On a bicycle journey retracing the Underground Railroad to Canada, AME churches were central stops.
couldn’t get in touch. The recording said, “Have a blessed day,” and I left messages on the voice mail and on the Facebook page with no reply. But we had one more shot. It happened that we three cyclists would be riding through on a Sunday morning. Maybe we would just stop in for services. We had to try. After all, this was the Star of the East.
The early morning sun was firing up for a hot one. We had a sixty-mile day laid out, starting north on the Eastern Shore through Greensboro, Maryland, then to Sandtown, Dover, and Wilmington, Delaware. In interviews long after her Underground Railroad days, Harriet Tubman told historian Wilbur Siebert that this was her preferred route. As we rolled north into the heat, we made a first stop before crossing into Delaware.
The spot is known as Red Bridges, and it’s the first place where the Choptank River is narrow and shallow enough to wade across. Freedom seekers would cross here, far back in the woods, to a place just a few miles from the state line. More patrols and hunters waited once they crossed into Delaware, but the travelers were almost out of Maryland. There was a feeling of sacredness to this little glen. Sunbeams filtered down through the trees, and there was the sound of moving water.
It was Father’s Day. He recognized the fathers and, to numerous amens, “the women who became fathers.” As the service closed, the ushers passed out envelopes wrapped in gold braid with a handwritten “Happy Father’s Day” inscription. Inside was a small brownie and a sheet of prayers. Among them was Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden with care. I will give you rest.”After the service, the parishioners fussed over us.
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