Florida’s Underground Railroad: Southern Road to Freedom

This is an opportunity to explore a topic missing from the history books. Enslaved Africans sought to regain their freedom and fought to maintain it, establishing "free towns" in Florida when the territory was part of the Spanish empire. Escaping slavery using Florida's Underground Railroad, they lived free before the abolition of slavery in the United States. Black Floridians played a role in building and defending St. Augustine and were an integral part of Florida's history and development before it became a United States territory. Speaker: Magdalena Lamarre is a retired professor from Miami Dade College (MDC) where she taught History and Sociology. During her tenure, she co-produced three oral history documentaries and was awarded the prestigious MDC Alumni Association Endowed Teaching Chair in 2011 along with the NISOD Excellence Award in 1994 and 2012. She earned her MA in History from SUNY at Stony Brook University and completed her post-graduate studies at the University of Miami and Florida International University in Education and Sociology.