Navigate the network to freedom
To what lengths will humans go to obtain freedom and equality? "Fighting for Freedom: Lewis Hayden and the Underground Railroad" tells the story of the Underground Railroad as America’s first civil rights movement via Lewis Hayden, a tireless freedom fighter who escaped from slavery in 1844 and became a leader of the abolitionist movement in Boston, Massachusetts. The film incorporates original cinematography, historically accurate re-enactments, and archival documents, including a letter Hayden sent to his former enslaver upon reaching freedom in Canada.
Services
- Content Development
- Scriptwriting
- Graphic/Visual Design & Development
- 3D Animation
- Original Filming
- Aerial Drone Filming
Original cinematography along the actual escape route in Kentucky and Ohio is intercut with re-enactments of Hayden's dramatic escape from slavery. A re-enactment of African American abolitionists responding to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law was filmed in Hayden’s actual house on Boston’s Beacon Hill. The film includes Grammy Award winner Rhiannon Giddens’s song, “At the Purchaser’s Option.”
Lewis Hayden's story serves as a symbol of the stories of so many men and women who sought freedom via the Underground Railroad while connecting the various sites that are part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
interpretive film
annual visitors
plus years of history
plus sites in over 30 states played the film
horses
1840s buggy
re-enactors
original letter form Lewis Hayden to his original slave owner once he reached freedom in Canada
