No one living in the 21st century can fully understand the experience of enslaved men and women seeking freedom by traveling the Underground Railroad to the north.
But photographer Jeanine Michna-Bales sought to get as close to the sights and atmosphere as possible. She spent a decade researching the routes of the Underground Railroad and then shooting photos of the sights along the way.
Her exhibit, “Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad,” opens Feb. 15 at Upcountry History Museum, and the pictures spotlight a stretch of land from Deep South Louisiana to just over the Canadian border.
“The idea was to capture what those individuals who were escaping to freedom might have experienced,” said Kristina Hornback, curator of collections for the Upcountry History Museum.
Magnolia Plantation on the Cane River in Louisiana is one of the images in the new exhibit "Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad," at Upcountry History Museum.
Because the escapees traveled by night, the photographs are taken in varying degrees of darkness. The images showcase what the travelers would have experienced as they moved by foot with only the moon and stars to light the way: A moss-covered cave where they might have taken cover, the murky Mississippi River, a tree-lined swamp illuminated by the first rays of sunrise.
The final image highlights the bright sunlight of Canada, representing the end of a long, dark journey from slavery to freedom.
In addition to the photos, the exhibit also features a map showing the route that Michna-Bales took for the project.
The evocative photos help visitors to form a vivid mental picture of what the escapees endured in hopes of starting a new life as free men and women.
“It does make you think, ‘If that were me, how would I feel?’” Hornback said. “’If I were in this very spot, and I heard the sounds of nature or I heard a dog barking, would I be afraid that was somebody coming for me?’ … And I think that was her intent, to help you as the visitor try to imagine yourself in that position of making your journey in hopes of successfully reaching freedom.”
The show, which runs through May 24, is a traveling exhibit developed by ExhibitsUSA and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. While the photos themselves don’t venture into South Carolina, the museum is holding a Lunchbox Learning program on Feb. 19 to offer insights into Harriet Tubman’s daring 1863 raid into the Palmetto State that helped lead several hundred slaves to freedom.
