Underground Railroad stops mark abolitionist milestones

The David Ruggles Center for Early Florence History and Underground Railroad Studies is one of the newest additions to the Network to Freedom. The research center and museum, scheduled to be unveiled on Memorial Day weekend, will feature exhibits dedicated to the founding of the Northampton village as a commune of utopians and radical abolitionists in the 1840s, the Underground Railroad, and Florence’s prominent abolitionists such as Ruggles, who helped an estimated 600 runaways find freedom. The center’s website has a map of Florence’s African-American Heritage Trail, which includes houses that were Underground Railroad stations and a statue of Sojourner Truth, a village resident who had been a slave and became a leading abolitionist. Guided tours are offered on the second Saturday of the month between May and November. 225 Nonotuck St., www.davidrugglescenter.org