Freedom Tracks

Inspiration

The courage and resilience of those who resisted slavery through the Underground Railroad inspired us to create Freedom Tracks. We wanted to build an immersive educational platform that preserves these powerful stories and makes them accessible to a modern audience—especially students, educators, and history enthusiasts.

What it does

Freedom Tracks is an interactive storytelling website that highlights the lives and efforts of key figures in the Underground Railroad. Users can explore biographical narratives, learn about the network's structure, and understand the historical impact of this movement—all through a beautifully designed, responsive, static site.

How we built it

We used React with Vite as the frontend framework for its fast development experience. Tailwind CSS powered our responsive and consistent design system. The project is written in TypeScript for better type safety and scalability. All content is rendered client-side, making the site easy to deploy on platforms like Netlify or GitHub Pages.

Challenges we ran into

Encountered a TypeScript warning related to missing estree type definitions, which we resolved by installing @types/estree.
Designing the layout in a way that respects the gravity of the topic while still being engaging and visually appealing.
Balancing historical accuracy with modern UI/UX best practices.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Successfully created a meaningful, respectful, and educational tribute to those who fought for freedom.
Designed a fully responsive, mobile-friendly web experience.
Integrated engaging visual storytelling without relying on complex backends or databases.

What we learned

Gained deeper knowledge of React and Vite's modern development capabilities.
Learned how to address TypeScript and module bundling issues in a static frontend project.
Honed our ability to blend technology with historical storytelling in a thoughtful and responsible manner.