【正文】 造全國“地下鐵路”自由中心，以此紀(jì)念美國歷史上第一次偉大的民權(quán)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(yè)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. There39。s a party of escaped slaves hiding in the woods in Kentucky, twenty miles from the river, the man whispered urgently. Parker didn39。t hesitate. I39。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(rèn)出是一位可靠的鄰居?！坝幸蝗禾油雠`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?！拔揖腿?，”他說著，把兩支手槍揣進(jìn)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(jì)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(shè)法學(xué)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?，F(xiàn)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(wù)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(dāng)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?！澳煤冒易?，”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(fā)現(xiàn)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?qū)Π?，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(lǐng)400多名黑奴走向安全之地。 11 While black conductors were often motivated by their own painful experiences, whites were monly driven by religious convictions. Levi Coffin, a Quaker raised in North Carolina, explained, The Bible, in bidding us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, said nothing about color. 黑人去當(dāng)乘務(wù)員常常是由于本人痛苦的經(jīng)歷，而那些白人則往往是受了宗教信仰的感召。在北卡羅來納州長大的貴格會教徒利瓦伊科芬解釋說：“《圣經(jīng)》上只是要我們給饑者以食物，無衣者以衣衫，但沒提到過膚色的事?！? 12 In the 1820s Coffin moved west to Newport (now Fountain City), Indiana, where he opened a store. Word spread that fleeing slaves could always find refuge at the Coffin home. At times he sheltered as many as 17 fugitives at once, and he kept a team and wagon ready to convey them on the next leg of their journey. Eventually three principal routes converged at the Coffin house, which came to be the Grand Central Terminal of the Underground Railroad. 在19世紀(jì)20年代，科芬向西遷移前往印第安納州的新港（即今天的噴泉市），在那里開了一家小店。人們傳說，逃亡黑奴在科芬家總是能得到庇護(hù)。有時他一次庇護(hù)的逃亡者就多達(dá)17人，他還備有一組人員和車輛把他們送往下一段行程。到后來有三條主要路線在科芬家匯合，科芬家成了地下鐵路的中央車站。 13 For his efforts, Coffin received frequent death threats and warnings that his store and home would be burned. Nearly every conductor faced similar risks or worse. In the North, a magistrate might have imposed a fine or a brief jail sentence for aiding those escaping. In the Southern states, whites were sentenced to months or even years in jail. One courageous Methodist minister, Calvin Fairbank, was imprisoned for more than 17 years in Kentucky, where he kept a log of his beatings: 35,105 stripes with the whip. 科芬經(jīng)常由于他做的工作受到被殺的威脅，收到焚毀他店鋪和住宅的警告。幾乎每一個乘務(wù)員都面臨類似的危險――或者更為嚴(yán)重。在北方，治安官會對幫助逃亡的人課以罰金，或判以短期監(jiān)禁。在南方各州，白人則被判處幾個月甚至幾年的監(jiān)禁。一位勇敢的循道宗牧師卡爾文費爾班克在肯塔基州被關(guān)押了17年多，他記錄了自己遭受毒打的情況：總共被鞭笞了35,105下。 14 As for the slaves, escape meant a journey of hundreds of miles through unknown country, where they were usually easy to recognize. With no road signs and few maps, they had to put their trust in directions passed by word of mouth and in secret signs nails driven into trees, for example that conductors used to mark the route north. 至于那些黑奴，逃亡意味著數(shù)百英里的長途跋涉，意味著穿越自己極易被人辨認(rèn)的陌生地域。沒有路標(biāo)，也幾乎沒有線路圖，他們趕路全憑著口口相告的路線以及秘密記號――比如樹上釘著的釘子――是乘務(wù)員用來標(biāo)示北上路線的記號。 15 Many slaves traveled under cover of night, their faces sometimes caked with white powder. Quakers often dressed their passengers, both male and female, in gray dresses, deep bonnets and full veils. On one occasion, Levi Coffin was transporting so many runaway slaves that he disguised them as a funeral procession. 許多黑奴在夜色掩護(hù)下趕路，有時臉上涂著厚厚的白粉。貴格會教徒經(jīng)常讓他們的“乘客”不分男女穿上灰衣服，戴上深沿帽，披著把頭部完全遮蓋住的面紗。有一次，利瓦伊科芬運送的逃亡黑奴實在太多，他就把他們裝扮成出殯隊伍。 16 Canada was the primary destination for many fugitives. Slavery had been abolished there in 1833, and Canadian authorities encouraged the runaways to settle their vast virgin land. Among them was Josiah Henson. 加拿大是許多逃亡者的首選終點站。那兒1833年就廢除了奴隸制，加拿大當(dāng)局鼓勵逃亡奴隸在其廣闊的未經(jīng)開墾的土地上定居。其中就有喬賽亞亨森。 17 As a boy in Maryland, Henson watched as his entire family was sold to different buyers, and he saw his mother harshly beaten when she tried to keep him with her. Making the best of his lot, Henson worked diligently and rose far in his owner39。s regard. 還是孩子的亨森在馬里蘭州目睹著全家人被賣給不同的主人，看到母親為了想把自己留在她身邊而遭受毒打。亨森非常認(rèn)命，干活勤勉，深受主人器重。 18 Money problems eventually pelled his master to send Henson, his wife and children to a brother in Kentucky. After laboring there for several years, Henson heard alarming ne