UA joins National Underground Railway Network with its Nelson Hackett Project
UA joins National Underground Railway Network with its Nelson Hackett Project
National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program.
The project, headed by associate history professor Michael Pierce, provides digital history about Nelson Hackett. In 1841, he escaped enslavement in Fayetteville and fled to Canada, where he expected to be free. But he was extradited and returned to bondage in the U.S. His case energized abolitionists, who fought to change Canada’s extradition policies so no other freedom-seekers would meet Hackett’s fate.
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From the UA news release:
“Inclusion in the National Park Service Program literally puts Fayetteville on Freedom’s map,” Pierce said. “It brings national attention not only to Hackett and the region, but also to the University of Arkansas and its efforts to promote broader understandings of the past.”
Bellamy Mansion Museum received more than $219,000 from the Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Funds to help with restoration from the aftereffects of 2018’s Hurricane Florence. (Port City Daily/File)
WILMINGTON It’s been a hard-hitting two years in Wilmington for local tourist attractions and museums, such as the Bellamy Mansion. Before the pandemic shuttered most spaces in 2020, Hurricane Florence hit in 2018. For Bellamy, it equated vast damage and loss in revenue from closing for one week. With the help of the Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Funds Grant, the mansion will receive $219,735.
“We had damage in excess of $30,000 and lost revenue of another $25,000,” Bellamy’s executive director Gareth Evans said. “It didn’t rise to our deductible, so essentially we weren’t covered.”