Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad

A major national traveling exhibit coming to the Watkins April 7 through May 23. No registration or tickets will be required. Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, ExhibitsUSA, and Mid-America Arts Alliance.

They left during the middle of the night—often carrying little more than the knowledge that moss grows on the north side of trees. An estimated 100,000 enslaved people between 1830 and the end of the Civil War in 1865 chose to embark on this journey in search of freedom.

Photographer Jeanine Michna-Bales has spent more than a decade meticulously researching “fugitive” enslaved people and the ways they escaped to freedom. While the unnumbered routes of the encompassed countless square miles, the path Michna-Bales documented encompasses roughly 2,000 miles and is based off of actual sites, cities, and places that freedom-seekers passed through during their journey.

While many books have been written on the subject, there is very little visual documentation of the Underground Railroad because of its secretive nature. Today, as America becomes more and more diverse, Michna-Bales believes that an understanding of the experience—and those who lived through it—is more relevant than ever. The Underground Railroad united people from different races, genders, social levels, religions, and regions in a common and worthwhile cause. It was the first civil rights movement within America. Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad encourages visitors to learn more, ask questions, and open a dialogue on the subject, and in the end, provide a better understanding of our origins.

© Jeanine Michna-Bales; Jeanine Michna-Bales, Decision
to Leave, Magnolia Plantation on the Cane River, Louisiana,
2013; digital C-print, 25 x 36 inches; © Jeanine Michna-Bales.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Watkins Museum of History