Chelsea Macklin lights a candle at the inaugural Underground Railroad ceremony in the Bronx.
Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Perrin Lawton is on a mission. The 34-year-old blogger from the Bronx runs the Instagram account “da_bronx_is_beautiful,” which informs people about all the borough has to offer, ranging from history, art, music and the culinary scene to Bronx staycation sites like Hunters Island. His goal is to bring “the Bronx together as a whole,” reminding folks that New York City’s most northern borough should not be defined by its struggles.
On Feb. 9, Lawton held an inaugural Underground Railroad ceremony at 143rd Street and 3rd Avenue in Mott Haven to raise awareness of the historical and cultural significance of the Underground Railroad in the Bronx and pay tribute to the African Americans and abolitionists who helped freedom seekers escape slavery.
Lawton explained that he came up with the idea because many people are unaware that the Bronx played a vital part in the “freedom train.”
In the 1840s and 1850s, the Bronx, no longer a slave-holding area, became a hub of abolitionism. The Bronx Underground Railroad started at what was then the Harlem Bridge; today, it is the Third Avenue Bridge. Freedom seekers then trekked their way up what is now 3rd Avenue to the home of lawyer and abolitionist Charles van Doren at 143 Street and 3rd Avenue. Here, they hid in a secret room in the basement before continuing their path to freedom along 3rd Avenue to 163rd Street, passing the area that later became the Bronx Zoo and up Boston Road to abolitionist Daniel Mapes’ farm in West Farms. From here, many escaped enslaved people continued their journey to New Rochelle and New England.
“A lot of people do not know about [the Underground Railroad],” Lawton said. “But then you come to find out [the Underground Railroad] was in my own backyard. That is something that adds to the beauty of this borough, like we actually have…
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