(4/10) Peter H. Michael, owner of Cooling Springs Farm in Adamstown, Md., one of the few still-existing Underground Railroad safe-houses, will discuss his book "An American Family of the Underground Railroad," that details his family’s involvement with the Underground Railroad. The lecture, scheduled for April 20, is sponsored by Mount St. Mary’s University’s new Master of Liberal Arts degree program. It begins at 5:00 p.m. and will be followed by a book signing at 5:45 p.m.

This event is free and open to the public, and will be held at the Mount’s campus in Frederick, Md, located at 5350 Spectrum Drive.

"An American Family of the Underground Railroad," tells the story of the extensively documented experiences of my family in sheltering Underground Railroad freedom seekers, and our reconnection after 150 years with the descendants of a freedom seeker who passed through our Underground Railroad Safe House,"says Michael, citing how rare it is to have intact family accounts of Underground Railroad safe-house operators.

Cooling Springs Farm, three miles north of the Potomac River in Frederick County, Md., is one of a handful of Underground Railroad safe-houses still known today in border or southern states of the United States. The farm was operated by the Michael family as a safe-house from at least 1855, and possibly as early as 1842, until the end of the Civil War in 1865. An unknown number of freedom seekers escaping slavery were sheltered by the Michael family at the farm’s Spring House.

Michael and his family have now opened Cooling Springs Farm to the public as a historic site and to a number of national and local Underground Railroad and historical organizations for tours and study. He is also a co-founder and officer of Friends of the Underground Railroad, an international organization which promotes the memory of the Underground Railroad and the preservation of remaining Underground Railroad safe-houses and routes.

Michael is the founder and president of Michael Strategic Analysis, an award-winning firm practicing strategic planning, market analysis and economic damages testimony located in Adamstown, Maryland, and Sacramento, California.

He holds his undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland, as well as an MBA in international business from the University of California at Berkeley where his master’s thesis became the cover story of a national magazine, and completed a post-graduate fellowship in demography at Princeton University and its Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He has taught management or demography at the graduate level at universities in Thailand, Japan, Costa Rica and the United States.

For more information and to reserve a seat, please call the Mount’s Frederick campus at 877-982-2329.