Stories of Worcester's Former Slaves

Boston is well-known as a major stop on the Underground Railroad that brought freed slaves to the north before the Civil War. The history of former slaves in Massachusetts' second-largest city, Worcester, is not so well known.

But in the early 1800s, Worcester was a hub for freed blacks who were drawn to the politically and socially active African American community there.

Recollections of eight slaves who escaped to Worcester have now been republished for the first time in more than 100 years in a new book called "From Bondage to Belonging: The Worcester Slave Narratives."

WBUR's Delores Handy spoke with the book's editors, College of the Holy Cross professors Eugene McCarthy and Thomas Doughton.