Harvest Moon: Full Moon in September 2023

Maybe they called a full moon, Freedom Moon, but I found this info about the instructions given to them to keep the Drinking Gourd (Big Dipper) in sight when travelling on starlit nights. “Follow the Drinking Gourd” was a song used in the Underground Railroad to help give directions to the escaping slaves. The “drinking gourd” was the name for a hollow gourd that the slaves would use to collect water.

I spend my summers in Michigan and not far from Detroit. One of the last "stops" to The Underground Railroad was the border of the US and Ontario, Canada, where they went for their freedom. While there was never significant Canadian trade in African slaves, native nations frequently enslaved their rivals and a very modest number were purchased by colonial administrators and/or rarely by settlers until 1833, when the British Parliament abolished slavery across the British Empire. There is an interesting tour in Detroit that takes you along the journey that the slaves undertook. Until Emancipation, Detroit was a pivotal part of the Underground Railroad, and in the 1800's, a network of abolitionists, or “conductors,” who aided enslaved people seeking freedom. That’s because the city, code-named “Midnight,” provided access to Canada just across the Detroit River. But to answer your question, the migration of slaves or The Underground Railroad did NOT use the light of the full moon, but instead relied on the stars and in particular the North Star. The slaves fleeing slavery were hunted by the light of the full moon..either by bloodhounds and "pattyrollers". But all the FULL MOON names inherited their colloquial names from the Native Americans or First Nation peoples, and NOT slaves or their plight.

You are correct about rival tribes enslaving each other. What a lot of people don't realize is that this is how African slavery began and that it was warring tribes that started selling slaves, as opposed to killing them there, to English and Spanish traders, who brought them to America as early as 1510, with the settling of St Augustine, Florida. They delivered slaves and other traded good to places that were settled by people of their respective "home countries".
There were no "Americans" (citizens of the United States of America) until after the Declaration of Independence, ca 1776. The Emancipation Proclamation , delivered by Abraham Lincoln, January 1, 1863 freed the slaves. That is a span of 87 years.
I guess what I don't understand is how Americans get blamed for 400 years of slavery when warring tribes and English and Spanish traders delivering to their emigrant peoples were much more involved, much earlier than any "Americans".
The indigenous people of this continent are the ones who suffered the greatest injustice, they were run off their lands, they were tortured by the Conquistadors in their lustful search for gold, they were granted US government treaties and had those treaties broken so many times its disgusting, they were given blankets infected with small pox, as an alternative to freezing to death, they were labeled and murdered as savages AND they were enslaved (the "lucky" ones). Yet, you don't hear them shouting "racism", you don't see them rioting, burning and destroying property or attacking law enforcement officers. Why is that? Have they been beaten down so far that they don't realize that they could, or do they remember what happened to their ancestors and have "settled" for what little they've got. Their plight is where at least SOME attention should be focused, and sadly it isn't.
Isn't it about time everyone stops complaining about how terrible we can be to each other and start figuring out how to accept each other and work together creating a world where we all can live? Quick, before it's all destroyed and there's nowhere for anyone to live.

Being a moon "lunatic" and with the name Diana (goddess of the moon) I seek high ground when looking for the best (and earliest) moon view, when it appears the largest. Around our neighborhood there are lots of tall trees and some tall buildings that lock me out from viewing until the moon has been up for quite awhile. So I drive up into the hills where I can get an unobstructed view and am as far away from ambient light as possible. With the quiet around me and very little surrounding light I can really bask in the moonview for a long period of time. I recommend it for all you "loonies" out there!