On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers led by Major Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas with the announcement that tens of thousands of African-Americans had been emancipated and were now free. The announcement came two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in Confederate states. But because that proclamation was made during the Civil War, it was ignored by Confederate states and it wasn’t until the end of the war that the Executive Order was enforced in the South.
Newly freed slaves celebrated emancipation with “prayer, feasting, song, and dance”. The following year, the first official Juneteenth celebration was born.
In honor of Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Jubilee Day, we look to a tiny town in Iowa and its connection with the abolitionist movement.
Historic Highway 6 cuts through some of the prettiest rolling territory in Southwest Iowa. Just eight miles southwest of Atlantic, Iowa (home of the Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Company) and just a mile south of Route 6 is the tiny town of Lewis, Iowa--population 400.
Edwin Perkins, the inventor of Kool-Aid, is touted as Lewis' most notable person. But if you venture a touch west of the village, you will find situated on a hill overlooking the western bank of the East Nishnabotna River the historic Hitchcock House.
Featured in the award-winning documentary River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6, the two-story structure was built in 1856 by Reverend George B. Hitchcock, and the Hitchcock family called it home until 1865.
The house became an important part of the Underground Railroad, when Reverend Hitchcock, an abolitionist, provided sanctuary to approximately 200 escaped slaves. The Hitchcock House is one of a very few remaining Underground 'stations' in Iowa.
The Underground Railroad by Charles T. Webber, 1893.
"The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early to mid-19th century, and used by enslaved African-Americans to escape into free states and Canada. The scheme was assisted by abolitionists and others sympathetic to the cause of the escapees. Not literally but metaphorically a railroad, the workers (both black and white, free and enslaved) who secretly aided the fugitives are also collectively referred to as the "Underground Railroad", as Wikipedia notes.
Fugitive slaves would cross the Iowa border from Missouri, and also slip over from Kansas into Cass County, Iowa where the Hitchcock House was a welcoming safe haven. The Hitchcock family risked violating federal law in helping the slaves.
The Hitchcock House underwent a major restoration in the 1980s, and is a National Historic Landmark interpreting the history of the Hitchcock family and the Underground Railroad. It is also part of the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
Hitchcock House is located at 63788-567th Lane, Lewis, Iowa. Contact 712-769-2323 or visit www.hitchcockhouse.org for more information, special events, and tour guidelines. (COVID-19 restrictions and regulations may impact the schedule, so do contact them ahead of time.)
To purchase Fourth Wall Films' Emmy-nominated River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6 or other award-winning documentaries on DVD, click HERE!
You can also get the River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6 DVD at the Wilton Candy Kitchen in Wilton, Iowa right on Historic Route 6!
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