Making Their Mark: The Signature of Slavery at Mammoth Cave

Company

National Park Service

Price

$9.99

Source

Official Store

The legacies forged from Mammoth Cave guides, like Stephen Bishop, Mat and Nick Bransford, Ed Bishop, Bob Lively, and Ed Hawkins, were as permanent as the signatures they scratched on the cave’s walls. As guides and explorers, they would provide comfort, humor, safety, and intellect as they led visitors into the majestic, mysterious, and sometimes frightening labyrinth underneath the ground. Visitors would record their time there, often mentioning their encounters with these enslaved or freed Black guides—and unknowingly gave them an immortality only the written word can give. To modern-day…