Indiana: Re-creation program puts participants in runaway slaves’ shoes

Slavery lives in the woods of central Indiana. Illegal auctions will take place in November under the cover of night where greedy slave owners come to cash in on their possessions -- namely you.

A historical re-creation program called Follow the North Star turns the tables on guests who receive a lesson in the struggles and dangers that fugitive slaves experienced in 1836 as they headed north on the Underground Railroad.

In part, it’s a chance to experience what it’s like to be pursued and struggle to escape (without any actual horrors and vulgar language, a statement says). The re-enactment also wants visitors to think about about real-time inequities today, human trafficking and equal rights campaigns playing out across the globe.

In Follow the North Star, guests are cast as slaves on about 200 acres of Conner Prairie Interactive History Park in Fishers, which has been offering the seasonal program since 1998.

As a slave on the run, will you get captured and killed? Will you try to run away? Whom should you trust?

It all plays out over 90 minutes of dodging slave traders and racing to freedom.

“The intent of the program aligns with Conner Prairie’s mission to immerse guests through hands-on experiences that lead to a much higher level of learning than takes place from studying a textbook or watching a documentary,” Ellen Rosenthal, Conner Prairie president and chief executive, says in a statement.

At the end, “slaves” learn their real fate -- who made it, who didn’t. And the evening also ends with a debrief about the experience and the Underground Railroad in Indiana.

The program runs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. beginning Thursday through Saturday, and continuing Nov. 13-15 and Nov. 20-22. It costs $20 per person. Children as young as 12 may participate, and anyone younger than 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Reservations are required.

It’s also offered April 24 and 25 and May 1 and 2.

Info: Follow the North Star, Conner Prairie Interactive History Park, 13400 Allisonville Road, Fishers, Ind.; (317) 776-6000.