As Greensboro celebrates its bicentennial, Guilford recognizes a vital but overlooked part of that 200 year history: the Underground Railroad. “There is a shadow history to Greensboro,” said Max Carter, director of the friend’s center and campus ministry coordinator. “There is some hesitancy to dredge it all up. That part of the history isn’t that well known. I think that Quakers represent this underside of history, this forgotten history in N.C.”

The New Garden Quaker community that Guilford College was founded on preceded Greensboro by sixty years. It was an anti-slavery abolitionist community. By 1808, the year of Greensboro’s establishment, many leaders of the Underground Railroad lived here.

In 1819, the Underground Railroad was born. The first documented account of an enslaved African being helped to freedom occurred in what is now Guilford College.

“I will tell you this: My ancestors do not want to be forgotten,” said Jerry Gore, founder of the organization Freedom Time.

He and his associate Peggy Overly, president of Freedom Time, started the week off on March 31 with their event “Crossing the Danger Zone: Flight on the Underground Railroad.”

Gore didn’t just speak on the history of the Underground Railroad. He brought it into perspective. It may seem that slavery has been abolished for a long time, but it’s only been 143 years. Gore’s great-great-grandfather was a slave.

Gore reminded people of his own problems growing up with racial unrest.

“I was seventeen before I could sit and drink a coke in a restaurant,” Gore said.

Gore and Overly sang spirituals and explained their role in the Underground Railroad. Songs that are familiar to many as church hymns became haunting after Overly revealed their origins as instructions on escape. The song “Wade in the Water” instructs runaway slaves to wade into water so that the dogs chasing them lose their scent.

“I thought it was a wonderful opportunity for Guilford to hear history made real,” said Carolyn Beard Whitlow, Dana professor of English and coordinator of African American Studies. “I was moved by and informed by the rendering of the spirituals. I was taken with how ingenious the use of spirituals was as a method of communication and a mode of inspiration.”

A tour of the Guilford woods led by Max Carter brought students in direct contact with historical sights of the Underground Railroad.

“They are usually quite fascinated that the ground they are walking across is this historical,” Carter said. “Many are deeply moved by it. I’ve seen people in tears because of the sense of what has happened back there.”

The story of Edie, a slave hiding in the woods for three days with her baby, is particularly moving. Carter’s illustration of her desperation, exhaustion, hunger and fear is chilling.

“It gives a very small hint at what those people endured,” Carter said.

Sometimes, the retelling of a story over a long period of time can take away the emotional impact, but it’s important to fully grasp how these people suffered.

“Enslaved people yearned for their full humanity,” Whitlow said. “They were willing to incur the hardship, the notion of having to cross rivers and run by night as the dogs trailed them. It must have seemed insurmountable. For so many enslaved people, their world consisted of only the plantation so anything beyond was going into the unknown. I so admire their fortitude.”

On April 2, members of the community took a more personal look at who these runaways were. Professor Freddie Parker of North Carolina Central University spoke for the event “Stealing a Little Freedom: Runaway Slaves in Guilford County”.

By examining advertisements looking for runaway slaves, Parker resurrected people that have been forgotten or lost. These advertisements detailed the runaways’ appearance, personality, even hobbies. Some looked into their personal lives, naming parents, wives and children left behind. Often they described scars, from whips, branding, or other forms of cruelty.

Other recognition of the Underground Railroad included a talk by author Fergus M. Bordewich on his book “Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America” and a display in the library by Freedom Time. Those walking by cannot help but notice the shackles and whip.