Florida's Underground Railroad History Talk in Tarpon Springs

Magdalena Lamarre will present "Southern Road to Freedom" on Saturday, June 27, at 2 p.m. in Tarpon Springs. Lamarre, a retired history professor at Miami-Dade College, will examine how Spanish Florida granted asylum to runaway slaves from the American South beginning in the late 17th century.

The presentation covers Florida's role as a Spanish territory, the escape routes enslaved Africans used, and the Black communities they built. This history predates the Northern Underground Railroad commonly taught in schools.