September 2026: Underground Railroad Of New Bern Community (URRNBC) Partnership
Dedicated To Researching, Preserving and Sharing The History of the Underground Railroad in New Bern, NC.
The September meeting of the New Bern Woman’s Club was thrilled to welcome Roseanne Wilson and Dana Hall, representing The Underground Railroad of New Bern Coalition.
While this is a new organization, Roseanne and Dana have done extensive amounts of research in to how the waterfront in New Bern served as a maritime faction for the underground railroad. The URR of New Bern will start with stories about “the waterfront” because it was a pathway for escaping enslaved people, now called Freedom Seekers. Research is difficult when exploring the URR primarily because the very existence of those willing to help WAS a secret. Roseanne and Dana showed us newspaper clippings from New Bern of several individuals “escaping” their enslavement–their description, the price on their head and more. Lets hope they were able to find their way to freedom on New Berns Maritime Underground Railroad!
And also very exciting: The Underground Railroad of New Bern Coalition researched the area’s history and submitted its findings to the National Park Service, which recently added the New Bern waterfront to its National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
