Maysville, Kentucky, was south of the Ohio River and, therefore, in a slave state. However, being so close to the river, which marked the boundary between slave and free states, it had an important role in both slavery and abolition.

Phillips's Folly, built in 1831 by the second mayor of Maysville represents this. It's first owner was a Slaveholder, while its subsequent owner was a conductor on the UGR

Maysville was the home of a major slave market and behind Phillip's Folly was located one of the largest holding pens along the border. Here enslaved people or recaptured fugitives were brought down the Ohio from the East or north from the border states and held before they were "sold south."

Just as Maysville was a hotbed of slavery, it was a hotbed of abolition. As we crowded into the damp and rank smelling slave pen we knew full well that as claustrophobic and hot as we were, it was nothing like it had been for others who came before. We looked into the tiny opening behind the wall at a "hidey-hole." Here slaves hid silently and in terror until they could make their way through the basement and across the street to the hillside free Black neighborhood. From here many made it to freedom in the north with help from those who defied the law and the majority of their neighbors who supported slavery.

Jerry Gore is now leasing the property in the basement of Phillip's Folly to restore the slave holding area and to create a written record of this building's place in African American history.

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"...sitting in the cellar, thinking about the jail or holding pen; What did the runaways hear? How did they feel?

"Today we visited many historical places but I was most impressed by PhillipÕs FollyÉon the outside it was a home that looked like a large brick courthouse. It seemed like a normal family home of a mayor of Washington [Maysville], Kentucky. What you didnÕt see in that house was the horror going on in the basementÉAfrican American women, men, and children were crowded together like cattle in a penÉ. Yet in that environment the African Americans rose up. They leaned on their faith and one another to reach for the star...the North Star that led them to freedom. Their faith never failed no matter how hard the trail. No matter how large the battle, they pressed for the prize. Oh, what courage."
-Nancy Smalley, Footsteps Participant

"The visit to JerryÕs house added another level to what slavery and search for freedom entailed. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but experiencing a place and listening to a griot at that place must be worth a million words. How do we translate this experience to the classroom?"
-Footsteps Participant

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