Historian retraces Underground Railroad route for America’s 250th anniversary

Anthony Cohen launched #FreedomWalk2026 on May 4 from Sandy Spring, Maryland, retracing an Underground Railroad route. The eight-week journey was scheduled to end July 4 in Ontario, Canada.

Cohen, president of the Menare Foundation, first walked the route in 1996, leaving Sandy Spring on May 4 and reaching Amherstburg, Ontario, on July 7 after about two months on the trail. The original trek was 1,200 miles by foot, boat and rail; other accounts put it at about 750 miles. The 1996 walk crossed five states and passed through towns, safehouses, African American communities and Quaker sanctuaries. Cohen made a second Underground Railroad journey in 1998 from Mobile, Alabama, to Windsor, Ontario.

This year's walk follows the same broad path with foot, boat and rail travel and includes some train, horse and buggy transportation. About 600 miles are being covered on foot and about 150 miles by other transport. The route averages about 12 miles a day, up to six days a week. Crossing the border put freedom seekers beyond U.S. slave-capture laws.

Harriet Tubman was born enslaved in Dorchester County, Maryland, around 1822. She escaped in 1849 and became the Underground Railroad's best-known conductor, leading dozens of enslaved people to freedom and helping some settle in Canada. Along the 2026 walk, the Harriet Tubman Journey to Freedom statue travels with the group as a 2,200-pound bronze sculpture by artist Wesley Wofford, designed in 2019. At stops in schools, churches and community centers, it is a traveling educational exhibit.

Author Tom DeWolf, whose family history is tied to the enslaver side, has framed reconciliation and healing as part of the journey. Maryland State Delegate W. Gregory Wims, whose family history includes slavery and segregation, called Cohen's effort timely. Chris Mohr of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends praised the exhibit at Old Kennett Meetinghouse, a former Underground Railroad stop in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.