attracted by the Harriet sculpture. We are connecting with so many people at these Activations.

Our day concluded with Paul and Mary Liz taking us out for dinner at a popular pizza parlor in Albany. Half of us were from #FreedomWalk2026 and half from their Myers’s house team. We are so blessed by their support. They bought us linens and comforters for the beds we slept in, and they bought us towel towels and soap and shampoo and toothpaste. They took us out to dinner twice, and we prepared dinner for them once. Such a joy to spend so much time with these lovely people as well as to meet their daughter Sarah who gave tours of the gardens around the house.

Sunday, June 7

Two women from Massachusetts, Suz and Sue, joined us yesterday for the activation at the Myers house and then walked a little more than 3 miles with us today before turning back to walk to their car and head back to Massachusetts. Such lovely conversations. Tony walked and talked with Sue for the most part. They are in a writing group together through Coming to the Table. Suz with Lynda and me walked and talked about family history, Suz’s connection to enslavers and annihilators of indigenous people (similar ancestral history to mine) and her interest in potentially doing something similar to this walk only along the Trail of Tears.

Tony and I continue on, just the two of us. For several miles, the trail is no longer asphalt, but dirt, which is definitely easier on the feet. This is a very well-maintained trail with the grass mowed on both sides. A little after 1:00 in the afternoon, a light rain began to fall. Not a drenching shower, more like a pleasant mist. The trail and the weather are a little slice of heaven today.

We stopped to check out the historic General Nicholas Herkimer house and cemetery. Turns out there’s also a museum and there were four employees here that we talked with for a good 45 minutes about the history of this location as well as what we are doing. One of the women’s eyes got big when she realized she had seen a news story about our walk on the television news recently. This stop was such a treat. We keep having experiences like this as we remain open and flexible to what we encounter along the way.

We pass several families with young children, walking the Canal Trail. One woman and her children have three of the cutest little puppies, very friendly, running right up to us.

Another has a dog on a leash that he holds back who’s barking at us as viciously as his little body will allow. Across the river, we watch a boy rock climbing with an adult on the ground, holding a rope to keep him safe. This is a very enjoyable trail. And I continue to think about Freedom Seekers in the 19th century and how much less safe and happy and how much more fearful they would feel.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on June 7.

Lynda met us in the Lock 18 parking lot. As we pulled out, a man was standing next to his car on the road. I asked if everything was okay. He said it was and asked us what we were doing. When we told him, we pulled over and spent the next half hour talking with him. His name is sure easy for me to remember. We’re both Toms! Tom Hagerty is the son of Gilbert Hagerty, author of Massacre at Fort Bull. They were both teachers and his dad was a local historian.

Tom shared a bunch of history with us about the Erie Canal right here (we were parked right next to an abandoned section of the canal that was filled with mossy water) as well as historic sites in Rome, NY, where the founder of Yale locks lived. When he was 11 years old, Tom’s dad asked him to go get Gen. Herkimer’s hat and pipe that he’d borrowed. Tom sheepishly now admits he put the clay pipe in his mouth and the hat on his head. It fit pretty well. They had small heads back in those days. This would’ve been around the early 1950s.

Then a long drive back to Albany for one final night in the dorms at Russell Sage College

Moving from New York City, where our team was spread out, staying in multiple locations, we traveled to Poughkeepsie where we all stayed together once again at Oakland Friends School. It is difficult to adequately express our gratitude for the many individual Quakers and Quaker communities who have housed and fed and supported us along #FreedomWalk2026.

Tony and I boarded an Amtrak Train from Penn Station in NYC to Poughkeepsie traveling a known route of Freedom Seekers along the Underground Railroad. We were accompanied by Jessica Langer, a Producer for CBS Evening News/ Weekend News, who interviewed both Tony and me for an upcoming news segment. We’ll post a link to it once it airs. My favorite part of our travels was gazing out over the Hudson River as we made our way north.

Wednesday, May 27

In the “flexibility is essential” category, this week shifted from one of daily walking to a week of multiple Activations in Poughkeepsie. The first was a 2-hour walking tour highlighting the role various churches played in the anti-slavery movement. We met a local group of folks interested in #FreedomWalk2026 as well as Bill Jeffway, Executive Director of the Duchess County Historical Society who filled us in along the way about those churches and people who played key roles in the abolition and Underground Railroad movements.

Our first stop was at Smith Metropolitan AME Zion Church, an historic African Methodist Episcopal (AME) congregation with a strong commitment in the battle against slavery and for the empowerment of Black people. The church was founded in 1836 and was central to Black spiritual life in the Poughkeepsie. It is the oldest predominantly African American church in Dutchess County, NY. The church was a part of The Underground Railroad led by Harriet Tubman. We walked a couple blocks further to the original site of the church that was established in 1836. It was the only Black church in the city at that time and Frederick Douglass spoke there in 1847 (one of three times he spoke in Poughkeepsie). Today there is a parking lot where the original church once stood. Bill explained that the house across the street from the parking lot is about the size that the church would have been.

Another several blocks of walking takes us to the First Congregational Church which was erected in 1859. The pastor of this congregation, Rev. Heather A. Moody, used a PowerPoint presentation to share this congregation’s role in abolition. It was important work in that New York had the most concentrated use of enslaved labor in the Northern states.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on May 27.

We then drove to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie. They ordered a wonderful dinner from a local Black-owned restaurant to feed all of us who walked on the tour. The sunset that night was spectacular!

Back at Oakwood School, I walked into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. A young Black woman was making herself dinner. I asked if she was with the group of IBM interns who are staying on the 2^nd floor of the dorm where we are on the 1^st floor. “Yes,” she said. “Are you with the walkers?”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell me about this walk?”

I explained Tony’s intentions on this 30^th anniversary of his first walk retracing routes of the Underground Railroad as well as my ancestors’ role in slavery and the Triangle Slave Trade as well as our retracing of their ship voyages from Rhode Island to Ghana and Cuba and back.

“I’m Ghanaian. My parents were both born there. I lived there and went to school for a few years.”

“Wow!” I said, “Our experience was that Ghanaian people were almost all so kind and warm.”

“I sometimes wonder if all that kindness and smiles is covering up a lot of deep pain,” she said.

“I wondered that as well.”

“I don’t want to offend you. May I ask a personal question?”

“Of course,” I said.

She asked a few questions. “How do you deal with the shame of your family history? What did you feel in the slave dungeons? How do you not give up hope?”

We talked for quite a while about shame and guilt and how, for the most part,people aren’t very good at dealing effectively with these feelings. I shared about my studies in Strategies for Trauma Awareness & Resilience at Eastern Mennonite University and how guilt becomes the glue that holds racism together. I told her about Traces of the Trade and how powerful the feelings washed through me in the slave dungeons. I also shared that my writing is part of my own healing process. I write my way to understanding and hope for myself and hopefully it helps others to work through these challenging issues.

I handed her my card, which has Coming to the Table’s web info on one side and my books and website on the other.

“I’d like to write, but it’s so hard,” she said. “Any tips?”

“This may sound silly and dismissive, but it isn’t. The most important thing is to simply write and write regularly. And rather than trying to write that massive novel, simply keep a journal to begin with or commit to writing for an hour each day. I’m curious. Have you read Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi? Half of it takes place in Ghana.”

“Yes, I loved that story!” she said with a big smile.

“I got to meet her. Her book was the ‘Novel Idea’ book that our county library system promotes each year for everyone to read and then the authors come to town. What a treat that was!”

“That’s wonderful. But for the most part, I have a hard time even finding time to read books.”

“I know the feeling. It’s easier for me now that I’m retired. If you’re interested, on the main page of my website there’s a link to follow along on our Freedom Walk journey on Substack. I post a couple of times each week.”

“Oh, I love Substack. I don’t read books, but Substacks are shorter!” We both laughed.

After talking for more than half an hour, we parted with a warm hug. We both felt like our encounter was no accident. The ancestors are with us.

Thursday, May 28

Another peaceful, inspiring day. We held a Team planning meeting, which we do regularly, to discuss what we’ll be doing the next day and on upcoming days as well as updates on future housing, Activations, requests for the Harriet Tubman statue to visit schools, churches, museums and other sites, and anything else that comes up for our agenda. Other than this meeting, our day was unscheduled until the evening when an Activation was planned for right here on the Oakwood Friends School campus where the school has generously donated rooms in one of their dorms for us this week.

The evening Activation was a first for us. We all gathered outside at 6:00pm around a bonfire where Tony, Lynda, me and Kip shared about #FreedomWalk2026 and then we all enjoyed some music by local singer Pat Lamanna. Her songs have been praised by Pete Seeger, Peter Yarrow and others. One of her songs, ‘Peace Pilgrim” is featured in part on Pete Seeger’s Grammy-nominated album, “The Storm King.” Pat performed three songs. You can watch them by clicking on the titles: The Man for Me, On My Way to Canada, and a sing-along to close us out: I’m On My Way.

Friday, May 29

The afternoon on Friday was devoted to the River Trail to Freedom and the Walkway Over the Hudson. The walk team was joined by many of the people from the Quaker Meeting and the Unitarian Universalist Church who have been so kind and supportive of us this week. The walk focused on the history of the anti-slavery movement and influential leaders in the area. We began the walk will start at the Celebrating the African Spirit memorial in Waryas Park with Living Historian Su the Producer portraying Harriet Tubman.

The Memorial was designed by high school students in Poughkeepsie depicting enslavement in this area on four panels. It was installed last year, and the descriptive signs will be added this year during a celebration of Juneteenth.

Living historian Su the Producer portrayed Harriet Tubman before and during the beginning of our walk. Her portrayal was powerful! It felt like Harriet Tubman was genuinely with us. You can watch a video of her portrayal HERE.

After Harriet finished her comments, we heard from Bill Jeffway the local historian once again. He explained that this section of the Hudson is the estuarine portion of the river that extends from New York Harbor to Troy, which is almost 90 miles north of Poughkeepsie. This estuary section, which means the water flows both directions with the ocean tides, comprises nearly half of the river’s total length of over 300 miles. Bill noted that the city of Poughkeepsie flowed both ways as well, with many people being enslaved, with some sold South, and Freedom Seekers heading north. In the 19^th century, Poughkeepsie had the largest concentration of Quakers outside of Philadelphia. Many were committed to ending slavery and supporting Freedom Seekers.

We then rode an elevator up more than 200 feet to the former railroad bridge that was transformed into the Walkway Over the Hudson pedestrian bridge in 2009. It took us about twenty minutes to walk across the bridge. It was awe-inspiring to be so high above this magnificent river.

Once we crossed through Scenic Hudson Gate, we arrived at a large statue of Sojourner Truth. Along the bottom of her dress are the words, “The Truth is Powerful, and it Prevails.”

Su the Producer met us there along with Soyal Eileen Smalls, another Living Historian, who portrayed Sojourner Truth. Soyal describes herself as a performance artist, a social justice artist, and works with the Living History Theater Company in Poughkeepsie. She is also President of the UU church of Poughkeepsie where we had dinner on Thursday, and again after this walk concluded. Please CLICK HERE to watch Soyal Smalls’ portrayal of Sojourner Truth. As with Su the Producer’s portrayal of Harriet Tubman, Soyal’s performance is so powerful!

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on May 29.

Saturday, May 30

Nothing was scheduled for today, so we rested and I wrote. Tomorrow will be our last day in Poughkeepsie with the week’s major activation taking place from noon until 3:00pm. It’s nice to have a quiet, peaceful day… until we received a message from our contact at Oakwood School that a bear cub has been seen on campus and that Mama Bear is likely nearby. So much for venturing out for a peaceful walk in the woods!

Sunday, May 31, 2026

My godson Adrian and his mom, my 7^th cousin Elizabeth (we met filming Traces of the Trade 25 years ago this summer), drove up from Queens to spend the day with me. We spent the morning going out to breakfast and then made our way across The Walkway Over the Hudson, which I was happy to repeat with them.

Sunday afternoon was devoted to the concluding Activation this week at the Family Partnership Center in Poughkeepsie and it was another opportunity for us to share about #FreedomWalk2026 and inspire people to action in their own lives and communities and for us to be inspired by almost 100 people in attendance today.

The Hudson Valley Gospel Singers and Musicians then performed three gospel songs. The Activation concluded with the choir and everyone in attendance joining in on “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” You can watch the video HERE.

At the conclusion of the Activation, people stayed for a long time to talk with us, ask questions, and to take what we’re now calling the “Harriet Challenge;” posing in front of the sculpture in the pose of Harriet and the child. My favorite is this one. Sadly, someone fell after the Activation and was quite disoriented. An ambulance and a firetruck arrived with EMTs and equipment to help. After the ambulance drove the injured man away (all blessings for a good recovery!), these three firemen agreed to the challenge.

Tomorrow, we make our way to Albany.

As noted on his website, “The Gentleman Weaver brings artistry, tradition, and craftsmanship to life through custom handwoven textiles. Crafted by Kipling Beardsley with natural materials, each piece tells a story, blending color, texture, and heritage into works of art.”

For #FreedomWalk2026, Kip is creating Journeys from the Journey. His new textiles will draw inspiration from the Underground Railroad. Meeting people along our journey, he is translating personal narratives of adversity overcome, community celebrated, and alliances engaged into the languages of color, texture, and pattern. I witnessed Kip meeting with people, listening to their stories and then translating them into textiles.

His work is inspiring and beautiful. The installation features woven ancestral trees of witness and cloaks constructed from panels that represent individual journeys – from joy to tragedy. When a space of unquestioning listening and presence is created, the opportunity to be heard provides for the full spectrum of story and response.

Through these textiles and the engagement they encourage, history is brought into the heart, my/your stories become our story, us/them stories align more than diverge, and we start to see each other.

“When I saw the story of my community’s support represented in the textile, it was incredibly powerful,” shared one project participant. “It celebrated the people I love and honored my continued journey to healing.”

Once completed, the textile installation will serve as a permanent historical record of the 750-mile pilgrimage, remaining available for public education and community inspiration. The overarching goal of #FreedomWalk2026 is to unite past and present struggle, re-igniting the ideals of “We the People” to secure equity, justice, and liberation for future generations.

Kip has also become our key fundraising spokesperson in each community we visit. #FreedomWalk2026 has many of us volunteering our time and resources. Tony has also hired some people to help with various tasks. Though many of our overnight stays and meals are being donated, we also purchase food, hotels, and a lot of supplies. Tony rented the truck that pulls the trailer with the Harriet Tubman sculpture attached. The truck gets an average of 14-15 miles per gallon. Check your local gas station and you’ll see that diesel fuel is the most expensive these days, ranging from $5.49 to almost $6.00 per gallon in New York. The truck and trailer will be driven close to 2,000 miles by the time we’re done and it’s back in Maryland. If you are able, we would appreciate your contribution to support #FreedomWalk 2026.

CLICK HERE to donate today. Thank you!

After a challenging week of walking in brutal heat and pouring rain, I felt such contentment waking up in my godson’s bed. How interesting that he’s in my home state of Oregon, mountain climbing with friends, while I’m in his home 3,000 miles away with his parents Fari and Elizabeth (my 7^th cousin who I met while filming Traces of the Trade and writing Inheriting the Trade twenty-five years ago this year). Fari made us a delicious breakfast, as he always does, the highlight of which for me is mashed plantains made with peanut butter. Yum!

In the late morning, I walked to the subway to make my way to Judson Memorial Church. The Harriet Tubman sculpture is parked there for the week, but I’m not going in connection with the walk. I’m going to the ordination of Mackey Alston; a documentary filmmaker I have worked with through Coming to the Table, but I hadn’t met in person.

Exploring the website for Judson Memorial, and experiencing this ordination service, I found myself wishing that all Christian churches, and all faith traditions throughout the world, shared their mission of being “a just, diverse, vibrant, and worshipping spiritual community through the pursuit of social justice, creative expression, and sacred exploration of its own Protestant church roots and the wisdom of other traditions.” The church envisions “a world where all people are free to pursue their true purpose, unencumbered by human-made limitations imposed because of who they are, who they love, or what they do.” The ordination service, the people in attendance, and the building itself reflected these values.

I was surprised and pleased to see that Rev. Gene Robinson was one of the speakers in the service. I first met him in 2006 at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio where we screened a rough cut of Traces of the Trade for the first time and worked to support a proposal for the Church to formally apologize for its role in supporting the institution of slavery and to work toward reparations; effective ways for the Church to be “the repairer of the breach” (Isaiah 58:12), both materially and relationally. (Read more HERE)

Robinson is widely known for being the first openly gay priest to be consecrated a bishop in a major Christian denomination. When he became a bishop in 2003, it resulted in a split. Several Episcopal churches disassociated with the American Episcopal Church and formed their own Anglican denomination. After the service I walked up to Rev. Robinson and reminded him of when we met. We had a warm reunion. He has continued to promote Traces over these past two decades and agreed to pose for a photo of the two of us that I sent to my 7^th cousin Katrina Browne, who created Traces of the Trade. She was thrilled about our reconnection.

Side note: at that same 2006 General Convention, Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected the first female Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Several more churches split from the national church as a result. This sort of un-Christian behavior is so frustrating. Far too many Christian churches and individual Christians fail to actually follow the teaching of the man they claim to worship. As was said during the ordination, “We celebrate Jesus on Christmas and Easter but don’t do as he taught.” If you’d like, you can watch a recording of the full service of ordination on Judson Memorial’s YouTube page.

When the service concluded, I had a chance to talk with Macky for several minutes. I gotta say, he looks pretty darn good in those new robes!

Isaac Hopper House

After Macky’s ordination, I walked several blocks to 110 Second Avenue, the site of The Isaac Hopper Home. Hopper was one of the leading “conductors” of the Underground Railroad, helping approximately 1,000 Freedom Seekers escape slavery. You can read my review of a great book I read in preparation for #FreedomWalk2026, Lamb’s Warrior: The Life of Isaac T. Hopper.

This historic row house was not his residence in New York. It was originally part of the Female Department of the Prison Association of New York, which Isaac Hopper helped found, and later became the headquarters of the Women’s Prison Association (WPA) starting in 1874. The building was named after Hopper and is included on the National Register of Historic Places. As of 2024, it is still owned by the WPA. Below are two images of the building. On the left is what I found online while searching for this building. Sadly, as you can see in the image on the right that I took when I visited, it is currently in sorry condition.

I’m distantly related to Isaac Hopper, who was an active abolitionist and Quaker all his life, in both Philadelphia and New York City. He moved from Philly to NYC 1829 to run a Quaker bookstore in addition to his abolitionist efforts. From 1841 to 1845 he served as treasurer and book agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1845 he became active in prison reform and devoted the rest of his life to the Prison Association of New York. He died in 1852.

Isaac Hopper’s son John married Rosalie DeWolf, granddaughter of James DeWolf, the most successful and notorious slave-trader in U.S. history. James is my 6^th cousin, once removed. That’s my connection to the Hopper family. Isaac’s son Edward married the daughter of Lucretia Coffin Mott the famous American Quaker, abolitionist, and women’s rights advocate. What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall at one of this family’s Thanksgiving dinners!

When I was quite young our family watched the old Perry Mason TV show (1957-66). This legal drama featured a private investigator named Paul Drake, played by William Hopper (in the middle in this photo)

It wasn’t until I began serious genealogical research over the past twenty years that I learned his middle name was DeWolf. He’s the great grandson of Isaac Hopper. William is my 5^th cousin, twice removed. You can see the genealogical chart of these fascinating connections here.

I then made my way to Queens to be interviewed by WUSA9 television, a Washington DC station that has been documenting #FreedomWalk2026 from the beginning. Tony, the leader and visionary of #FreedomWalk2026, was interviewed after me.

Sunday, May 24

With a day off from #FreedomWalk2026, I took the subway to the Jackie Robinson Museum in Manhattan. I have a strong affinity for Jackie Robinson since I was born on Jackie Robinson Day. Seven years to the day after he first ran out to play first base for the Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn I was born in California.

Everyone with even a passing knowledge of baseball and the civil rights movement knows that Jackie Robinson “broke the color barrier” when he was signed by Branch Rickey to become the first Black man to play in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was named Rookie of the Year his first year and led the Dodgers to their first ever World Series Championship in 1955.

What many people don’t know is that while a college student, Jackie Robinson became the first (and still the only) four-sport letter winner at UCLA, excelling in football, basketball, track and field, and baseball. He later served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Eleven years before Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, Robinson was court-martialed in 1944 for standing up for his rights and refusing to move to the back of a segregated military bus. A military court agreed with Robinson’s lawyer that the case was a matter of civil rights, not military discipline, and acquitted him. He was later honorably discharged from the Army.

Jackie Robinson was a complicated person (aren’t we all?). He was conservative politically, a registered Republican who supported Richard Nixon for President. He testified against Paul Robeson during the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings. I recently read a book about what took place with these two incredible men called Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the museum, learned a few things I didn’t already know, and highly recommend it for anyone visiting Manhattan. You can learn more about the museum here: Home | The Jackie Robinson Museum

Monday, May 25

Coming to the Table continues to be a valued partner in #FreedomWalk2026. There are currently two Coming to the Table Local Affiliate Groups in New York City. The North Fork (Long Island) and New York City (Manhattan) chapters collaborated to plan a phenomenal, well-attended Activation at Mother AME Zion Church in Harlem on Memorial Day, May 25.

Also known as “Mother Zion” and “Freedom Church,” “Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church has a long, proud history of serving the community of Harlem. Founded in 1796 by black parishioners from John Street Methodist Church who wanted to speak out against slavery, Mother A.M.E. Zion Church began as an anti-slavery institution and became a church. It is the oldest African American church in the state of New York. It is also known for being a grand depot for the Underground Railroad. Between 700 - 800 former slaves escaped through the church’s network ...Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth.”

Close to 100 people filled the main floor pews as the #FreedomWalk2026 walkers and planning team followed a young woman portraying Harriet Tubman down the center aisle accompanied on piano with “Go Down Moses.”

Speakers at the event included Rev. Natalie Wimberly from the North Fork chapter and the key organizer of this event, Mistah Coles, from the NYC CTTT group. Sufficient money was donated for the creation of a beautiful 32-page program and a donation for #FreedomWalk2026 of $500. Tony Cohen shared a PowerPoint presentation about his walk 30 years ago up through this year’s walk.

This was another wonderful Activation. A highlight of each of these activations is the live music that is presented. You can watch the Freedom Walk Singers present “Breaths” (which took my breath away!), the Praise Dance Team performing a stunning “Wade in the Water” and the Freedom Walk Singers closing out the Activation with a singalong of “This Little Light of Mine.”

As our #FreedomWalk2026 Community Activation Coordinators, Lynda and Venetia wrote to the local CTTT organizers, “The event shared more than local history. It was also a meaningful opportunity for connection and a powerful reminder of the strength we have when we come together.”

Amen.

Last Monday, Tony and I began walking from Wilmington, Delaware, through Pennsylvania and New Jersey in order to arrive in Manhattan by Friday.

Monday, May 18

Wilmington DE to Chester PA (13 miles)

This was moving day from one weeklong sleeping space to another. I suspect we’re all feeling some degree of stress as we won’t be staying together as a group this week. We are moving luggage and gear to three different locations, staying in more locations than that, and trying to make sure everything gets where it needs to go.

The beginning of our walk on Monday was quite peaceful on residential streets without much traffic. It was just Tony and me. It’s forecast to get into the 90s early this afternoon. Shade is our friend today.

Walking toward a woman on the sidewalk, she stepped off onto the shoulder of the street and smiled as she passed us. “I’ll give you the trail,” she said. “Thank you so much,” I replied. Given the opportunity, everyone can be kind. We welcome it and do our best to share it as well.

We arrived at the historic Thomas Robinson House in Claymont, Delaware. Robinson served in the House of Representatives and was among 1,800 legislators who owned enslaved people. Our understanding is that at least two, and perhaps up to eight people were enslaved here (I have more research to do to confirm). Still standing are the Spring house, where water was extracted from an underground water source, and the Cook House, where meals were prepared. Two women, a daughter and her mother who have managed the house as an event venue for the past thirty years, approached us an hour apart from each other and asked us why we were there. When we explained, they both said they had no knowledge of any connection between the house, its owners, and the Underground Railroad or slavery.

There is a very old stone marker in front. We couldn’t make out the chiseled words. It appears to be engraved with “20 miles to Philadelphia” or “2 miles to Pennsylvania’ both of which are pretty accurate. We’ve walked eight miles and have five more to go today.

Sharon from WUSA9 met us at the Robinson house. We are so appreciative that this TV station in Washington, DC continues to document this pilgrimage.

After walking with us for half a mile or so, Sharon began to walk back to get her car at the Robinson house. Tony’s phone rang. A man had gotten out of his car and began to follow her on foot. She crossed the street and he crossed the street. She crossed back to the other side, and he did the same. It was very unnerving for her. We are glad she called and Tony stayed on the phone with her until she got to her car and began to drive quickly toward us. Once reunited, we all felt great relief. She didn’t feel it was necessary to call the police, figuring the guy was long gone, so we didn’t. It was quite a disturbing episode.

We’ve been yelled at, honked at, almost hit by cars, and now this man follows Sharon. We’ve been concerned about security as we walk, but none of these incidents, as far as we know, have any connection to what we’re actually doing. It’s just people being rude, and this last guy potentially being truly dangerous. I continually ask myself, why do people have to be so unkind? What trauma have these folks experienced that inspires them to treat others with such disrespect and disdain? Sharon says all is well now, but how does the situation like that not impact you?

We took a few deep breaths and continued. We walked later and more slowly than we planned so ended up walking in the hottest part of the day. The temperature almost reached 100°, our hottest day by far. The next two days are forecast for much of the same. We drank more water than I can ever remember without needing to pee. Our bodies simply absorbed all the liquid we consumed.

This journey is changing us. All journeys do, of course, if we pay attention and stay present with our experiences. Tony was reminded of a famous quote of Harriet Tubman’s. “I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything. The sun came up like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in heaven.”

Jim and Antoine picked us up when we finished at 4:30. A Quaker angel offered the four of us free use of an empty apartment in Chester. The only physical item in the one-bedroom apartment was a bare double bed. Tony slept there in a sleeping bag. Jim, Antoine and I slept on the floor.

Today is also Ledlie Laughlin’s birthday. He was my roommate 25 years ago when we made Traces of the Trade. I called his widow, Roxana, the great, great granddaughter of Henry Ward Beecher, the minister, social reformer and abolitionist, whose sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which was vivid in depicting the harsh cruelty of slavery. Her book galvanized anti-slavery sentiment in the North and intensified regional tensions prior to the Civil War. When she met President Abraham Lincoln, he reportedly said, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!”

It was so good to hear Roxana’s voice and to catch up a bit with her. She turns 90 years old this year.

Jim, Antoine, Tony and I were all asleep before ten pm.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on May 18.

Tuesday, May 19

Chester PA to Philadelphia PA (14 miles)

I had a rough night’s sleep. My legs cramped up a lot, which woke me repeatedly. We woke up early so Tony and I could start walking around 7:00 and finish before it gets to the hottest part of the day. We’ll be joined this morning by one woman, who has walked the Camino de Santiago twice. Beth didn’t intend to walk the whole way. She took a lift back to her car after a few miles.

When we entered Africatown in southwest Philadelphia, we passed three Black folks sitting on a bench on the sidewalk outside a business and a woman says, “Y’all look like you’re up to something good!” with a big smile on her face.

I stopped and told her we’re walking to Canada. Her eyes got wide as people’s often do and she said, “What?!?”

“We are retracing the route of the Underground Railroad from Maryland to Canada.”

“But you’re white!”

“There were white people who helped a lot of people get to freedom on the Underground Railroad.”

“So, you’re still trying to steal our history.”

“Just the opposite,” I said. “We’re shining our light on history that too many people are trying to erase.” She looked skeptical.

Then Tony walked up and I introduced him. “He did this same walk thirty years ago.”

Tony pointed out that route 13, the road we’re standing on, is the very road that Harriet Tubman walked to freedom.

Once again, she said, “What?!?” Then she called others nearby to come over. “We never knew Harriet Tubman walked here!”

Tony shared more as others gathered around. The woman who first spoke to us said, “Thank you for what you are doing.” We looked at each other, and we both nodded with smiles on our faces. It feels like we see each other with knowing eyes.

“This is powerful,” she said. “God bless you on your journey. Stay safe.”

“Thank you,” I said. “My blessings to you as well.”

As Tony and I began to walk on, we heard her proceed to tell the story to another man who just walked up. She said to everyone within earshot, “See? Talk to people as they’re walking by and sometimes you learn something.”

A reporter from CBS news in Philadelphia followed us for several miles to share the story of #FreedomWalk26 with their viewers. You can watch her story HERE.

We concluded our day walking through the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The campus is beautiful and the brick walkways are wide and covered with a canopy of trees that provide shade. When it’s 96°, being in a shady place with wind blowing through is most welcome. Jim and Antoine pick us up at the train station where our day tomorrow will begin with us riding on that train.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on May 19.

Wednesday, May 20

Train from Philly to Bordentown then walking to East Windsor PA (32 miles by train + 11 miles walking)

Once again, we are awake early to get a head start on the heat. Forecast is for temperatures in the mid-nineties for the third day in a row. We picked up the Harriet sculpture from where she’s been staying for the past two days, at Old Kennett Friends Meeting. It is quite the process to attach almost 5,000 pounds of sculpture and trailer to the back of a heavy-duty truck that has been rented for this journey. A Quaker woman drove up just as we were departing. We stopped so she could get pictures.

We encountered lots of traffic during rush hour as James drove us to the train. We watched people pull out their phones and take pictures of Harriet when traffic moved slowly.

James and Antoine dropped us off at 30th Street Station. Thirty years ago, Tony had himself put into a box and shipped from this very station. Similar to Henry “Box” Brown many years ago. 1996 was before all the increased security after 9/11 so no one on the train knew there was a human in that box for seven hours! Tony jokes a bit about it now. “It was the dumbest thing and the cleverest thing I’ve ever done.” Read a story about this from the Seattle Times HERE.

We rode the train for thirty-two miles on the same route used by many Freedom Seekers back in the day. As we rode in comfort, I could only imagine the level of fear that was combined with the courage of Freedom Seekers. Glancing at every white face, heart pounding, wondering who or what awaits at the next stop. Fearing for family members left behind. Truly unimaginable today. Unless, of course, you’ve been targeted and kidnapped by ICE. Trust would have been almost nonexistent, I have to believe. I find it impossible to imagine the level of fear people faced in 1850. Enslaved people simply had no experience of being able to trust the white people who owned them, which, for most people, were the only white people they knew. So, all white people would fit into that category. Things have changed a lot over the past 250 years. And so much has not changed.

When we departed the train, we were joined by one Companion Walker today, Bill is in great shape and we made great time. He’s definitely an outdoors guy. It turns out that Tony and Bill have known each other and connected via community projects in Montgomery County, Maryland, where they both live. Tony doesn’t know from day to day who our companion walkers will be. He passed that responsibility over to me. Bill supports and works with Camp Jabberwocky, one of the oldest sleep-away camps for people with disabilities in the United States.

We had another driver honk at us today. Almost every time it’s people on the opposite side of the road not even close to us. A few people have cursed at us from over there. They have no idea what we’re doing. They apparently just don’t feel it’s appropriate for people to be walking along the side of the highway. Bill described such verbal attacks perfectly. These people are “gratuitously hostile.”

Less than an hour after we checked in to our hotel for the night, thunder and lightning began and the rain poured down. Just like last night. Good timing!

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on May 20.

Thursday, May 21

East Windsor PA to Spotswood PA (16 miles)

It felt so good to sleep in a nice bed in a hotel last night. We both got a good night’s rest.

Tonight, we will be staying in Spotswood at a different hotel. The young African American employee at the counter asked us where we were traveling as we checked in. When we told him we were walking to Canada and all about #FreedomWalk2026, he responded as most people do with a bit of awe and great support and encouragement. Tony asked if we could leave our bags at the hotel for the day and have them picked up at the end of the day. The young man told us the hotel would be honored to hold our bags.

As we were checking out this morning to begin our walk, we brought our bags to the counter and the woman who was then behind the counter, of European descent, said if we are checking out, they don’t store bags for us. We told her we got the approval last night from the person who was working then. She repeated “I’m sorry, it’s hotel policy that we don’t store bags.” She literally repeated this four times. Tony backed away and I continued working to convince her that we had prior approval for this. I was polite and also insistent, and she finally relented with a sigh and said, “I’ll make an exception this time, but this is strictly against our policies.”

She definitely had some disdain for us and our request. Tony and I talked about this later and how my being a white man helped us achieve our goal. There’s a long history of attitudes and biases around race. I’ve certainly had plenty of experiences where, when Sharon Morgan and I were speaking at colleges or bookstores or other venues, it initially felt like white folks did not trust her and black folks did not trust me. But as they listened to us and witnessed how we consistently supported each other in our message, invariably people felt a higher degree of comfort in what we had to share. I guess if I’m gonna use my whiteness to achieve a reasonable goal, our experience at the hotel with this white woman was one of those.

We began walking a little before 11:00. The temperature has dropped more than 30° from yesterday and a light rain fell. We hoped it would stay light. We moved along at a fast pace. We stopped into a store and picked up a rain poncho for Tony since the one he brought is in a bag already on its way to Poughkeepsie. Good thing we stopped, because as we completed the purchase, it really started pouring outside. It rained hard for a couple of hours. So, both of us having rain jackets helped keep us from getting drenched.

We took a couple of wrong turns, but not too far out of our way before we caught our errors, and we also came across an abandoned railroad line. Tony believes this was the original line some Freedom Seekers rode.

Both of our phones got wet and wouldn’t charge with the external chargers we brought because of the wetness. We entered the town of Spotswood after walking more than 16 miles today mostly in the rain. We caught a Lyft to our hotel and are sure looking forward to hot showers.

And we had one more night in a very comfortable hotel room, each of us with our own queen size bed. The hot shower felt terrific. We turned the heat up because we were so cold. A temperature drop of more than thirty degrees coupled with rain all day was quite a shock to our systems. We looked forward to another good night’s sleep before we begin walking tomorrow.

The three women from WUSA9 picked up our bags from the hotel last night and brought them to us. We’re all staying in the same hotel. They bought us dinner and we had a wonderful time together joking, laughing, and planning the next few days for them to create more stories about this walk. Their presence is another clear reminder that we are each other’s angels.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on May 21

Friday, May 22

We woke early and each took another hot shower to loosen up our sore muscles. I put on a video that popped up on Facebook of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band playing “Rosalita” since it was our last day in New Jersey. After breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we headed out with our reporter friends to the Spotswood city limits sign where we had stopped the day before.

It remained cool today, around 60°, but it’s not forecasted to rain at all. Should be quite a pleasant day for walking.

Today was mostly walking without historic markers connected to the Underground Railroad. We came across a sign about an historic railroad route which was one that Tony knew Freedom Seekers took advantage of, but the sign does not reflect that history. We stopped into a library and asked about books about the history of this area. The librarian was quite interested in what we were doing and was very helpful in pointing out historic books. When we continued walking, the crew from WUSA9 accompanied us all the way, interviewing intermittently throughout. We appreciate all the attention they are bringing to their viewers about #FreedomWalk2026.

We walked a little over 11 miles to get to the South Amboy Ferry at the New Jersey state line where we planned to ride across the Hudson River to the Wall Street pier in New York City. When we arrived, there was no one around. The ticket office was locked up and when I called the phone number on the sign, they closed at 11 o’clock this morning. A bus drove up and the driver called his boss who confirmed they’re on a holiday schedule and there’s no ferry for us to catch today. I watched seagulls frolicking while the news crew interviewed Tony.

Since we couldn’t take a ferry, the film crew drove us to NYC to the Wall Street pier the ferry would’ve taken us to. We were met at the pier by several Coming to the Table members with warm hugs, big smiles, and a certificate of recognition signed by New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Pretty darn cool.

Then I ordered a Lyft to Fari’s and Elizabeth’s house. Elizabeth is my 7^th cousin. Fari is her husband of more than twenty years. Elizabeth and I met twenty-five years ago when we both participated in the making of Traces of the Trade. When I arrived at their home in Queens, a wonderful meal awaited me followed by a very good night’s sleep in their son, my godson, Adrian’s bedroom.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on May 22

Next: New York City

I’ve been thinking about a song I first heard performed live at the Strawberry Music Festival near Yosemite in Spring 1998 by Chuck Brodsky: “We Are Each Other’s Angels” from his album A Fingerpainter’s Murals (1995).

There are so many of us on this #FreedomWalk2026 team supporting each other, as well as people along the way who offer their support through kind words or gifts of food or drinks or places to sleep. We’ve had a few people yell at us to get off the road, and Tony and I remind ourselves to keep our focus on the walk and not on incidents or comments that might irritate us. Keeping our eyes on the prize, so to speak. Our purpose is to walk and highlight the history of the Underground Railroad. Everything else is secondary. I’m so appreciative of the vast majority of people we have encountered and how well Tony and I get along. We are spending a lot of time together and we come from such different backgrounds. We also know we share a common purpose, the shared mission of this pilgrimage, and we remind ourselves and each other of the importance of focusing on that. When someone says or does something hurtful or even mildly irritating, we need to let that go and maintain our focus. This song has been playing in my head for the past week on auto-repeat as I’m reminded that we are, all of us, indeed each other’s angels.

If you’re not familiar with “We Are Each Other’s Angels,” you can watch and listen to his performance HERE.

And here are the lyrics. I recommend reading them slowly, twice, and really taking in Chuck Brodsky’s reminder to us all:

I hope I see you later - ‘cause it’s time for me to go
That’s my ride that just pulled over - and it sure was good to know you
So go answer your calling - go and fill somebody’s cup
And if you see an angel falling - won’t you stop and help them up?

We are each other’s angels - we meet when it is time
We keep each other going - and we show each other signs

Sometimes you’ll stumble - sometimes you’ll just lie down
Sometimes you’ll get lonely - with all these people around
You might shiver when the wind blows - and you might get blown away
You might lose a little color - you might lose a little faith

We are each other’s angels - we meet when it is time
We keep each other going - and we show each other signs

Thank you for the water - thought I was gonna die out here in the desert but you quenched my thirst
Let’s break a little bread together - I’ve got a little Manna - it was a gift
From someone who was passing by and offered me a lift

We are each other’s angels - we meet when it is time
We keep each other going - and we show each other signs…

Amen.

Our day in Burlington began with a tour through history. We first walked down to the Delaware River for a reenactment by two men. One portrayed Daniel Dangerfield, a Freedom Seeker from Bristol, Pennsylvania and the other portrayed a man named Pierce whose family supported Dangerfield’s effort. Learn more HERE and HERE.

We then walked to the platform where we boarded a train from Burlington to Camden where a third reenactor portrayed Peter Still, the older brother of William Still, the famed Underground Railroad conductor.

n a “small world” moment of coincidence, the conductor of our train lives in a house near the Delaware River in Burlington that was built by Quakers and was a haven for Freedom Seekers on the Underground Railroad.

At the end of line in Camden, as the train moved along, I saw another historic marker noting that enslaved people were sold there.

The most fascinating part of Peter Still’s story was that he and his brother Levin were left behind when their parents escaped. 40 years later, when Peter purchased his own freedom, he reunited with his mother in Philadelphia. She’d given birth to 16 more children. It was William who recognized his older brother due to the family resemblance. Peter eventually raised $5,000 to buy the freedom of his wife and children. Learn more about Peter Still HERE. One of our companions on the train, an AME minister, is descended from another of Peter’s brothers, Dr. James Still.

Back at the Burlington Quaker Meeting House, where we’re sleeping for the week, Saturday’s Activation took place. One of the presenters was Burlington Mayor Barry Conaway, who noted that more than 180 people were freed through this Meeting’s location. Burlington Meeting was also the location of the 1st colonial protest against slavery in 1688. Burlington Quakers were a spark plug of abolition societies, and the Underground Railroad. Also in attendance was State Senator Troy Singleton.

When Lynda Davis from the #FreedomWalk2026 planning team spoke, she shared that she is descended from Lucretia Coffin Mott, who visited this Meeting. She and Harriet Tubman also worked together.

We were then treated to some powerful and beautiful music by The Essence of Harmony Choral Society. You can watch and listen to them sing Give Me That Old Time Religion and Lift Every Voice and Sing.

Sunday, May 17

When I awoke Sunday morning all was quiet. Everyone was gone from the Meeting House except for Lynda and me. Jim and Antoine had left to drive the statue to Philadelphia. Tony stayed with a friend last night. Sharon left for home. I spent time communicating with future companion workers and catching up on writing.

Around 1:30, Lynda drove us to Philadelphia for the Activation scheduled this afternoon at Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Founded by Richard Allen in 1791 (Allen was born enslaved and purchased his own freedom), Harriet Tubman spoke here in 1849. This is the fourth church structure on this same property. The current church was completed in 1889. We are standing on hallowed ground.

This was another amazing activation. There were a few comments from Pastor Cavaness. Then Tony, Venetia, Lynda and I spoke about #FreedomWalk2026 and Coming to the Table. Most of the hour-long gathering was the choir: The Black Breath Collective. A band consisting of drums, lead and bass guitars, organ, piano and trumpet, accompanied ten singers. They gave me chills. Watch and listen to Keep Marchin’. They are incredible.

At the conclusion of the gathering at the church, we walked to Independence National Historical Park to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were argued over and signed. Around thirty of us marched several blocks Peter Ahn, who played trumpet with Black Breath Collective earlier, playing his guitar and all of us singing along the way.

We entered a square at the corner where I was shocked to learn the National Park Service had removed an exhibit on slavery in response to the President’s executive order “restoring truth and sanity to American history” at our nation’s museums, parks and landmarks (more HERE). So many harmful actions have been perpetrated by this Administration that I hadn’t heard about this one before. Due to the diligence of many individuals and groups protesting the removal, in February, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ordered the restoration of the panels, citing the administration’s rationale as akin to the “Ministry of Truth” in George Orwell’s 1984 (more HERE) Two panels are still missing.

We gathered and sang and talked to other visitors about #FreedomWalk2026 and our disgust at the attempt to rewrite history in a false light as the current Administration is attempting. We’re grateful that groups like Save Our Signs, a community collaboration co-founded by a group of librarians, public historians, and data experts in partnership with the Data Rescue Project and Safeguarding Research & Culture are doing all they can to raise awareness and fight against the burying of history.

Tomorrow begins a stretch of five days of walking approximately 65 miles from Burlington to then ride a ferry to Manhattan. More to come!

Today is Lindi’s and my 40th wedding anniversary. It feels strange to be 3,000 miles apart, and yet we are both doing things we love. She’s playing tennis, watching our granddaughters’ track meets, and working in our garden to grow more plants and flowers. I’m walking the Underground Railroad route with Tony Cohen on #FreedomWalk2026 in Maryland. Our marriage continues strong and a key reason is our support for each other doing what we want to do without clinging or judging.

Tony, Sharon and I were the three walkers today. After three days of not walking, we drove an hour and a half to get back to the Perryville train station to continue from where we left off on Saturday.

We made good time, averaging 3 miles an hour. The first 7 1/2 miles is on Pulaski Highway. It’s four lanes of highway with a metal separator between the two sides and 10-foot-wide shoulders so we feel safe. Occasionally we walk together but for the most part each of us is on our own. As challenging as some stretches are, with a lot of traffic, not much to see but the road ahead, I can’t even imagine the challenges Freedom Seekers faced in the 19th century.

We turn off on Red Toad Road, which is a much better country lane. There’s almost no shoulder, but also almost no traffic. And no red toads. At least not that we can see. I hear frogs croaking, birds singing, dogs barking, and the wind rustling the leaves in the trees. This is a quiet, peaceful stretch.

We stopped in a small town called North East and ordered lunch at a little café called The Forgetful Fork. It’s 4:30 in the afternoon. We’ve walked a bit over 9 miles, we’re tired and a little slow in ordering, Tony explains that we’re walking to Canada on the routes of the underground railroad. The two young men behind the counter are surprised and impressed and offer us free water with our lunch, which is much appreciated. And honestly, this feels like a very politically right-wing area, so to be doing what we’re doing and be so warmly received is quite welcome.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on May 13.

Thursday, May 14

Our walk unfolded more slowly today as a local television news crew joined us, interviewing Tony and the rest of us along the way. We were scheduled to start walking at 11, and we actually begin walking a little after 12:30.

There are five of us today. Sharon continues to walk with us. And we have two new companions today. Matthew is Kip‘s husband, and he’ll be with us for most of the rest of our journey. I’m sure he’ll be helping Kip with transporting the textiles but also joining in on other needs along the way and walking with us from time to time. Carol Maurer participated in the very first National Gathering of Coming to the Table in 2012. That’s where I met her. A couple of years later, when Sharon Morgan and I spoke at Harford Community College, we stayed with her sister. She lives not far from here, so took off work today to join us. She taught me the significance and the background of walking in a labyrinth. There’s a beautiful one at Eastern Mennonite University, as well as at Richmond Hill, where the National Gathering was held in 2012. We were both at Eastern Mennonite University for the 2014 Gathering as well. She also helped launch the Bittersweet Blog for Coming to the Table.

We began in Elkton, Maryland and walking toward Newark, Delaware. The first historic sign we see is in front of Holly Hall, built in the early 1800s by a man who was a commander during the war of 1812. Whenever I think of that war, I think of my slave-trading ancestor, James DeWolf, owning more ships at that time than the US Navy. His relentless focus on slave-trading and privateering allowed him to accumulate more and more wealth for himself.

One thing Matthew pointed out today is that we encounter so many monuments dedicated to soldiers, warriors, and veterans of all wars. A monument in Elkton was originally erected in recognition of World War I. Then a plaque was added for World War II and then one to veterans of all wars. It feels like that final one is there because there isn’t room to list all the wars anymore. How I wish there were more monuments to peace builders like Harriet Tubman and so many others

Watching Matthew and Carol walk side-by-side and sharing stories with each other, when they never met before a couple hours ago, is a good reminder of how quickly community is built through shared experiences like this. If only more such shared experiences were built around peace and compassion and kindness as opposed to conflict and war and greed.

We walked through a large apartment complex and through some trees and bushes to find the Mason Dixon Tangent Stone that marks the borderline between North and South, between Maryland and Delaware. The old original, unreadable stone is here. Tony believes it was placed in the 1760s. The 1849 stone, which is still readable, stands right next to it. We talked to one resident who walks by this monument every day and didn’t know what it was. I’m guessing most people who live in these apartments don’t even know this is here, since it’s behind a line of trees and bushes and separated from the apartment complex.

Freedom Walkers escaping from enslavement would have been crossing from the South to the North, but also from one slave state to another slave state. Their trials and tribulations are unimaginable to most of us today. For more information about the Mason-Dixon Line, click here.

Being with this film crew was a strong reminder that a part of the reason we’re doing what we’re doing is to unapologetically share the story of this history, highlighting historic places along the way, and stand up to those who are working so hard to bury these stories. There is no question that working with the film crew today slowed us down and we didn’t walk as far as we intended, yet they will reach an audience with the stories they share that we could never do on our own. We’re quite grateful that they see the importance of sharing this particular story at this time in our nation’s history in particular. WUSA9 plans to follow our pilgrimage and join us a few more times. They’ll share brief stories along the way with one longer feature toward the end of #FreedomWalk2026.

Two stories have been featured on the news so far. CLICK HERE for the first one and HERE for the story about today’s walk.

One significant moment was Sharon’s answer to the reporter’s question about why we’re doing this: “I don’t want just three-fifths of our nations story being told,” which references the Three-Fifths Compromise of 1787 over the inclusion of enslaved people in counting a state’s total population. This population count determined the number of seats in the House of Representatives, the number of electoral votes each state was allocated, and how much money each state would pay in taxes. Southern states wanted their entire population to be counted while Free states in the North wanted to exclude the counting of enslaved populations since enslaved people had no voting rights. The three-fifths compromise gave the Southern states more power in the House relative to the Northern States. It also gave enslavers more control in Southern legislatures. Great statement, Sharon!

I think of my enslaving DeWolf ancestors. They were the ice I.C.E. agents of their time. Forced removal of people from their homes, separation from their families, forced removal to another country. Often times in far more danger than ever before in their lives. History continues to repeat itself as humans continue to vilify and attack those people they perceive as different.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our walk on May 14.

Friday, May 15

We begin today by backtracking a bit to complete a 3½-mile stretch that we missed due to stopping early two days ago. About two miles in, the light turns green at a very busy highway intersection. As we step out to begin to cross a large white van with the words, Maranatha Bible Church almost runs us over. The driver pays no attention. Good thing we were…

After walking 3.7 miles to finish up the missed section, we drove back to Elkton, near the University of Delaware, where we finished up yesterday to walk the section scheduled for today. Flexibility is our mantra!

As we walked by the University of Delaware, a woman says, “nice scallop shell.” I asked if she had walked Camino, and she said yes, she and her sons (one of whom was with her today) walked the Portuguese route that Lindi and I walked a couple months before we did last year. We walked together for a bit sharing stories of the Camino and then I told her what we were doing. Like so many people she was surprised at how much we plan to walk and really intrigued by the whole story and expressed strong support. “Buen Camino” she said as we continued forward.

On our way to Wilmington, we passed the Meeteer house with an historic sign out front. Included in the verbiage is the fact that the large and impressive nature of the home reflects the wealth and importance of its owners. It’s now a funeral home.

Today was our longest walking day so far. 16.4 miles. We finished up at the Wilmington friends meeting house in Wilmington, Delaware. Buried in the Friends cemetery is the famed Underground Railroad conductor/supporter of Freedom Seekers, Thomas Garrett. Learn more about him HERE. Below is the final resting place of Thomas Garrett.

CLICK HERE to watch one more Relive video of our walk on May 14.

The next two days were “Activation” days with events in Burlington, New Jersey and Philadelphia. Powerful and moving. More to come within a few days!

Today is an Activation Day with no scheduled walking. We drove to the Maritime Museum in Havre de Grace where the Harriet Tubman sculpture is already in place.

Our day begins with many of us participating in a 5-hour Underground Railroad tour in Harford County. Here are the highlights. Many historic places and events that I was previously unaware of:

We drove past Havre de Grace Consolidated School built for “colored” students (more info here). It took 10 years for Harford County to integrate schools for the Brown decision.

Bellevue Farm was established in 18th century. Like so many farms or plantations in Harford County the owners were successful and wealthy. Bellevue was known to have at least 34 enslaved African Americans working and serving the Davis family. On September 11, 1851, the nation was shocked by the standoff between Baltimore County slave holder, Edward Gorsuch and freedom seekers in Christiana, Pennsylvania, known as the Christiana Resistance. This complex series of events culminated in the largest treason trial in U.S. history. See The Untold History of Belle Vue Farm - The Historical Society of Harford County), Also: 347-Acre Belle Vue Farm in Havre de Grace Permanently Preserved – Harford Land Trust. To learn about the Christiana Resistance: Christiana Resistance | Christiana Historical Society | Christiana

We also learned that the Booth family, including John Wilkes Booth (assassin of President Abraham Lincoln) were from Harford County. His brother was a union supporter. Another, Richard Booth and possibly Julius Booth, assisted Freedom Seekers. What a complicated family.

One woman on the tour was from Ghana. She was born in Cape Coast and lived in Accra. She was surprised to learn I had visited there and was interested to learn about Traces of the Trade, the documentary film about my enslaver ancestors and what present-day ancestors have inherited and the present-day consequences and responsibilities to address the traumatic harm.

We also visited Harford Community College. Sharon Morgan and I spoke there in February 2014 where we met Lynda Davis, and she immediately joined Coming to the Table where she has been deeply involved ever since and is part of the #FreedomWalk2026 planning team. We drove by the County courthouse steps where slave auctions were held in Harford County. We passed two very old homes where Confederate enslavers and Underground RR lived across the street for each other. Just one part of the complex story of Maryland. We visited several homes that have been documented to be safe houses during the Underground Railroad.

We also learned that Frederick Douglass came through Harford County across the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay on his journey to freedom.

Day 8: Monday, May 11

Moving Day!

A lot of packing up last night and this morning, filling three vehicles with luggage and food and supplies and sleeping bags and mattresses and on and on as we moved to our third weekly base station; moving from Baltimore to Burlington, New Jersey.

Tony and I were scheduled to take a boat across Chesapeake Bay this morning, but the weather did not cooperate. We also had about three or four miles to make up from where we stopped the day before yesterday. To deal with both of these factors, we took a train from Aberdeen, which we walked past on Saturday, to Perryville.

Both modes of transportation were used on the Underground Railroad. Though the stations have certainly changed over time, Tony’s research has confirmed that this is a train route that Frederick Douglass took to the north, among many other Freedom Seekers. And this gets us back on track with our schedule.

Sharon and Lynda, our drivers today, meet us at the train station in Perryville and we drive on, entering Delaware at 2:45 in the afternoon and then into New Jersey about 20 minutes later. We have a little over an hour left to get to our base station to unpack and prepare for walking again tomorrow. We’ll be staying at the Burlington Meeting House. Dee and Al Corbett have been the leaders and caretakers of this Meeting for the past five years. Their support in hosting us, providing beds, taking us out to dinner our first night, and full use of the kitchen is much appreciated.

Day 9: Tuesday, May 12

Today was a catch-up day with no walking (third day in a row which is a big help in body recovery). Tony needs to focus on writing for the #FreedomWalk2026 Blog, catch up on emails, phone calls, and requests from lots of folks in locations we’ll be visiting over the coming weeks. I also did some serious catching up on writing, communications, and had time to take a self-guided walking tour of historic sites in Burlington, including Burlington Pharmacy, Oliver Cromwell House, Ulysses S. Grant House, and the Grubb House.

Descriptions of photos starting top left, and going clockwise (Text from Walking Tour Guide, courtesy of Burlington Tourism Center)

Burlington Pharmacy: New Jersey’s oldest pharmacy in continuous operation. Owned by Quaker Wilber J. Allinson, an ardent abolitionist, it was the center of anti-slavery activity in Burlington. Poet John Greenleaf Whittier denounced slavery from its doorstep, and oral tradition has it that tunnels under this building hid Freedom Seekers as part of the Underground Railroad.

Oliver Cromwell House: Final residence of Oliver Cromwell, African American Revolutionary War soldier, who took part in the December 25 1776 crossing of the Delaware. General George Washington personally signed his discharge papers.

Ulysses S. Grant House: General Ulysses S. Grant brought Mrs. Grant and their children here in 1864 to avoid potential physical conflict during the Civil War. They lived here until the war’s end in 1865.

Grubb Estate: Henry Grubb operated the first tavern in Burlington. Edward B. Grubb, his grandson, was a Civil War general and ambassador to Spain.The Grubbs were noted supporters of the Underground Railroad.

Tomorrow, we walk…

Day 6: Saturday, May 9

We have six companion walkers with us today. RoJamie attended the potluck at Stony Run the other night. She was moved by our stories. She saw the Harriet sculpture and the child who was accompanying her. So, when RoJamie decided to join us today, she chose to also bring her son who is nine years old and in the third grade. We shared our concerns with her that we’d be walking the entire day on very busy and narrow highways with almost no shoulder in many spots. She said she understood and that she and her son were regular walkers and she’d keep a close eye on him. We provided him with a reflective, orange vest.

Children were an important part of this history. Today, part of taking care of our children is teaching them the truth of our history. I asked RoJamie for her permission to share her son’s name as I write about our day together. She said yes, she wants others to know of him and for him to know he’s making a positive difference in others and in the world. He certainly made a difference in my life on this day.

His name is MySon. RoJamie tells me it means son of the world, king of kings. She expressed her belief that our children are not our own, but they belong to and contribute to the world. The ancient Greek meaning of MySon is someone who possesses wisdom, self-control, and the ability to listen attentively. It’s about the importance of thoughtful contemplation. Everything about these two Companion Walkers inspires me today.

He and I began to walk together. MySon picked up a caterpillar from the side of the road and walked with it for a bit. He chased a squirrel up a tree. We walked away from the group up a side road to check out a couple of big swans in a lake we passed.

He tried to teach me about Pokémon, but it’s apparently a little beyond my ability to understand. “Want to tell each other jokes?” he asked? “Sure,” I said.

“What starts with a T and ends with a T and has T in it?”

I give an answer I’m sure is incorrect and not funny. “A Titleist golf ball?”

He rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “A teapot!”

It took me another block of walking before I had the Aha moment. A teapot has tea in it, get it?

MySon has more energy than the rest of us put together. He easily and actually runs circles around me. He also pays very close attention to the traffic, which I appreciate, and he tells me about the three kinds of walkers.

“The weak walkers can only walk about a mile and then they have to quit. The power walkers really go for it, but they can’t last all that long either. It’s the endurance walkers that just keep on going. We’re endurance walkers!”

He asked about the scallop shell I have attached to the back of my pack, so I told him about walking the Camino de Santiago by myself in 2019 and last year with Lindi; that the scallop shell is the symbol for the Camino. This is the scallop shell Lindi carried from Porto, Portugal up to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, so I have my love with me as I walk today.

His curiosity is contagious. He’s really adding a big element of joy to our day. He runs ahead a bit, and I walk with RoJamie for a few hundred yards.

“He has so much energy,” I said. “I bet he keeps you on your toes.”

She looked at me, smiled a knowing smile, and began to sing. “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen. Nobody knows but Jesus.” At first, I thought she was making a lighthearted response, but her voice, her words, were deep and profound as she completed the whole song. She expressed her gratitude to all of us embracing her son. “Sometimes people can feel like kids are a distraction.”

“It’s easy to embrace this young man,” I said.

Back walking with MySon, he and I kept moving along at a brisk pace. He kept looking back and then looking at me and confirming we were winning. It was important to him for us to be the first to the pizza parlor where we would meet everyone. He kept reminding me to keep that “endurance attitude” in place. Endurance includes weak and power walking sometimes, but it’s the endurance that helps you last.

MySon began singing as we walked. “Get on down, get on down the road. Get on down, get on down the road. Put your left foot forward and your right foot down and get on down the road.” He says its from The Wizard of Oz.

“Really?” I say, because I don’t remember it. “Maybe it’s from The Wiz?”

He laughs at me. I clearly don’t know what I’m talking about.

MySon. Son of the world. King of the crown. He’s living it for me today. We both put our left feet forward and our right feet down and we got on down the road. And sure enough, we arrived first. I ordered each of us a slice of pizza which we thoroughly enjoyed.

RoJamie and I spoke about today. She was grateful for her own experience today, but even more for her son. “Watching the two of you walk side-by-side. I knew he felt safe beside you and I felt safe and that meant so much. This will stay with him,” she said, “that there are white people, white men, who we don’t need to fear.

This has been a profound day of connection, communication and relationship building. Our farewell embrace was warm and tight.

For the last section of the walk, it’s just Tony and Sharon and me.

Sharon is a couple hundred feet ahead of me and Tony is a couple hundred feet behind me. There are times when it’s great walking together, and times when it’s perfect walking alone.

Our weariness inspired us to stop a few miles short of our planned destination for today. We took an Uber back to Sharon‘s car and she drove us back to Stony Run Meeting.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our Day 6 walk.

The planning and support team are invaluable! About a dozen people have various specific roles arranging housing, meals, activations with communities along the way, moving the Harriet Tubman sculpture to each new location, coordinating with Companion Walkers, and driving us to where we stopped walking the day before, meeting us along the way as needed, and picking us up at the end of each day. Thank you, team!

Wednesday is the first day Tony and I walked without companions. We love having others walk with us, and it’s also cool to have time with just the two of us from time to time. The highlight of Day 3 was the B&O Railroad Museum in Ellicott City. Built in 1831, it is the oldest surviving railroad station in the United States. It closed as a station in 1972 and was transformed into a museum. We shared with the woman at the entry counter what we were doing and that this B&O station was a significant site for Freedom Seekers on the Underground Railroad. “We need to do a better job of telling that story,” she said. Tony offered to help and gave her his card. She said she’d pass it along.

We entered Baltimore, passing the original stone marking the city border as well as an old stone mileage marker, both installed in the early 1800’s. We concluded today at the National Cemetery in Baltimore, one of seven national cemeteries created between the two World Wars, 1934–1939, where we saw headstones for soldiers who served in both World Wars, the Korean conflict and the Viet Nam War. We were picked up after walking 9½ miles.

Back at Stony Run Friends Meeting, where we are staying this week, we enjoyed an Activation meeting (the name for all gatherings where Tony and others of us on the team share stories about the Underground Railroad, Tony’s walk 30 years ago and this year, Coming to the Table, and the importance to acknowledge, remember, and teach ALL of our history). The Friends are taking such good care of us, providing a space for us to sleep, food, use of the kitchen, showers in the gym after 8pm, and Wi-Fi (which we didn’t have our first week)

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our Day 3 walk.

Day 4: Thursday, May 7

Tony and I began walking on Thursday from the cemetery. We averaged 3 miles per hour and arrived at Baltimore Harbor an hour earlier than planned. We had lunch at Mason’s Famous Lobster Rolls and talked with the young woman behind the counter about #FreedomWalk2026. As with many people we encounter, she wishes she could walk with us to Canada and loved everything about #FreedomWalk2026.

After lunch, we walked to a set of two informational signs about the Underground Railroad that Tony helped to research and design. Then we met our Companion Walkers (Sharon, Jennifer and Bill) at 12:15pm at Baltimore City Hall. We were also joined by Abigail Roedersheimer, a reporter with Capital News Service who walked a few miles with us to interview us and film us walking. By the time she turned back to get to work on her story, she said it would be her favorite she had worked on.

CLICK HERE to watch Abigail’s report.

Today’s walk is along urban streets busy with traffic. We finished early around 3:30pm at another cemetery (this is becoming a pattern) and returned to Stony Run around 4pm for a quiet evening with time to write and post in various social media for the thousands of people who are following #FreedomWalk2026 as well as one of our daily team meetings to discuss how things have gone and what needs addressing.

After communicating with upcoming Companion Walkers (my task for this journey), responding to comments on Substack and emails from people interested in the Walk, and journaling about our daily experiences, I finally got to bed around midnight. I didn’t fall asleep right away and then woke up at 5:00am. I’m sleeping fine and don’t feel sleepy during the days but have not gotten more than 6 hours of sleep since we began. I believe this will catch up with me.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our Day 4 walk.

Day Five: Friday, May 8

Lynda got up early to drive Tony and me back to the cemetery in Rosedale. We began walking at 7:30, planning to get in six or seven miles before being picked up and driven to a school for a presentation and then back to meet Companion Walkers for the rest of today’s walk. Lynda walked with us for a couple of miles and then walked back to her car.

Yesterday and today is almost completely urban, city walking. Much of it on roads with no sidewalks and narrow shoulders. Most drivers are respectful and pull close to the center line to give us space. Occasionally, we encounter a thoughtless driver, who hugs very close to the shoulder, and we really have to watch out for our safety. Not surprising, I suppose, but paying close attention is essential.

At the potluck dinner on Wednesday evening, we met a woman who teaches at The Greenmount School. Plans were quickly developed for us to meet two days later with the K-8 students to discuss #FreedomWalk2026. I was surprised and impressed by how much these students know. Kudos to their teachers.

Tony asked the students who had heard of the Underground Railroad. All hands went up. He asked them to describe the UR. Many hands raised and the answers were so good. One student described the UR and noted the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Tony said, “Navigating was often by the North Star. Does anyone know where to find the North Star?” One young man responded, “Ursa Minor.” What 2^nd graders know Ursa Minor (the Little Dipper), I thought, quite impressed.

“Was the Underground Railroad underground? “

“No!” came the response in unison.

“Was it a railroad?”

“No!”

“Why was it called that?”

“Because it was secret.”

“Right!”

One student knew Harriet Tubman’s birth name was Araminta Ross until she married and took her husband’s last name and changed her first name to Harriett in honor of her mother. Another student knew she helped 70 people escape. In these days when some in positions of power are trying to bury history, it’s inspiring to be with children who know so much more than so many adults. Kudos to their teachers!

“We teach real history here,” I was told by one teacher sporting a proud smile.

We were driven back to where we stopped, and we connected with two more companion walkers. Sharon is a long-time Coming to the Table member and will be with us for a week. Vernee was inspired by the Harriet statue which visited her church recently, and she committed to walk with us for a day.

I came upon a little bird lying on the side of the road and picked it up. It was still breathing and just sat quietly in my hand. I’m guessing it got clipped by a car just before we came upon it. I spent about five minutes holding it, and when I tried to sit it down under a tree, it just stayed in my hand and wouldn’t get off. Perhaps the warmth was comforting. Perhaps it was just stunned, or both. Eventually, I was able to set it down. It was moving around a little more and walking a bit, so we hope it’ll be OK. We wished it well and continued on.

We walked about 7½ additional miles for a total of almost 13 today. It was a bit challenging from time to time as we were on very busy roads with very narrow shoulders. We finished our day in Joppatowne in Harford County and said farewell to Vernee.

CLICK HERE to watch a brief Relive video of our Day 5 walk.

Then it was back to Stony Run Friends Meeting for dinner, showers, foot care, and sleep.

A couple hours later, Tony stood in front of the statue moments before we began to walk. He was wearing a Star Wars t-shirt and reminded us that today has become Star Wars Day: “May the Fourth be with you.” He noted that our history wasn’t a long time ago, and it wasn’t in a galaxy far, far away. It’s all here, right now, waiting for us to repair and heal. The rebel alliance is working against the forces of darkness to bring light to the world. “So, welcome rebels!”

He concluded his comments with, “So much planning went into today and the only thing I wasn’t ready for was this moment.” Then his tears began to flow.

“Let’s walk!”

We began with 25-30 walkers, many intending to walk just a mile or a few miles. After about six miles, just four of us remained. Jason, who flew in this morning from Texas to join us on the only day that worked for him and then flew back home at the end of the day, Vince, who lives near Sandy Spring, where we’ve been staying, and Tony and me. At about the 7-mile mark, we experienced our first angry driver who screamed “Get off the f**king road! We considered it an opportunity to practice patience and compassion. Our first day ended, appropriately enough, on Harriet Tubman Lane in Simpsonville, MD.

I’ll be utilizing the Relive App to record the route of our daily walks. These will show viewers where we walked and include photos to highlight certain places and people we encounter along the way. Each video is under 2 minutes in length. To watch our first day’s walk, CLICK HERE.

On our 2^nd day, we were driven to where we stopped walking yesterday. There is a cave above the road. Tony heard stories about Freedom Seekers crawling into this cave beneath major spider webs that covered much of the entrance. The white people trying to find them, even if they had barking dogs sniffing at the entry, saw the webs and knew that no one could be in there, so left without finding those inside. I found references to this story online, including a young man who read about it in a book in his high school library.

One of the truly magic aspects to this pilgrimage is encountering people, places, and organizations along the way that we were not aware of. Freetown Farm was just such a place. Jonathan, the director, happened to see us as we stopped to read the signs at the entry. He gave us a tour of the whole amazing facility and the work they do to farm sustainably and work especially with children to teach them these skills.

He then told us about the Harriet Tubman Cultural Center, just up the street, that was once the only school where black students could learn and graduate. Opened in 1949, it closed in 1965 when Athelton High School opened and was integrated as a result of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.

The Cultural Center, led by Howard County Recreation & Parks, opened in 2022. Corey, the director, gave us a tour of this building. And he shared the history of the school and the transformation into its current incarnation. His grandparents graduated here. They raised $10 million for the renovation and creation of the center with an amazing array of historical artifacts. These two stops added three hours to our planned walking time. Flexibility is clearly key!

You can watch our second day’s walk HERE.

Each day brings new surprises, new learnings, and renewed commitment to shining a light on ALL our history, the good and the terrible and shameful. More to come…

For the first two days here, it was just me and Kip Beardsley, The Gentleman Weaver, the resident textile artist who is co-creating, with people in communities along the way, the #FreedomWalk2026 Textile Installation, intended to bear witness to the embodiment of the spirit of the Underground Railroad.

On Friday evening we drove to Poolesville, MD for an “Activation” at Riverworks Art Center. Activations are community gatherings that will take place all along our journey to inform, engage with, and inspire participants to keep the history and stories alive. It was cold and windy and 50-60 local residents braved the weather to join us and learn about #FreedomWalk2026. This was the first time I was in the presence of the Harriett Tubman Statue, created by Emmy and Academy Award winning sculptor Wesley Wofford. This 9-foot-high sculpture is secured to a trailer and will travel with us all the way into Canada.

The evening’s program began with beautiful blues tunes performed by Mark Puryear on guitar and Jay Summerour “Harp Man” on harmonica. With their permission, I’ve posted one of their tunes for you to enjoy HERE. Then Anthony “Tony” Cohen shared his vision for #FreedomWalk2026, I shared briefly my family’s horrific role in the slave trade, and Kip introduced his tapestries that will continue to grow and evolve throughout our pilgrimage. More music from Mark and Jay concluded the gathering, after which we drove two blocks to the site of the lynching of George W. Peck in 1880, a stark reminder of the racial terror that took place here in Montgomery County and in so many other communities across the United States, and another reason why #FreedomWalk2026 is so important in helping us all remember the full history of the United States.

If you are inspired to support #FreedomWalk2026, we will put your donation to good use in supporting every aspect of this pilgrimage. CLICK HERE to donate. Thank you! More to come from the road…

An important part of my preparation for embarking soon on #FreedomWalk2026 has been researching the history of the Underground Railroad.

As most people who have read my books, joined me for a book event or training workshop, or have watched Traces of the Trade, are already aware, I’m descended from the largest slave-trading dynasty in U.S. history. Ancestors of mine were responsible for kidnapping more than 10,000 African people and delivering them into lifelong slavery in Cuba (and other Caribbean islands), South America and North America. Estimates are that half a million of their descendants are alive today.

My research has focused on the slave trade, genealogy and healing, with a strong focus on Coming to the Table, Strategies for Trauma Awareness & Resilience, Restorative Justice, and the use of the Circle Process throughout this important work. Since committing to joining historian Anthony Cohen in walking the Underground Railroad route he walked alone 30 years ago, I’ve been taking a deep dive into learning more about this amazing chapter in our nation’s history. For those of you who want to know more about the Underground Railroad, here are four books and a film that have helped me learn SO much about the commitment and resilience of freedom seekers who risked their very lives to escape enslavement as well as the many people, black and white, who helped them…

Colson Whitehead’s novel, The Underground Railroad, won the Pulitzer Prize. The horror that enslaved people experienced and the unbelievable courage combined with desperation that led people to run away, knowing that if they’re caught, they are going to be tortured and murdered is harrowing and powerful to read. For more info, read my review.

Bound for Canaan, by Fergus M. Bordewich, is non-fiction. My review reads, “A powerful, moving, important and enlightening book about one of the darkest chapters in American history. Sadly, this is the kind of book people want to ban in certain areas. I highly recommend this book to everyone who wants to understand all of American history, not just the ‘land of the free, home of the brave’ parts.”

Kay Clifford Larson’s Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero, is such an important book. Like most people with a standard, public school education, I learned some basic facts about Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth along with more details about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and other major historical figures of U.S. history. If you haven’t read much beyond what is taught in typical classrooms about Harriet Tubman, I’m sure you’ll find this book as astounding as I did. Read my review.

I continue to be surprised by what I learn. With my interest in genealogy, it turns out that I am distantly related to Isaac Hopper, one of the most significant Underground Railroad “conductors” in the late 18th and first half of the 19th centuries in Philadelphia and New York. Hopper helped around 1,000 people to escape enslavement and live in freedom. I look forward to visiting the house where he lived in New York City. Lamb’s Warrior: The Life of Isaac T. Hopper, by Margaret Hope Bacon is a great book for learning more about Isaac Hopper. Read my review.

The film Harriet, starring Cynthia Erivo as abolitionist Harriet Tubman (for which she was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award, Golden Globe and NAACP Image Award), is a wonderful cinematic introduction to the life and work of this true American hero. You can watch a preview of the film here.

Finally, Coming to the Table has put together a page on the website filled with resources for this Year of Liberation, the 20^th anniversary of the founding of CTTT, the 30^th anniversary of Tony Cohen’s initial Underground Railroad walk, and the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. Click HERE to learn more.

I’m grateful to have these, and many more, resources for learning about the Underground Railroad. The next time you hear from me will be once we begin #FreedomWalk2026 in early May!

I’ll soon be writing regularly from the trail about #FreedomWalk2026 here on Substack. I’ll be participating in this modern-day Underground Railroad pilgrimage from Maryland to Canada beginning May 4 and culminating with crossing into Canada on July 1, which is Canada Day. We’ll conclude our walk in Toronto on July 4. I’ll share about the historic sites and people we visit, events we lead and participate in, photos of our pilgrimage, and more…

This pilgrimage feels particularly important in the divisive times in which we now live, times in which some people are trying to bury/hide aspects of our nation’s history they find unsavory or challenging to the concept of “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.” It is important that we understand ALL of our history so we can learn from the past and create a better future for all of us and for future generations.

This 750-mile pilgrimage, following 19th-century routes to freedom, will commemorate the brave self-liberators, the abolitionists, and their secret networks, during the once-in-our-lifetimes convergence of the 250^th anniversary of American Independence, the 20^th anniversary of the founding of Coming to the Table, AND the 30^th anniversary of historian Anthony Michael Cohen’s original 1996 walk of this route. The journey will draw upon the legacy and achievements of previous generations to galvanize modern activists to work toward truth-telling and transformation. We will travel by foot, boat and rail using modes of transport of the original freedom seekers.

Learn more about #FreedomWalk2026 HERE.

Now that I’ve retired from CTTT after 13 years, I’m committed to writing regularly again, with these posts and with the intention of writing/publishing more books.

PLEASE NOTE: I hope you’ll follow along by reading stories about our walk. Feel free to share these posts and invite others to subscribe. AND, if you don’t want to receive these Substack updates, simply click on the Unsubscribe button at the bottom of this message.

My best wishes to you… and may Truth, Freedom, Justice, Equality and Healing prevail. See you down the #FreedomWalk2026 trail!

Thomas N. DeWolf

Pilgrim/Walker, Author, Trainer, Public Speaker: www.tomdewolf.com