Session of 1998
                   
Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 1620
         
By Senators Steineger, Jones and Gilstrap
         
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            9             A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION memorializing Congress to pass the
10             Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act of 1997.
11            
12           WHEREAS, Pending legislation before the U.S. Congress (H.R. 1635
13       and S. 887) would authorize the National Park Service to link together
14       the hundreds of underground railroad sites and to provide stories, pro-
15       grams and activities for the benefit, education and enjoyment of all Amer-
16       icans; and
17           WHEREAS, The underground railroad was an experience and pro-
18       cedure whereby many enslaved men, women and children found their
19       way to freedom; and
20           WHEREAS, Many free-state settlers in the state of Kansas were in-
21       volved in this activity. The frontier community of Quindaro was founded
22       as an abolition, temperance town in a bend of the Missouri River a few
23       miles north of present day Kansas City. While the adjacent river com-
24       munities of Kansas City and Leavenworth were controlled by individuals
25       of pro-slavery sentiment, Quindaro provided a safe and reliable ferry and
26       steamship landing for emigrants wishing to settle in Kansas as free staters.
27       The Lane Trail, established by the honorable James H. Lane from Iowa
28       through eastern Nebraska and on through northeastern Kansas to Topeka
29       was a destination used by many free staters and abolishionists to guide
30       run away slaves to Iowa and eventual freedom in Canada. Many con-
31       necting routes existed throughout northeastern Kansas for abolishionists
32       to guide their charges to the Lane Trail. A successful trip took several
33       weeks, involved the sheltering of individuals in all types of structures and
34       required the silence and trust of a vast network of individuals. Many of
35       the individuals involved in the process were unidentified during the years
36       of the underground railroad, and their identities remain unknown today.
37       Likewise, the facilities used were kept secret but some have been iden-
38       tified and are known today; and
39           WHEREAS, Much of the history of territorial Kansas was linked to
40       the issue of whether this state would be free or slave, and the efforts of
41       the free staters assisting those wishing to achieve freedom, plus the des-
42       tiny of those seeking freedom are worth memorializing by preserving what
43       remain of underground railroad sites: Now, therefore,

SCR 1620

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  1           Be it resolved by the Senate of the State of Kansas, the House of Rep-
  2       resentatives concurring therein: That we memorialize the Congress of
  3       the United States to pass the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom
  4       Act of 1997; and
  5           Be it further resolved: That the Secretary of State be directed to send
  6       enrolled copies of this resolution to the members of the Kansas Con-
  7       gressional delegation and to Marjorie Bradshaw, 3910 S.W. Parlington
  8       Road, Topeka, Kansas 66610.
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