The following teaser is from an article posted at adage.com. Click on the illustration to view the video.
Ahead of Black History Month, genealogy brand Ancestry surprised six descendants of slaves and abolitionists with details of their family histories.
Or family history, to be more precise, because five of them turned out to be related to one another, progeny of Mary Weems, an enslaved woman who escaped to Canada before the American Civil War. A short film, “Railroad Ties,” explores the way their lives were shaped by the journey she took on the Underground Railroad.
In December, Ancestry brought the small group from their homes around the country to Brooklyn. Though slavery had been illegal in New York State before the war, the Fugitive Slave Act, which required all Americans to turn in escaped slaves no matter what state they were in, made everywhere in America dangerous for those on the run.
