The historic highway marker “Flights to Freedom” was unveiled Saturday after an inspirational and informative dedication ceremony held at First Baptist Church in Mathews. The marker is located alongside Route 14 outside the church.

Evangelist Rose Mason, interim pastor at First Baptist, gave the invocation and welcomed the many guests who attended the gathering, and the Emmaus Baptist Church Sanctuary Choir performed several hymns.

Pastor Marcus Stallworth of Mathews Chapel United Methodist Church gave a statement of libation “to the spirits of our ancestors and those who came before us.” He spoke of the ancestors “who were set sail on a horrifying voyage,” but like Harriet Tubman and Nat Turner “fought and resisted enslavement.”

Reed Lawson, president of the Mathews County Historical Society, said the marker helps fulfill her organization’s mission to provide “a more complete telling of the past,” and she welcomed county officials and members of various organizations who wer...