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The Secret Lyrics of the Underground Railroad (Adults)

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Connie Martin explains the connections of plantation songs to meanings and interpretations of lyrics that aided enslaved people to find freedom.

Powerful, sacred songs that were derived from the heart of the antebellum enslaved Africans were a melodic outflowing of religious expression, passion, and the hope to be free. Negro spirituals, as originated in America, tell of sorrow, trials and tribulations, secrecy and hiding, and hope for a sense of community. Join Connie Martin as she explains the connections of plantation songs, or Negro Spirituals with meanings and interpretations of lyrics of some songs used in regions of the South that signaled multiple signs and tips that aided freedom seekers as they headed to Canada.

Connie Martin earned a BA from Illinois State University and a MA from Aurora University with a thesis in Integrating African American History in Educational Curriculums. A retired middle school Language Arts teacher of 32 years, 35-year Aqua Fitness Master Trainer, Senior Fitness Instructor, and mother of three sons, Connie finds joy in telling the secret codes and hidden messages in her family quilts her ancestors used over 200 years ago by abolitionists and fugitive slaves to signify escape routes to the North.

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