Skip to content
The Historic New Orleans Collection

Runnin’ and Runnin’ in Louisiana: The Underground Railroad

October 15, 2024

First-person accounts of enslaved people who sought freedom enliven this exploration of the Underground Railroad in Louisiana.

A black and white illustration depicts a group of African-American individuals walking with determination. A prominent figure in the foreground, wearing a headscarf and long dress, points forward, leading the group. The artwork is dynamic and expressive.

Learn about the Underground Railroad from primary sources in this interactive presentation. Excerpts from runaway slave ads, oral histories of formerly enslaved people, photographs, and more illustrate the stakes, challenges, and triumphs of freedom seekers.

About

Derven Scholars

Related Stories

View More
First Draft

Dawoud Bey’s Ghosts of the Plantation South

First Draft

Threads of Motherhood

Related Collection Highlights

View More
Portrait of a woman with dark hair, wearing a black dress with a white collar. She is seated, holding a small object in her left hand, against a plain background. Her expression is calm and composed.

Cane River Collection

Over 1,400 legal and financial documents amount to a detailed record of one slice of 19th-century Black Creole life.

2025 0084 2 001 O10 2026 02 20 173610 pddd

“The Scourged Back”

HNOC acquired an original copy of the infamous image that took Civil War-era America by storm, quickly becoming a tool of the abolitionist cause.

Detail of the back cover from the Elmwood Plantation menu, showing an illustration featuring the columns of the building.

Elmwood Plantation Menu

This stylish menu from a restaurant in a former plantation home belies the site’s dark history of human enslavement.

Related Virtual Exhibitions

View More
Virtual exhibitions

Purchased Lives: New Orleans and the Domestic Slave Trade, 1808–1865

Related Books

View More

Related News

View More
A tour guide gestures towards an exhibition display at HNOC.
Announcement

“Captive State” Book: Upcoming Local and Regional Literary Events

September 17, 2025
Explore opportunities to learn more about HNOC’s latest publication at upcoming community events.
Carceral City book cover
Press Release

HNOC, LHA Select “The Carceral City” to Receive 2024 Williams Prize

March 19, 2025
With powerful and evocative prose, author John K. Bardes boldly reinterprets relations between slavery and prison development in American history.

Subscribe to Our Education Newsletter

20100429 Student Workshop MC016 adj web