Independence NHP - Underground Railroad Freedom Network - Independence Visitors Center - Phladelphia, Pennsylvania
Posted by: 
gparkes
N 39° 57.053 W 075° 08.994
18S E 487195 N 4422316
This location is the Independence National Historic Park Visitors Center. There are eight NPS Passport Cancellation Stamps at the Park Ranger's desk.
Waymark Code: WMA3RX
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 11/11/2010
Views: 9
The home of this stamp, along with seven other stamps, is in the <ahref="http://www.independencevisitorcenter.com/">Independence Visitors Center. Here you can find information for local sites as well as a presence by the National Park Service rangers.
To visit Independence Hall, tickets are required. Visit the <ahref="http://www.nps.gov/inde/">National Park Service website to get your tickets.
Underground Railroad Freedom Network
The National Park Service website has the following information about the Underground Railroad:
The Underground Railroad refers to efforts of enslaved African Americans to gain their freedom by escaping bondage. Wherever slavery existed, there were efforts to escape, at first to maroon communities in remote or rugged terrain on the edge of settled areas. Their acts of self-emancipation made them “fugitives” according to the laws of the times, though in retrospect “freedom seeker” seems a more accurate description. While most freedom seekers began their journey unaided and many completed their self-emancipation without assistance, each decade in which slavery was legal in the United States saw an increase in active efforts to assist escape. In many cases the decision to assist a freedom seeker may have been a spontaneous reaction as the opportunity presented itself. However, in some places, particularly after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the Underground Railroad was deliberate and organized.
Public Law 105-203 the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act of 1998 directs the National Park Service (NPS), to establish a program that tells the story of resistance against the institution of slavery in the United States through escape and flight. This story is illustrative of a basic founding principle of this Nation, that all human beings embrace the right to self-determination and freedom from oppression. Through this National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program, NPS is demonstrating the significance of the Underground Railroad not only in the eradication of slavery, but as a cornerstone of our national civil rights movement.