I am an aging historian who found a trove of papers in a local archive that had been forgotten with time. One item that I discovered is an autobiography of a fugitive slave with detailed picture drawings of the times. Another item is a newspaper interview that details the work of the African American Mysteries, The Order of the Men of Oppression, which was a masonic-like organization that the article claims assisted 40,000 fugitives from enslavement.

I would like to republish these items so that the next generation can read for themselves the thoughts and actions of black people, who in their own words, told the experiences of confronting their destiny.

When I read these pages, I was transfixed in narratives that have been excluded from the American story. The information changed my life. So much so, I wrote a short play based on the lives and personalities of the 1800s heroes and heroines who fought enslavement and lived to talk about it. The play has already been presented on stage to a standing ovation audience, but it needs to be presented in classrooms.

Although rejected from traditional publishing companies, I would still like to get these works published because of their importance to the American story. Perhaps the publishers’ rejection is a blessing. These centuries old publications document voices that have already been suppressed for more than 180 years. They don’t need to be edited to appease today’s sensitivities about the enslavement period in American history.

The individuals who wrote or spoke these narratives, ended up giving up their lives for the freedom cause. May their voices live on.