Plog Number 201
The Underground Railroad
Hello Ploggers, how are you. Tonight is a Sunday night and I am pretty tired from a great weekend. I am enjoying the day, but I have heard that the smoke is coming back to us from the🔥 wild fires in Canada. I noticed it tonight as I drove and looked at the horizon. It will be a good day to stay in and run the AC if you can. Oy! And again I say, if Canada is burning this much, then what is left of the land mass up there?? It has been burning for over a month and the weather guy says that it will be burning all summer long.
Over the weekend, my daughter and I took a bus 🚌 trip to Detroit. We were headed to the Motown Hitsville Museum where Berry Gordy started Motown. I had been there before many years ago. At that time, we also went to an African American museum. This time the trip was a little different. I think the host gave us sparse details in order to preserve the ✨ surprise. It really worked. The first part of the trip involved a stop at an almost 200 year old⛪️ church. The Church was The First Congregational Church of Detroit. The church runs an Underground Railroad Living Museum. The Church was built in 1844.
The first thing they do is put a wrist band on you that has the label “SLAVE”. So for the next hour you are a slave. Then they take you to the bowels of the church accompanied by a conductor. He instructs you to do as he says in order to survive. The experience was frightening, enlightening and very educational. It made me appreciate how smart the slaves were at reading signals and having passwords and being UNDERGROUND. Also at how horrid slavery was to risk so much to escape. It is no wonder that to this day we are a secretive type of people. We don't divulge much easily. We had to be this way for survival.
I am so glad that we had this experience. They encouraged us to send others to them so that more people can learn and understand true history. Here is my chance to do so. If you hear of any bus trips going to Detroit, just go. It's more than just the old Detroit that produced cars and Motown. Many people are actively trying to ✏️ erase and minimized our history. Learn, live it and respect it RECLAIM!