Some of the connections around South Bend could include the farmhouse of Thomas Bulla and the 1849 trial of a family who escaped from slavery in Kentucky.

That question brought him on Wednesday night to the St. Joseph County Public Library in downtown South Bend to discuss the city’s inclusion in a proposed Chicago to Detroit Freedom Trail, which McLellan hopes will one day be recognized as a National Historic Trail by the parks service.

The Freedom Trail would begin with two historic African American churches in Chicago and run parallel to other documented roads freedom seekers took to Detroit, including the Chicago Road and the Sauk Trail. The route would pass through Gary, Michigan City and LaPorte before heading north to Cassopolis and Kalamazoo, then east to Detroit.

Some of the connections around South Bend could include the farmhouse of abolitionist and likely station master Thomas Bulla; the 1849 trial of the Powell family, who escaped from slavery to a farm near Cassopolis, where their Kentucky owner found and tried to recapture them but was denied in court; and the Bartlett home, whose owners raised money to buy food and clothing for freedom seekers.