On Tuesday, Nov. 11, and Thursday, Nov. 13, the Underground Railroad Coalition of Delaware and the University of Delaware’s Center for Historic Architecture and Design will take another step toward officially recognizing many places in Delaware, a good number of which are in southern New Castle County, as spots on the Underground Railroad.
    “This has just been a huge undertaking statewide,” said Deborah Buckson of the Historic Odessa Foundation.
    Debbie Martin, administrator of the coalition, said the two groups have been working on this project for two years, with the University of Delaware leading and the coalition working on the advisory committee. The goal of the project is to get the route accepted as a Scenic and Historic Highway under the Delaware Department of Transportation.
    “It is a road corridor that offers an alternative travel route to our major highways while telling a story about Delaware’s heritage, recreational activities or beauty,” states the official nomination for the byway.
    Martin said this acceptance will mark historic spaces or the site of historic spaces related to the Underground Railroad in Delaware. While it doesn’t actively preserve the spaces, the coalition and the center act with organizations such as local jurisdictions to preserve the spaces.
    “There’s not necessarily any active effect on them,” Martin said.
    However, she said some future possibilities include putting out markers for these areas and using the byway as an attraction for Underground Railroad-themed tours.
    “We’re hoping to have something like a continuous trail that tour companies can follow that’s united,” she said.
    Before the byway can be approved, the coalition and center needed to write a nomination and develop a Corridor Management Plan. The nomination has already been completed. According to it, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway in Delaware will run from the Maryland-Delaware state line at Sandtown, Md. up to Centerville, Pa. Along the way, it passes through Camden, Wyoming, Dover, Cheswold, Clayton, Middletown, Port Penn, Delaware City, New Castle City and Wilmington. When complete, it is expected to connect with routes in Maryland, which is also going through the process of setting out its own Harriet Tubman Byway, and potential routes in Pennsylvania and New York.
    “It generally follows what we consider Harriet Tubman’s routes,” said Debbie Martin, administrator of the coalition.
    The nomination stated Tubman’s routes can be discerned from an interview she gave to historian Wilbur Siebert in 1987. The route also encompasses other well-documented local stories.
    “With a flat, easily traversed, partially forested landscape, Delaware offered many avenues of escape,” the nomination states.
    The nomination splits a typical freedom-seeker’s route through Delaware into five sections, Southern New Castle County being the second part. Delaware was the last slave state, and the area contained both pro- and anti-black areas. For example, the pro-slavery wheat farmers in The Levels area were a danger to escapees, while the Town of Middletown had many abolitionist residents.
    The local sites the nomination marks as historically significant to the underground railroad include The Corbit-Sharp House in Odessa, which housed fugitive slaves; the Appoquinimink Friends Meeting House in Odessa, where many abolitionists in the area worshipped; the former site of the Hunn Farm at Middletown High School, where fugitive slaves were captured; the African-American-affili- ated Ebenezer Church southwest of Townsend and the location of former “free black” communities on Stewart Street in Port Penn and Polktown near Delaware City. Most of the route goes through Southern New Castle County by way of Del. 15, then moves to U.S. 301, Del. 299 and Del. 9, which is also a part of the Coastal Heritage Scenic Byway.
    “This really makes us a destination,” Buckson said.
    Before the byway’s management plan can be developed, the coalition and center are looking for input. Martin said they invite stakeholders, local government officials and others to come to two public workshops to give comments. These will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 11, at the Old State House Museum at The Green in Dover and on Thursday, Nov. 13, at the New Castle Court House State Museum on 211 Delaware St. in New Castle City from 4 to 7 p.m. There will be a formal presentation at the latter meeting.
    “We hope that people like the [nomination] and like the idea of it and commit time to the plan as we go forward,” Martin said.
    For more information or to view the nomination, go to http://dspace.udel.edu:8080/dspace/handle/19716/3411.