Leaves crunch underfoot. The chilled air seeps through your thin clothing. The sound of gunshots ring in your ears. The dense trees cover the sky as your eyes desperately rake the canopy, searching for the pinprick of light leading you to safety. The North Star.

Although it sounds like fiction, this is a scenario anyone can be a part of. Participants of Follow the North Star at Conner Prairie have a chance to experience the Underground Railroad firsthand. At NHS, AP U.S. History students can get credit for experiencing the hands-on adventure. For two hours on select dates in
November, visitors can be transported back to 1836 to understand one of the most notable eras in American history.

“People often think of the Disney Channel idea where life was hard but then [the slaves] escaped to Canada and lived happily ever after,” program manager Rosy Arnold said. “But in reality, only a small percentage made it.”

Participants are guided through the Conner Prairie grounds at night, traveling from house to house with only the directions of kind-hearted Quakers. Escaping close calls of gunshots, fearful settlers, and in-your-face Southerners wanting to sell you back to your owner, visitors are put right into the runaway slaves’ shoes.
“[Follow the North Star] gives people an opportunity to feel what people in history felt,” Arnold said, “to show just a glimmer of what people experienced.”

After the uncertainty and fear is over, the participants gather for a debriefing session to reflect and discuss what they have experienced. Arnold mentioned it’s common for the topic to transition to bullying. She said in both cases an imbalance of power occurs where one individual is stripping away the dignity of another.

Mrs. Leslie Ringle, the AP U.S. History teacher at NHS, gives extra credit to her students who attend the event. She mentions that although students feel high school life is hard, it can’t be compared to the extreme of slavery. However, Ringle said, students can apply the runaways’ values to their own lives.

“There are parallels in the lessons and strength people had,” Ringle said.
Not only does the focus lean towards bullying, but it also highlights the current issue of international slavery.

Arnold pointed out that the fight for slavery has not ended, even though it no longer exists in the United States. Follow the North Star attempts to get participants looking outside of their own lives, and into the lives of others.

“Students are insulated and don’t have the understandings of minorities. The legacy of slavery still persists today,” Ringle said.

Through Follow the North Star, students are exposed to the past, not only to learn about history, but to gain empathy for those who have and will go through the struggles of slavery so that hopefully in the future “we [will] know better, so we [will] do better,” as Ringle said.