Questions, Questions, and More Questions

 This afternoon, I took a walk up the road to where Dorothy used to live. The other day I posted an aerial shot. Here's a ground shot of the previous post. The block wall is rectangular in shape and I have no idea what part of the house it belonged to. But, somewhere under there is a number of tunnels that I still have questions about.

Anyway, I stared a long time at the hillside wondering where the tunnels came out at. Is there still access? Can you see where they once were? What did it feel like to run up those tunnels fleeing from bounty hunters or slave owners?

Were there houses on either side? Did any of the tunnels lead to them? Did they flood during the harsh rains? Did the tunnels lead to the barn or some other out-building making it easy for an escape regardless of where you may be?

Long shot of where the safe house was.

The woods lead to even more questions. The hillsides are thick with vegetation during the summer. The runaways, or freedom seekers, had to deal with every non-human hazard you can imagine! There were copperheads, Timber Rattlesnakes, poison ivy, mosquitoes, coyote, and wolves, to name a few.

If they were barefoot, they had to contend with all the briars and stickers, which abound in these woods. What was it like? How often did they just want to give up and go back? From what my research has lead me to, quite often some did want to return to slavery, or at least had second thoughts.

As close to the rectangular wall as I could zoom to. 

As I walked back to the farm, I focused on my surroundings. As the freedom seekers left in a false bottom wagon, bouncing down a dirt road, with food shoved in their pockets for the journey, were their any other houses on this section of New Lima? Was that safe house the only one for several miles? 

Were their trees that lined the dirt road? Or, had the fields been cleared for planting? When the wagon went past someone's home, did their dog(s) start barking? If they did, I'm sure that sent fear through everyone. 

This adventure in uncovering the unsung heroes keeps my head filled with questions. My biggest at the moment? Does Dorothy have a picture of the old house?  hmmm....