Join us for our monthly SCOGGS meeting and a friend to hear from our special guest-speaker Professor Andrew Feight presents
“New Light on the Underground Railroad in the Appalachian Foothills of Ohio”
Prof. Andrew Feight will discuss the central role of African American settlements and churches in the operations of a inter-racial “network to freedom.” Feight will trace the stories of freedom seekers and those Appalachian Ohioans, white and black, who helped them escape and resist the institution of slavery.
Andrew Feight is a Professor of American History and the Director of the Center for Public History at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio. He is the Developer and Editor of the Scioto Historical Project, a public history mobile app and website that explores the history of Portsmouth, Ohio and the surrounding Appalachian region.
A native of Sandy Springs, Georgia, Feight graduated from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and received his Ph.D. in American History from the University of Kentucky, where he specialized in the history of slavery and the abolition movement.
Currently, Feight is serving as the Director of Research and Outreach for an Appalachian Regional Commission POWER Grant project. Known as the Appalachian Freedom Heritage Initiative, the project seeks to document and mark Underground Railroad historical sites in the Tristate region of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. When completed, twenty-seven sites will be officially recognized and listed by the National Park Service’s Network To Freedom marker program.