The Belair-at-Bowie Flight to Freedom research project endeavors to provide a fundamental research methodology and substantive source website use by the general public. The information contained within is illustrative of the complexities of enslavement as it existed in this Prince George's County community between 1830 and 1860. This study, centered around Belair Mansion and its geographic and residential environment, will integrate with core elements of the Maryland State Archives Beneath the Underground: the Flight to Freedom and the Communities of Antebellum Maryland. The website provides access to primary documents such as newspapers, U.S. census and original court records stripped for references to both free and enslaved blacks and white resistors to the American institution of human bondage.

"The City of Bowie wishes to thank the Maryland State Archives for its invaluable research and development assistance in the production of this site. We would also like to thank the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Underground Railroad, Network to Freedom Program for their financial support."