UGRR Highlights - Section 1: Mobile Bay, AL to Fulton, MS

Mobile Bay, AL

  • Former slave market in the old historic district of Mobile. This was known as the most active slave market in town.
  • Big Zion AME Church at 112 S. Bayou St. was organized in 1842, now one of the oldest Black institutions in Mobile. Originally named Little Zion, but after extensive remodeling in 1896, renamed Big Zion.
  • Union Baptist Church. In front of the church, visitors view the bust of Cudjoe Lewis, a member who donated the land for the church. Cudjoe was the longest living imported slave originally from Africa. After the Civil War, he settled and lived in Africatown.
  • Africatown, junction of Cut Off Rd. and Bay Bridge Road. In 1860, the last shipment of slaves were brought into Mobile Bay illegally. After the Civil War, this group of Africans created their own settlement where they practiced their native tribal customs, including language. Learn more about this historic area at the Library of Congress.
  • Old Plateau Cemetery Plaque and Africatown Graveyard at junction of Cut Off Rd. and Bay Bridge Road. Founded in 1876, it is the final resting place of enslaved Africans, African-Americans, and a Buffalo Soldier.

Baldwin County, AL

  • Historic Blakeley State Park is the site of the last major battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Blakeley wherein nine black regiments of the U.S. Colored Troops fought.
  • Montgomery Hill Baptist Church is the oldest surviving church in Baldwin County. It houses a slave gallery which provides a historical statement of the social arrangements of a slave-owning society.
  • Hal's Lake is off route and inaccessible, however this body of water is named for an escaped slave from Mississippi who lived here undetected and even recruited other slaves to his hideout. This led local plantation owners to attribute the disappearances to the Underground Railroad.

Grove Hill, AL

  • Clarke County Museum at 116 Cobbs St. This museum has slave artifacts and documentation on nearby escape routes.

Lowndes County, MS

  • Concord Christian Methodist Episcopal Church at 1213 Concord Rd. It was established in 1867, right after the end of the Civil War.

Columbus, MS

  • Missionary Union Baptist Church at 1207 Fifth Ave. N. The oldest African American Church in northeast Mississippi.  Reverend Tony Montgomery will welcome you to his flock if you stop in on Sunday.
  • Columbus Public Library holds an archive collection of slavery documents, newspaper clippings and other artifacts.

* Denotes a site not listed on the map.