CBMM’s Sailing to Freedom exhibition set to open Sept. 27

ST. MICHAELS, MD – The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is pleased to announce its latest exhibition, Sailing to Freedom: The Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad, will open to guests on Friday, Sept. 27, in the Changing Exhibitions Gallery.

Opening during International Underground Railroad month and running through 2025, this special exhibition explores the lesser-known maritime aspects of the Underground Railroad while highlighting stories of enslaved African Americans’ journeys to freedom along Atlantic Coast water routes, including the Chesapeake Bay.

Based upon the 2021 book “Sailing to Freedom,” the exhibition expands the understanding of how freedom was achieved by sea and what the journey looked like for many African Americans. Self-emancipation along the Underground Railroad was not entirely by overland routes. Many enslaved persons made their way to freedom using the Bay and other coastal water routes along the Atlantic seaboard.

CBMM will host an exclusive opening event for CBMM members on Thursday, Sept. 26, beginning at 5:30pm, to explore the exhibition before it opens to all guests the next day. CBMM members can register now at cbmm.org/SailingtoFreedomOpening.

“Recent scholarly research has revealed new details about enslaved peoples’ access to the waterfront and boats, their knowledge of maritime skills, and their remarkable ability to navigate both land and water to achieve their freedom,” Director of Curatorial Affairs & Exhibitions Jen Dolde said. “This is especially evident in the Chesapeake region, where the rivers and Bay provided the primary modes for trade and transportation. Primary source records abound with astounding stories of the ingenuity and courage of enslaved people.”

In Sailing to Freedom, guests will meet figures like Henry “Box” Brown, who escaped to freedom in 1849 by arranging to have himself mailed in a wooden crate to abolitionists in Philadelphia. This summer, teens in CBMM’s Museum Masters camp constructed a recreation of Brown’s crate for the exhibition, basing their design on descriptions from historic manuscripts.

The exhibition’s storytelling is supplemented by artifacts curated from CBMM’s collection and other sources. This includes a model of a log canoe model representing boats used by freedom seekers in the mid-1800s, tools used by enslaved people working in the shipbuilding trade, and a painting of the Baltimore Clipper Young Brutus showing Black mariners on deck.

A portrait of the ship Katherine Jackson, which transported 272 African Americans sold from Maryland and Washington, D.C. to sugar plantations in Louisiana, reveals the dark history of enslavement, while a quilt crafted by members of the National African American Quilt Guild, on loan from the Baltimore-based Universal Sailing Club and commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Souls at Sea remembrance ceremony, depicts 14 ships that transported captive Africans as part of the slave trade.

Sailing to Freedom was curated by New Bedford Whaling Museum Curator of Maritime History Michael Dyer and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth’s Timothy Walker, who edited the book that serves as source material. Major funding was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities through the New Bedford Historical Society, with support from numerous community partners, and is brought to CBMM with assistance from the Portsmouth Museums (Va.).

Sailing to Freedom at CBMM is funded, in part, through CBMM’s Regional Folklife Center under the Maryland Traditions program of the Maryland State Arts Council and the generosity of the following supporters: Joan Richtsmeier and Bill Ryan, Beverly and Richard Tilghman, Meta and Bill Boyd, Dock Street Foundation, Dorie and Jeff McGuiness, and Marcia Shapiro and Rabbi Peter Hyman. Viewing this exhibition is included with CBMM general admission, which is always free for CBMM members. Learn more at cbmm.org.