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"...sitting in the cellar, thinking about the jail or holding pen; being so close together. What did the runaways hear? How did they feel? How was it for William Phillip's to hate slavery and be a part of the Underground, yet have to put up a false front?"
The Paxton Inn and the Marshall House,
Washington, Kentucky
John Paxton, an attorney and inn owner, ran a nineteenth century hotel, catering in part to all the slave sellers and buyers flocking into the Washington area. Unknown to his guests, Mr. Paxton's house served, at least for a time, as a hideout for escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad. Several narrow and carefully hidden staircases have been recently discovered in renovation projects in the house, leading some to conclude that Paxton was another "conductor" of escaped slaves. Just a few hundred yards behind the Paxton Inn is the family home of Chief Justice John Marshall, still owned by descendants of the most famous Supreme Court Chief Justice in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Paxton Inn, c.1810
Marshall Key House,
Washington, Kentucky
It was in 1833 while visiting a fellow student from Lane Seminary in Cincinnati at this house, that Harriet Beecher (not yet married to Mr. Stowe) was taken to see a slave auction. This auction left an indelible stamp on Harriet's mind that became part of the inspiration for her novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. She describes this slave auction in her book. Our group walked through the house, viewed the building in the back of the house that was probably a slave pen, walked a hundred yards down the street to see the actual location of the slave market and the field in which Harriet stood, horrified by what she was viewing.
Marshall Key House, c.1807
This site is where the slave auctions were held.
"I related to Harriet Beecher Stowe and the horror she must have felt as she witnessed the slave auction. To think her friend's father brought her there for entertainment! I can imagine myself in her shoes, with all the thoughts that must have gone through her mind. You think you're paying your friend's family a visit, and you end up having your whole life changed."
Washington and nearby Maysville both had large slave markets, located toward the upper end of the Ohio River in the mid-1800's as Virginia plantation owners sold several hundred thousand slaves into the new cotton producing regions of the "New South", as tobacco production fell off in the "Old Dominion" due to soil depletion. A number of Virginia plantation owners took their slaves west to start new cotton farming directly; those going out of business, along with those who died and liquidated their estates, sold slaves generally to the west. Maysville and Washington saw many slaves "sold down the river" (the Ohio feeds into the Mississippi River) during these years.
"Walking up the hidden staircase was really difficult at the Paxton Inn. The stairway was steep and fit shoulder to shoulder. I wondered how big, tall men, especially, would be able to climb up. I felt claustrophobic. I just wanted to get out of there. How could so many slaves overcome their fears and make this journey? If it were me, I don't think I would be one of those strong individuals. What respect should be given to those that made it but more importantly, to all that tried to escape. What courage!"
Ripley, Ohio - Home of the Abolitionist Movement
John Parker House
John Parker was born into slavery in Norfolk, Virginia in 1827. He bought his freedom for $1,800 and in 1849 he and his wife moved to Ripley where he worked in the ironworks. Parker was an integral part of the Underground Railroad; he helped fugitive slaves cross the Ohio River from Kentucky as they went north to freedom. For nearly fifteen years Parker risked his life and his own freedom by hiding in coffins, diving off a steamboat into the river with bounty hunters on his trail as he fought for the freedom of the enslaved.
Many abolitionists lived in Ripley. This is the John Parker House, built in 1793.
"What special, daring people to admire: John Parker and John Rankin. To stand up against great odds because you believe in a cause to help another human being! Wow! It is great that there are people who will search for historical sights and others who will work to preserve them for posterity so that the history will not get lost."
"I really enjoyed the visit to the John Parker House. I read 'his' book before we arrived here, and it was so special to see the places which he had described, hear Jerry retell some of the tales, and more clearly envision his (Parker's) efforts while standing on the banks of the Ohio River. Even before going up the hill to the Rankin House, it was very moving to see it up on the hill, and know that Reverend Rankin was signaling Parker and others down on the waterfront. I sensed that had I been alive then, I would have relished the opportunity to be in such a dynamic community, living on the edge, and being sure I was 'down with the righteous.'"
"Ohio is so beautiful! The moisture in the air is laden with fresh, natural scents of numerous varieties of flora, fauna, and foliage. It gets in your blood. You drink it in. You become a part of the environment - intermingled, intertwined; you could stay here forever. But not with a slave catcher on your trail. 'Gotta get away! "Gotta escape! Got to go on to freedom. Cain't tarry here! Got to go dere! Got to go on to freedom - on to the 'Promised Land'!"
John Rankin House
Ripley is just across the Ohio River from Maysville, Kentucky and the two towns violently and sometimes viciously disagreed over the issue of slavery. Just as Maysville was a major market for the sale of slaves, Ripley became the first center of abolitionism and perhaps the largest single passage point on the Underground Railroad. John Rankin, Presbyterian minister often credited with being the founder of abolitionism in the United States, lived for many years in Ripley with his wife and thirteen children. From his house "in the country", high on a bluff overlooking the Ohio River, Rankin is credited with saving at least two thousand escapees from slavery, using his home as a station along the Underground Railroad and working closely with sixty-four "conductors" in the region, who conspired and connived to sneak those who were seeking freedom through the strongly pro-slave Maysville and Washington areas of Kentucky, across the wide (200 yards) Ohio River, into Ripley and then on to numerous "safe houses" in Ohio as they fled to Canada.
In 1828 John Rankin built his house high on a hill above Ripley, overlooking the Ohio River.
Working, in particular, with ex-slave Parker, who lived right on the river bank, escapees crossed the river frequently. This was dangerous work: various fugitive slave laws from 1793 required that all law officers help catch escaped slaves and the Constitution itself guaranteed slave property. In addition, Kentucky slaveowners in the late 1830's came to offer a reward of $2,500 cash for the "murder or abduction of John Rankin". No slave was ever caught here, even though the bounty hunters searched the house often for both slaves and John Rankin. Harriet Beecher Stowe, with her husband and father, Henry Ward Beecher, visited Rankin on numerous occasions. Rankin's house allegedly sheltered the woman who inspired Harriet to write about the character of Eliza, whose dangerous night journey across the thawing Ohio River, leaping from one ice patch to the next with her baby in her arms, is movingly described in her book, Uncle Tom's Cabin.
In 1828 John Rankin built his house high on a hill above Ripley, overlooking the Ohio River.
"The Rankin House impressed me the most today. In a period and a subject in history where it is easy to lose faith in the human spirit, Rankin, Parker, and Paxson represented those people who said, 'Don't give up!' They not only put themselves in danger, but as I learned, very large families of their own as well."
"I felt the air of struggle and fear when I peered down into the woods to the east of the Rankin House. It was warm and humid by then, and I felt mosquitoes enjoying a snack on my skin. What horrible conditions bondage, covert hiding and transportation, and even early freedom meant!"
"Viewing the Ohio River from the Rankin House really had an impact on me. As I sat on the hillside looking out upon the river, I tried to imagine it during every season of the year - then tried to imagine what it was like for the slaves as they attempted to cross it. Was it freezing cold and full of ice chunks during the dead of winter? Was the current raging swiftly by after torrential spring rains? Or was it summertime as now, gently flowing by? I thought of the courage of people like John Rankin, quietly helping to rescue 2,000 slaves, putting his own family at risk. Would my family have offered similar kindness and help to strangers? I'd like to think that we would have."
To learn more about the John Rankin house you can visit the following website:
http://www.ohiohistory.org/places/rankin/
"What I am learning here goes beyond even American history. I believe I am learning about human history. I am inspired by those who have transcended oppression and suffering through courage and intellect, faith and hope. This is the story, I feel, of the nobility of my African-American brothers and sisters. It is also the story of bravery and inherent good that I believe is available for all people to draw from within themselves, and from God."
Oberlin, Ohio
One of the first towns to promise freedom for all who came within its boundaries,Oberlin was a stronghold for abolitionists and those holding anti-slavery beliefs. It is considered to be the first integrated town in Ohio. It was a major station on the Underground Railroad. Fugative slaves who reached Oberlin were taken to ports on Lake Erie where captains of ships sailing to Canada would allow them to board. Once they reached Canada, the fugative slaves were legally \ free.
Oberlin College, Ohio
http://www.Oberlin.edu/~EOG/
Oberlin College was founded in 1833. It has the distinction of being the first college to admit women in 1837 and one of the first to admit African Americans. Arthur Tappan, a wealthy abolitionist from New York, offered money to the struggling college on the condition that Blacks be admitted and that antislavery professors be hired to teach there. Sarah Margru Kinson, an African slave who sailed on the Amistad ship was educated at Oberlin, then later returned to Africa.
Oberlin College
First Church of Oberlin
Built in 1842, this historic church is the site of the Oberlin Antislavery Society meetings.
To learn more about the history of First Church and to view a picture go to:
http://www.oberlin.edu/~EOG/Houses%20of%20Worship/FFirstChurch.html
"While in First Church, I was thinking about all the people who sat on the same seat as I sat - I began to wonder who some of them were and what their lives might have been like. Were they those who lived in the big white house or did they live in a house with a certain hidden passage way leading into a dark, damp hole?"
Oberlin College, Ohio
"What I am learning here goes beyond even American History. I believe I am learning about human history. I am inspired by those who have transcended oppression and suffering through courage and intellect, faith and hope. This story, I feel, of the nobility of my African-American brothers and sisters. It is also the story of bravery and inherent good that I believe is available for all people to draw from themselves."
"Ohio is so beautiful! The moisture in the air is ladened with fresh, natural scents of numerous varieties of flora, fauna, and foliage. It gets in your blood. You drink it in. You become part of the environment - intermingled, intertwined; you could stay here forever. But not with a slave catcher on your trail. 'Gotta get away! 'Gotta escape! Got to go on to freedom. Can't tarry here! Got to go dere! Got to go on to freedom - on to the 'Promised Land'!"
