In the decades leading up to the Civil War, it became harder to reconcile the country’s professed ideal that “all men are created equal” with the reality that slavery allowed millions to be held in bondage. One contentious issue was the Underground Railway — a loose network that helped fugitives who were escaping from slavery. Citizens of Portland played a major role in that effort; some of their stories are noted on the markers of the Portland Freedom Trail. Paul Ledman will relate stories of the Freedom Trail to the historical background which made it necessary.