Thermal drones and laser pulses have revealed that beneath the overgrown vegetation lies a network of routes that led to boat landing locations where escaped slaves fled into Mexico. By using geographic information system (GIS) mapping to match up data from historic maps with modern topography, researchers from Texas pinpointed the secret spots along different parts of the Underground Railroad stretching across the US.
And in Kansas and Ontario, lidar revealed the “buried remnants of 1800s structures at former Underground Railroad-connected sites in towns that no longer exist”, according to the Science Channel.
In South Carolina, researchers used a technique known as magnetometry, which measures small changes in the Earth’s magnetic field to identify particular metals.
This revealed a sunken Confederate ship that was captured by escape slave Robert Smalls.
Mr Smalls and his family escaped from slavery back in 1862, sailing the CSS Planter from Confederate waters into a Union blockade, according to the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.
The findings all these different measures were documented in the new four-part docuseries “Underground Railroad: The Secret History”, aired on the Science Channel.
In South Carolina, researchers used a technique known as magnetometry, which measures small changes in the Earth’s magnetic field to identify particular metals.
This revealed a sunken Confederate ship that was captured by escape slave Robert Smalls.
Mr Smalls and his family escaped from slavery back in 1862, sailing the CSS Planter from Confederate waters into a Union blockade, according to the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.
The findings all these different measures were documented in the new four-part docuseries “Underground Railroad: The Secret History”, aired on the Science Channel.
It is thought that the majority of enslaved people helped by the Underground Railroad escaped border states like Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland.
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