Navigating the Underground Railroad in the Hudson Valley (Presented by Peter Bunten)

Viewed as a triumphalist effort of liberation, the Underground Railroad has rightly been called “America’s first civil rights movement”. Beneath the triumph, however, lay danger, risk, and displacement. This Walkway Lecture Series presentation explores both aspects of the Underground Railroad story as it played out for people and places in the Mid-Hudson Valley of New York. Peter Bunten is chairman of the Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project. Through MHAHP, he is affiliated with the Dutchess County Historical Society, Celebrating the African Spirit, and the Underground Railroad Consortium of New York State. Before retirement, Mr. Bunten worked as the Education Manger for Historic Hudson Valley. He is a native of Poughkeepsie and currently lives in the Bronx.