Journey to Freedom: Uncovering the Grayson Sisters' Escape from Nebraska (Blankenau) Section-Gettysburg Monuments “As a lad sailing in

“As a lad sailing in Charleston Harbor

Matthew Gallman

many of them never before published

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Journey to Freedom: Uncovering the Grayson Sisters' Escape from Nebraska (Blankenau) Section-Gettysburg Monuments “As a lad sailing inby Gail Shaffer Blankenau In late November of 1858 two enslaved Black womenCelia Grayson, age twenty two, and Eliza Grayson, age twentyescaped the Stephen F. Nuckolls household in southeastern Nebraska. John Williamson, a man of African American and Cherokee descent from Iowa, guided them through the dark to the Missouri River, where they boarded a skiff and crossed the icy waters, heading for their first stop on the Underground Railroad at Civil