A Glance at a Historic Underground Railroad Site

 "Until you stop and think about the people that were involved, not only the people that were slaves but, the people that took the chance to do what was right to free other people," said Pastor Herb Perry of Putnam Presbyterian Church.

Today we take you inside of a historical site for the Underground Railroad to a place that helped pave the way for slaves into freedom.

Slaves would travel all night with the protection of the darkness and come to this church and stay in this small room for protection and security from the sunlight.

Herb Perry, the Pastor of Putnam Presbyterian church told us how his church was used as a safe house for runway slaves.

"There were storage units that the slaves actually stayed in. If you go down there you can see the indentations in the walls. They had an underground passage underneath the road that ran down to the river. The slaves would stay in here until dark and then they would go down to the river, catch a boat." said Pastor Perry.

Activist Fredrick Douglass, a symbol of slavery gave his famous *The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro* speech at the Putnam church.

"He was friends with Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote the book ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ and her was brother the Pastor here so they kind of made the connection through that family. Pastor Perry said, she enticed her brother or influenced her brother to get Fredrick to come here."

And, the podium that Douglass delivered his speech at still stands.

"He stood up there and he was quite a man because back in his day you didn’t do those kind of things, you didn’t come into a white area being a black man and get up and say i’m here supporting freedom," said Pastor Perry.

Much like the podium the spirit of those famous words spoken remains at Putnam Presbyterian to this day.