Riding the historic Seneca Chief

NOTE: After a very moving Activation in Toronto on July 5, I flew home to Oregon on July 6. I’ll continue posting here about once per week until I conclude sharing about #FreedomWalk2026 right through the end of the journey. To be cautious, we consciously chose not to post our location(s) until after we had left them due to the extreme divisions in the United States and the efforts of some to hide the history we are shining a bright light on. Thankfully, we had no negative confrontations about #FreedomWalk2026 over the two months we walked from Maryland to Canada (just a few drivers yelled at us for walking along the highway). I appreciate your patience and understanding and promise you will be able to read about each day’s walk and/or activation over the coming weeks.

Now, before we get to the story of the Seneca Chief, we had a powerful Activation event two days before…

Saturday, June 20

This morning’s Activation was at Memorial AME Zion Church in Rochester (founded 1796). The stained-glass windows, one dedicated to Harriet Tubman, are from the original church building.

The Activation began with a performance called a “Gathering of Women” by Akwaaba: The Heritage Associates Inc. featuring four living historians portraying four historic women.

Harriet Jacobs was born enslaved. Her original owner was kind and educated her. When her owner died, she left Harriet to her niece, which was fine. The niece’s father, however, was horrible to her. She outsmarted him and hid in an attic for 7 years. Learn more about this incredible story here.

Harriet Tubman was clear. There was no “crown thy good with brotherhood” or “shining waves of grain.” Just beatings, bandages and deprivation. “When I hear people talking about how great America is, I wonder for who? Not for me or other slaves. It would be good to see real brotherhood. I love you as a human being. That’s brotherhood.”

Sojourner Truth said, “I never learned to read but I could read people.” She was owned by four different enslavers between the ages of nine and fifteen. She walked away to freedom. “As colored women we were thrown down so low that no one thought we could ever rise back up. But we did.”

Anna Murray Douglass, the wife of Frederick Douglass said, “One of my many gifts was managing a household. Though I couldn’t read, we made sure our daughter Rosetta received education. She wasn’t allowed to sit with the white children in school here in Rochester.”

This gathering of women gave us a glimpse of what it was like in Rochester for black women during slavery times.

Then Tony shared about #FreedomWalk2026 and brought up Lynda to share about Coming to the Table, me to share about my family ancestry that includes both enslavers and abolitionists, and Kip to speak about his textile project that shares stories through his art of people we meet along this pilgrimage.

Kip also pointed out just how much this journey is costing, including the high cost of diesel fuel for the truck that has pulled the Harriet Tubman sculpture every mile of the way and will soon be driven from Detroit back to Maryland. Please click here to help out if you can.

Sunday, June 21

Today was designed to be a pretty simple, straightforward, walking day along the canal trail. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn right near the beginning, and walked two miles out of our way, so we had to retrace our steps to get back where we were supposed to begin. Our 11-mile day became a 15-mile day.

We also encountered several trees that were blown over across the trail due to high winds a couple days ago. We crawled through and over them. People on bicycles had a bigger challenge than we did. Goats grazing to control weeds was fascinating. And we made it to Spencerport!

We didn’t finish walking until 7:00pm, but it was a peaceful day. We walked, listened to the birds singing, and enjoyed the peaceful canal.

Monday, June 22

This was a day we definitely looked forward to! I wasn’t sure it would work out because the forecast was for pouring rain all day long. Several days ago, we saw the Seneca Chief going through one of the locks. We spoke with one of the crew about what we’re doing, and he agreed to see if it would work out for us to ride with them for a day.

The Seneca Chief is a replica of the very first boat that was pulled by horses along the Erie Canal in 1825. We met a woman also riding today, Susan, who helped build this boat. She’s part of the crew today. It took seven years to complete the construction as the process was interrupted by Covid. There were around 200 people, mostly volunteers, who participated in building the Seneca Chief. It weighs 70 tons. All wooden construction. It was completed two years ago, in May 2024. Last year, in 2025, it made its first voyage during the 200^th anniversary of that first voyage. It went from Buffalo to New York City.

I honestly can’t believe our luck that we encountered this boat when it’s making its only return trip from New York City to Buffalo this year. It will remain in Buffalo and be open as a museum that people can visit through September.

Though it rained the entire time, it turns out to be quite a blessing. We get legitimate miles completed in a way that Freedom Seekers did in the 1800’s, and we don’t have to walk on day when it’s pouring rain.

The ride is very smooth. It’s a very heavy flat bottom boat. Even though the rain is pouring, I wore my rain jacket and pants and spent most of my time on top and in the front of the Seneca Chief. It’s just so cool to watch the shore flow by.

A man named Nils, retired NYC teacher of Swedish descent, played a fretted dulcimer on board. He played a number of Swedish tunes. It was quite lovely.

This craft has no propulsion on its own. We were pushed along by a tugboat. But that boat can’t steer the Seneca Chief, so we’re pulled away from the dock and headed in the proper direction by an even smaller watercraft that pulls the nose to get it into the right position for the tugboat to propel us along. Back in the early 1800s this would’ve been done by horses or mules.

At about 8.5 miles we passed a buoy with a section of water moving off to the right. We’ve told that’s the original route of the Erie Canal that no longer exists. It crossed the Genesee River on its way to Rochester. The section we’re on now is about 10 miles long before it joins back up with the original Canal route. This boat won’t hit that section for another two days.

Being in the lock is amazing. As they raise the water, every 10 feet is 1,000,000 gallons of water in this lot. We are being raised 32 feet, or 32,000,000 gallons of water pumped in to lift us up. This was quite the experience. Another among many on this pilgrimage.

After we passed through the second lock, I sat upfront on a post that ropes are wrapped around for connecting with the steering vessel. It’s the best seat in the house, and there’s several crew members up here, watching out for logs and ducks that are in our path to make sure the captain sees them and avoids them. They don’t have to avoid the ducks, they swim out of the way, but wood can be a problem. We are in a flat bottom boat, but the tugboat that’s moving us has a propeller in the water.

We passed a barge that was dredging the canal. We’re told that the canal is constantly being dredged every single day. Before we passed that one, there was another one docked that then digs up and puts on shore all the stuff that is dredged out.

At 14.4 miles we made a right turn onto the Genesee River away from the Erie Canal to head into Rochester. The Seneca Chief cannot make sharp turns. It’s the combination of the 2^nd and 3^rd boats that allow it to do its thing. It’s all so fascinating how these three watercrafts operate together. I am told by a crew member up front that no one has ever been trained before for this kind of work with a trio of boats required to make this trip. It’s very complicated to make everything work. So cool to hang out with the crew for this trip, to listen to them and learn.

This is also when I learned that this is the only trip the Seneca Chief will make this year. What timing for us!

I encourage everyone to visit the website for the Buffalo Maritime Center to learn more. It’s SO fascinating! HERE is the link to their YouTube page for lots of interesting, educational videos.

The crew was as excited to have #FreedomWalk2026 walkers on board as we were to be there. They interviewed us as well as Nils the musician (he also plays in this video). You can watch that HERE.