300 Miles to Freedom

On June 4, 1844, 27-year-old John W. Jones and four other slave men quietly escaped from a plantation in Leesburg, VA, heading north along the Underground Railroad. The quintet traveled mostly by night in order to avoid the bounty hunters who scoured the Virginia-Maryland-Pennsylvania corridor in search of runaway slaves. Jones began his new life as a free man in Elmira, NY, where he worked as a church sexton, learned to read and write, and eventually saved enough money to buy a house that served as a refuge for those seeking liberty in Canada. This wonderful documentary short by Richard Breyer and Anand Kamalakar traces Jones's remarkable odyssey, highlighting the courageous abolitionists who provided him and his traveling companions with food and shelter (actions that were against the law in pre–Civil War America). The filmmakers follow the escapees' route, interviewing assorted subjects along the way—historians, ministers, farmers, ferryboat captains, and others. The film also identifies the still-extant houses where the men took refuge during their perilous flight. Most astonishing is a segment that recalls a long-forgotten chapter of Civil War history: the Confederate prisoner-of-war camp at Elmira. Jones worked here during the conflict as part of the facility's burial staff—the fact that he would voluntarily provide dignified interments to men who sought to perpetuate his enslavement is heartbreakingly ironic. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (P. Hall)