The Film: Interview Transcripts: Raymond Dobard

Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., professor of art and art history on
the importance of oral history
It is very difficult to find factual information on the Underground Railroad.  Because it was a covert activity, most of the information, especially about quilt codes, would be passed down by word of mouth from one person to the next and then from one generation to the next.  We hear about what has happened.  I know that many scholars have been combing publications of the 19^th Century, and there are some references there, but even in these publications, any reference to the underground railroad is a vague reference and wisely so. 

I think we must respect oral tradition.  Especially when it involves something like the Underground Railroad.  We’re not going to find the story of the Underground Railroad tucked away in some book that is full of dust and the papers are yellowed.  This is a nice romantic idea.  It’s not reality.  Reality is the railroad, its history, and those involved live on in the mind of the elderly, of the ones who heard the stories from their grandparents. 

I like to remind people that before there were written documents, there was the oral tradition.  The Bible, itself, initially began as a collection of stories.  Stories are now surfacing, stories about the Underground Railroad.  Stories that currently are tucked away in the minds of the elderly, and we’re hoping that more will come forward with their stories. 

I often tell audiences, especially the young people there, to take their tape recorders and pen and paper in hand, go and sit at the feet of their elders and listen.  Take down their stories, because that’s where we’re going to find a great deal of American history.  This country is still relatively young, and there are people who today are living volumes.  But, once they die, we lose a great deal.