Wells is best known for her fearless anti‑lynching crusade in the late 19th century, which exposed lynching as a tool of racial terror rather than criminal punishment.

The Great Dismal Swamp covers southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. Maroons began settling there in the late 1600s and continued living there well into the mid-19th century.

After William Byrd II and George Washington first planned the Dismal Swamp Canal, Virginia approved construction in 1787, and North Carolina in 1790. A North Carolina/Virginia private company, the Dismal Swamp Canal Company, began construction in 1793.

Hetty Reckless, born Amy Hester Boadley around 1776, spent her life helping others escape slavery and start new lives. She was born enslaved in Salem, New Jersey, to Dorcas Boadley. The Johnson family enslaved Hetty, whose mother promised she would free Hetty upon her death. The Johnson family never kept that promise.