As African American History Month takes its final march through the last days of February, a Freedom Box-Traveling Trunk waits on display at the Bakersfield Museum of Art in honor of The Underground Railroad.

The Freedom Trunk remains showcased through March 5 and holds authentic and replica pieces that were used during the period when fugitive slaves sought out their quest for freedom.

A pair of rusted metal shackles occupy the chest, along with two pairs of peasant clothing for a boy and a girl, cotton balls, locks of human hair, educational books, and posters that give us an imaginative picture of what slaves endured during the 1800s when discrimination and racial segregation was at its highest.

Inhumane conditions, brutal punishments, long, hard labor and poor sources of food and shelter gave slaves the motivation to escape to the promised land, also known as Canada.

The shackles were used to imprison slaves who wanted to escape.

They were locked around the wrists and ankles of most blacks, yet no matter what the restraint was, slaves usually had no qualms in escaping to a safer and freer state.

Yet they were not successful every time and were often caught. The displayed maps show travel routes that slaves took to escape – mostly underground tunnel paths, which created the familiar name known today as the Underground Railroad.

Above the Freedom Trunk hangs a series of copied maps, showing routes that were most commonly used by slaves, wanted posters that offered lump sums of money as rewards for catching them and a framed portrait in the center signed Frederick Douglass, one of the world’s most famous black men that was an anti-slavery and pro-African American rights activist.

Former second grade teacher Dona Rodriguez stood aside the trunk and was deeply touched after admiring its content and the surrounding material.

“I think what most people can’t understand is to these people, you can take slavery away physically but not mentally,” said Rodriguez.

Rodriguez is a generation and a half away from the era of black slavery and showed sincere emotion for the stories told by each artifact.

“I mean really, can you imagine what this must have been like,” said Rodriguez.

Rodriguez is a retired teacher but still takes time to teach children on school tours on the importance of African American History.

The freedom trunk travels annually to different art museums all over the world in remembrance of the Underground Railroad.