Lost in the Tunnel of Time Read Free

say that it seemed like the people just disappeared underground .”



“Awesome, mon!” whispered Ziggy.
    â€œEverything had to be kept secret because it was against the law for a slave to try to escape, and it was against the law for anyone to help a slave to escape,” continued Mr. Greene.
    Nicole was shocked. “You mean you’d go to jail for wanting to be free?” she asked.
    â€œNo, you wouldn’t go to jail—if you were an escaped slave who was captured, you would go back to your owner and back to slavery, where you would probably be punished severely.”
    â€œThey’d never catch me!” said Jerome with his head held high.
    â€œMaybe not, Jerome, but many people were caught.”
    â€œHow did they travel, Mr. Greene?” asked Nicole.
    â€œSometimes by wagon, but mostly they traveled on foot.”
    â€œYou mean they walked from way down South to way up North?” asked Jerome with amazement. “Irode in a car from Georgia to Ohio with my grandmother and my two loud little sisters, and it seemed to take forever!”
    â€œDo you know anybody who walked here, Mr. Greene?” asked Mimi, a small, quiet girl sitting on the grass near Rico.
    â€œI sure do, little one,” replied Mr. Greene. “That’s why your teacher asked me to come today. My granddaddy, Mac, came to Cincinnati on the Underground Railroad!”
    â€œWell, don’t just sit there, mon! Tell us the story!” Ziggy urged.
    â€œWhen Mac was just a little older than you kids are, his mama decided to leave slavery in Georgia and try to get to freedom here in Cincinnati. She had heard her owner say that he was going to sell her, so she left that night with a small pack in one arm, her only son, Mac, holding on to the other, and a dream in her heart to be free.”
    â€œSelling people! That stinks!” Tiana cried indignantly.
    â€œYes,” Mr. Greene said, smiling ruefully at Tiana’sexclamation. “It certainly did stink. So she left. She walked slowly through the woods each night, following the North Star when the nights were clear, and looking for other signs—like moss on the trees and the direction of flowing streams—when clouds covered the night sky. She was afraid of the sounds and the darkness of the night, but she was more afraid of being captured and returned to slavery. She and Mac hid during the day and tried to sleep in the woods with leaves and branches over them. It was very hot and insect bites covered them.”
    â€œBugs?” asked Jerome. “It must have been awful!”
    Mr. Greene chuckled. “The bugs were nothing compared to the hunger. All they had to eat was berries from the woods. Just when they thought they could go no farther, a wagon appeared on the road. Mac was afraid they’d be captured, but the driver of the wagon was friendly. He took them to his house, where he fed them and hid them in a tunnel under his basement for three days.”
    â€œUnderground! Now I get it!” said Rico.
    â€œThat courageous person took Mac and hismama to a farm where someone else hid them in a barn for a week. I think they must have hidden at several different homes. Each stop got them closer to the river. When they finally got to the Ohio River—”
    â€œThey got in a car and came across the bridge, mon!” finished Ziggy, giggling.
    â€œYeah, right,” Mr. Greene replied with a smile. “None of these bridges had even been built yet. What really happened was, they were put in a packing box, addressed to a lady in Cincinnati, and put on a ferry boat to cross the river. The lady was here on the other side when they arrived, they were unpacked in Ohio, and were free!”
    â€œHooray!” the class cheered. “Mac and his mama were safe!”
    â€œNot quite,” said Mr. Greene, sighing. “They still had to hide for several weeks until they could get proper papers. If a slave