The Ohio River was the dividing line between slavery and freedom until 1850. By one of the last acts of the Congress under the Articles of Confederation, the Northwest Territories were brought into the United States as free states. Many people, some with the help of conductors on the Underground Railroad fled enslavement in the southern states and made it across the Ohio River to begin new lives in the states of Ohio, Illinois, or Indiana. Though never perfectly safe, after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 the wholesale round up by bounty hunters/slave catchers led people who had established lives as free persons in the Midwest to move further north to Canada where slavery had been outlawed since in late 18th century.

The building of bridges across the Ohio River from Covington, Kentucky, to Cincinnati, Ohio, was delayed to prevent the enslaved from crossing the river to freedom on the other side.

“It is said that the largest collection of shackles in America can be found at the bottom of the Ohio River.”
Footsteps to Freedom Conductor
Cheryl Brown

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