On Freedom Road: Bicycle Explorations and Reckonings on the Underground Railroad

Climate scientist Goodrich (A Voyage Across an Ancient Ocean) documents his bike rides along “routes of the Underground Railroad” in this illuminating blend of history and travelogue. Aiming to “get closer to the people who walked these paths, and to their descendants,” Goodrich begins by following Harriet Tubman’s route from Maryland’s Eastern Shore to Ontario, Canada. Along the way, Goodrich unearths moments of historical significance in places as unlikely as an eyebrow threading salon in lower Manhattan; formerly the offices the American Anti-Slavery Society, it was where Tubman once sought funds to help bring her parents north. Bicycling north along the Mississippi River from New Orleans, Goodrich documents the horrors of the “Second Middle Passage” that rerouted enslaved people from declining tobacco plantations in Maryland and Virginia to cotton plantations in the Deep South. Elsewhere, he relates the stories of Josiah Henson, whose published account of his life in slavery and 1830 escape from a Kentucky plantation inspired Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and abolitionist Lewis Leary, who was mortally wounded during John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. Throughout, Goodrich reveals how slavery is remembered and misremembered in America, and makes a convincing case that “national trauma, like a wound, tends to heal when it’s exposed to air.” It’s a harrowing yet inspirational ride. Photos. Agent: John Silbersack, Bent Agency. (Feb.)