Image: Cover of the author's book, The Black Seminole Legacy and North American Politics 1693 to 1845
by Dr. Bruce E. Twyman
Since 1998 during the administration of President Clinton, the Federal government expanded studies of the Underground Railroad. Two books can be judged from the scope of this needed Federal input. The Last Crusade and The Empire of Haiti, and, The Black Seminole Legacy and North American Politics 1693 to 1845, both have a nexus to Public Law 105-203. In 1998 the 105th Congress passed this law to establish the, National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act. This Congressional Act authorized the Department of the Interior to give special recognition to the Underground Railroad.
In brief summary, this public law says that the freedom sought by the Founding Fathers in the American Revolution, and expressed in the Declaration of Independence, is the same freedom, goals and ideals pursued by, the slaves seeking their freedom and the people who assisted them, in the Underground Railroad.
The Network to Freedom Act of 1998, compels the Secretary of the Interior to establish a National Network within the National Park Service. This Network to Freedom program recognizes that the Underground Railroad united people by race, religion and nationality in the fight against slavery. The program seeks to educate and reconcile mistakes of the past. The National Park Service is authorized to give Federal Recognition to various sites, locations, people and events in history, relative to it’s official mandate. Additionally there may be countless people, historical sites and events which fulfill the broader mission of the National Network, yet they lack federal recognition.
The Black Seminole Legacy and North American Politics 1693 to 1845, contains subject matter which has received federal recognition through the National Network. In 2012 the National Park Service held a conference in St. Augustin Florida which emphasized the story of Black Seminole people as a phase of the Underground Railroad in Florida, the West Indies and Mexico. However in contrast, The Last Crusade and The Empire of Haiti, contains information which overlaps the subject matter of the Black Seminole Legacy. Furthermore there are aspects of Haitian history which could make substantial contributions to the National Network – yet lack official recognition of the National Network. Regardless of this dichotomy of the official and unofficial information, inherent in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act, it is a much welcomed expose’ with concern to the national fabric of the United States.
