In 2004 a center in honor of the "underground railroad" opens in Cincinnati. The railroad was unusual. It sold no tickets and had no trains. Yet it carried thousands of passengers to the destination of their dreams.
2004年，一個紀念“地下鐵路”的中心將在辛辛那提州成立。這條鐵路不同尋常，它不出售車票，也無火車行駛。然而，它將成千上萬的乘客送往他們夢想中的目的地。

The Freedom Givers

Fergus M. Bordewich

1 A gentle breeze swept the Canadian plains as I stepped outside the small two-story house. Alongside me was a slender woman in a black dress, my guide back to a time when the surrounding settlement in Dresden, Ontario, was home to a hero in American history. As we walked toward a plain gray church, Barbara Carter spoke proudly of her great-great-grandfather, Josiah Henson. "He was confident that the Creator intended all men to be created equal. And he never gave up struggling for that freedom."
給人以自由者

弗格斯·M·博得威奇

我步出這幢兩層小屋，加拿大平原上輕風微拂。我身邊是一位苗條的黑衣女子，把我帶回到過去的向導。那時，安大略省得雷斯頓這一帶住著美國歷史上的一位英雄。我們前往一座普普通通的灰色教堂，芭芭拉·卡特自豪地談論著其高祖喬賽亞·亨森。“他堅信上帝要所有人生來平等。他從來沒有停止過爭取這一自由權利的奮斗。”
　
2 Carter's devotion to her ancestor is about more than personal pride: it is about family honor. For Josiah Henson has lived on through the character in American fiction that he helped inspire: Uncle Tom, the long-suffering slave in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Ironically, that character has come to symbolize everything Henson was not. A racial sellout unwilling to stand up for himself? Carter gets angry at the thought. "Josiah Henson was a man of principle," she said firmly.
卡特對其先輩的忠誠不僅僅關乎一己之驕傲，而關乎家族榮譽。因為喬賽亞·亨森至今仍為人所知是由于他所激發的創作靈感使得一個美國小說人物問世：湯姆叔叔，哈麗特·比徹·斯陀的小說《湯姆叔叔的小屋》中那個逆來順受的黑奴。具有諷刺意味的是，這一人物所象征的一切在亨森身上一點都找不到。一個不愿奮起力爭、背叛種族的黑人？卡特對此頗為憤慨。“喬賽亞·亨森是個有原則的人，”她肯定地說。

3 I had traveled here to Henson's last home -- now a historic site that Carter formerly directed -- to learn more about a man who was, in many ways, an African-American Moses. After winning his own freedom from slavery, Henson secretly helped hundreds of other slaves to escape north to Canada -- and liberty. Many settled here in Dresden with him.
我遠道前來亨森最后的居所――如今已成為卡特曾管理過的一處歷史遺跡――是為了更多地了解此人，他在許多方面堪稱黑人摩西。亨森自己擺脫了黑奴身份獲得自由之后，便秘密幫助其他許多黑奴逃奔北方去加拿大――逃奔自由之地。許多人和他一起在得雷斯頓這一帶定居了下來。

4 Yet this stop was only part of a much larger mission for me. Josiah Henson is but one name on a long list of courageous men and women who together forged the Underground Railroad, a secret web of escape routes and safe houses that they used to liberate slaves from the American South. Between 1820 and 1860, as many as 100,000 slaves traveled the Railroad to freedom.
但此地只是我所承擔的繁重使命的一處停留地。喬賽亞·亨森只是一長串無所畏懼的男女名單中的一個名字，這些人共同創建了這條“地下鐵路”，一條由逃亡線路和可靠的人家組成的用以解放美國南方黑奴的秘密網絡。在1820年至1860年期間，多達十萬名黑奴經由此路走向自由。

5 In October 2000, President Clinton authorized $16 million for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center to honor this first great civil-rights struggle in the U. S. The center is scheduled to open in 2004 in Cincinnati. And it's about time. For the heroes of the Underground Railroad remain too little remembered, their exploits still largely unsung. I was intent on telling their stories. 2000年10月，克林頓總統批準撥款1600萬美元建造全國“地下鐵路”自由中心，以此紀念美國歷史上第一次偉大的民權斗爭。中心計劃于2004年在辛辛那提州建成。真是該建立這樣一個中心的時候了。因為地下鐵路的英雄們依然默默無聞，他們的業績依然少人頌揚。我要講述他們的故事。

6 John Parker tensed when he heard the soft knock. Peering out his door into the night, he recognized the face of a trusted neighbor. "There's a party of escaped slaves hiding in the woods in Kentucky, twenty miles from the river," the man whispered urgently. Parker didn't hesitate. "I'll go," he said, pushing a pair of pistols into his pockets.
聽到輕輕的敲門聲，約翰·帕克神情緊張起來。他開門窺望，夜色中認出是一位可靠的鄰居。“有一群逃亡奴隸躲在肯塔基州的樹林里，就在離河20英里的地方，”那人用急迫的口氣低語道。帕克沒一點兒遲疑。“我就去，”他說著，把兩支手槍揣進口袋。


7 Born a slave two decades before, in the 1820s, Parker had been taken from his mother at age eight and forced to walk in chains from Virginia to Alabama, where he was sold on the slave market. Determined to live free someday, he managed to get trained in iron molding. Eventually he saved enough money working at this trade on the side to buy his freedom. Now, by day, Parker worked in an iron foundry in the Ohio port of Ripley. By night he was a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, helping people slip by the slave hunters. In Kentucky, where he was now headed, there was a $1000 reward for his capture, dead or alive.
20年前，即19世紀20年代，生來即為黑奴的帕克才8歲就被從母親身邊帶走，被迫拖著鐐銬從弗吉尼亞走到阿拉巴馬，在那里的黑奴市場被買走。他打定主意有朝一日要過自由的生活，便設法學會了鑄鐵這門手藝。后來他終于靠這門手藝攢夠錢贖回了自由。現在，帕克白天在俄亥俄州里普利港的一家鑄鐵廠干活。到了晚上，他就成了地下鐵路的一位“乘務員”，幫助人們避開追捕逃亡黑奴的人。在他正前往的肯塔基州，當局懸賞1000美元抓他，活人死尸都要。

8 Crossing the Ohio River on that chilly night, Parker found ten fugitives frozen with fear. "Get your bundles and follow me, " he told them, leading the eight men and two women toward the river. They had almost reached shore when a watchman spotted them and raced off to spread the news.
在那個陰冷的夜晚，帕克渡過俄亥俄河，找到了十個喪魂落魄的逃亡者。“拿好包裹跟我走，”他一邊吩咐他們，一邊帶著這八男二女朝河邊走去。就要到岸時，一個巡夜人發現了他們，急忙跑開去報告。

9 Parker saw a small boat and, with a shout, pushed the escaping slaves into it. There was room for all but two. As the boat slid across the river, Parker watched helplessly as the pursuers closed in around the men he was forced to leave behind.
帕克看見一條小船，便大喝一聲，把那些逃亡黑奴推上了船。大家都上了船，但有兩個人容不下。小船徐徐駛向對岸，帕克眼睜睜地看著追捕者把他被迫留下的兩個男人圍住。

10 The others made it to the Ohio shore, where Parker hurriedly arranged for a wagon to take them to the next "station" on the Underground Railroad -- the first leg of their journey to safety in Canada. Over the course of his life, John Parker guided more than 400 slaves to safety.
其他的人都上了岸，帕克急忙安排了一輛車把他們帶到地下鐵路的下一“站”――他們走向安全的加拿大之旅的第一程。約翰·帕克在有生之年一共帶領400多名黑奴走向安全之地。