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Visiting America's paths to freedom
By JULIA M. KLEIN The real history of these men and this period will never be told, for the principal actors have passed away, leaving here and there stray episodes . . . -- From "His Promised Land," the autobiography of John P. Parker, a slave who purchased his freedom and became an Underground Railroad conductor.
John P. Parker was a prescient man: He anticipated his own anonymity. A successful businessman and inventor, Parker was also a daredevil who led reluctant slaves across the Ohio River to freedom. Still, like many African-Americans active in the Underground Railroad, he was largely forgotten until recently. Now, the John P. Parker Historical Society is using the proceeds from Parker's autobiography to restore his modest brick home on Front Street in Ripley, Ohio, to convert it into a museum. It is scheduled to open in spring. Once cloaked in silence, the Underground Railroad is enjoying a historical renaissance. Prime evidence of this revival is the construction, for a reported $110-million, of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, to open in 2004 on Cincinnati's riverfront. And the National Park Service is supporting efforts to identify and preserve "railroad" sites. The term 'Underground Railroad" was an antebellum expression denoting the network of routes, stops and "conductors": people who helped thousands of slaves find freedom by escaping north, and sometimes south or west.
The border between Ohio and Kentucky was a contested place, with the Ohio River marking the boundary where slaveholding stopped, at Kentucky's side of the river, and freedom began. Along the river banks, abolitionists, bounty hunters and escaping slaves played hide-and-seek. The stakes could be life or death. A good place to start searching for Underground Railroad sites is the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in the Walnut Hills section of Cincinnati. Here the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin lived for four years in the 1830s with her father, Lyman Beecher. The house is an imposing, two-story woodframe building with a Greek Revival portico. The novel is an attack on the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which extended the "property rights" of slaveholders into nonslave states. According to Emma Cox, the house curator, Beecher's home may have been a station on the Underground Railroad, as well as a meeting place for abolitionists. Their discussions likely influenced Stowe, though she did not write Uncle Tom's Cabin until 1852. Operated as a cultural and educational center that promotes black history, the Harriet Beecher Stowe House contains artifacts and images associated with Stowe and other abolitionists, including a manuscript page from Uncle Tom's Cabin. In recent years, historians have begun focusing on the role of free blacks and American Indians in helping slaves escape. To learn more about this legacy, drive about 90 minutes southwest of Cincinnati to the Ohio River town of Madison, Ind. Sue Livers, a dietitian whose passions are history and preservation, conducts tours of sites in Jefferson County that are associated with fugitive slaves and black conductors. A descendant of free blacks, Livers says her paternal grandmother told her that her grandfather had guided slaves across the Ohio River. "This whole underground movement would never have worked had it not been for white people and black people working together," Livers says. Within Madison, which reportedly has more than 1,000 19th century structures still standing, Livers guides visitors to sites linked to Chapman Harris, a Baptist preacher, and Elijah Anderson, a Methodist minister. The men were black conductors who worked together despite their differing religions. Once termed a superintendent of the Underground Railroad, Anderson was arrested and convicted in Kentucky of helping slaves escape. He was sent to the penitentiary in Frankfort, Ky., to serve his sentence. "On the day that his daughter came to pick him up," Livers says, "he was killed -- 'accidentally."' On Fifth Street, Livers points out a garage on the site of Harris' former church. Anderson's church, on Fourth Street, has been replaced by apartments, but Historic Madison Inc. is transforming the building into an Underground Railroad museum. Livers' tour passes Clifty Falls State Park, on an escape route, and Springdale Cemetery, where Harris is buried. At a hillside stop at Hanover College, visitors can gaze across the Ohio River and try to imagine what a runaway slave's journey might have been like 150 years ago. The river was narrower then, Livers says, and it sometimes iced over, making the crossing easier. Escapees would hide in the caves and hills of Clifty Falls before reaching Chapman Harris' home. Quilts were hung outside homes as a signaling system: a log-cabin quilt with a black chimney indicated a stopping place for runaways, a bow-tie quilt meant that clothing was available. The last stop on this tour is the Eleutherian College Classroom and Chapel in Lancaster, 10 miles north of Madison. Constructed in the mid 1850s, the building -- whose name, from the Greek, means freedom -- is a National Historic Landmark. The college was founded by the Neil's Creek Anti-Slavery Society as a place to educate blacks and whites, men and women. At its peak, in 1868, it enrolled 200 students, a quarter of them black. Inside the simple, three-story stone structure, now open to the public, are bare benches, a balcony and two huge pot-bellied stoves -- a freeze frame of a vanished era. A final day of sightseeing includes a triangle of historic towns on either side of the Ohio River: Washington and Maysville, Ky., and Ripley, Ohio. The Harriet Beecher Stowe Slavery to Freedom Museum is in Washington. This house museum once belonged to Marshall Key, a friend whom Stowe visited in the summer of 1833 when she saw her first slave auction. A docent points out a quilt used by Stowe. Not far away is Maysville, where many slaves planned their escape. The small National Underground Railroad Museum here displays one of John Parker's inventions: a tobacco press.
Across the river in Ohio, Betty Campbell can relate the long history of Ripley: She is a trustee of both the John P. Parker House and the Ripley Heritage organization. She says the area was first settled in 1794 by her great-great-great-great grandfather, Beltshazzar Dragoo, a descendant of French Huguenots. A tobacco town about an hour's drive southeast of Cincinnati, Ripley was founded in 1812 by Col. James Poage, a Revolutionary War officer and government surveyor. Many of the early settlers in Ripley were slaveholders from Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee who, in a change of heart, freed their slaves. Their convictions shaped the town's spirit and reputation. Campbell says that Confederate officers called Ripley "that abolitionist hell hole" and threatened to burn it to the ground. On Front Street, the citizenry erected the Liberty Monument in the early 20th century. It was dedicated to those who "freed their slaves and gave themselves over to the cause of liberty." One of those cited is Dr. Alexander Campbell, a U.S. senator who was Betty Campbell's husband's great-great-grandfather. After finding refuge along Front Street, runaways often climbed Liberty Hill to the home of the Rev. John Rankin. Rankin boasted that his family, including nine sons and four daughters, had assisted more than 2,000 fugitive slaves. His stories reportedly inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe's account of the slave Eliza, who eluded her pursuers by carrying her children across the Ohio's thawing ice. The Rankin House has been meticulously restored and contains period furnishings, a few personal items and an informative Underground Railroad exhibit. -- Julia M. Klein is a freelance writer living in Philadelphia. If you goGETTING THERE: The Ripley, Ohio, and Washington/Maysville, Ky., triangle area is about 90 minutes southeast of Cincinnati. On the Ohio side, take U.S. 52; on the Kentucky side, take KY 9. Madison, Ind., is about 90 minutes southwest of Cincinnati. Take U.S. 50 to U.S. 421. STAYING THERE: The Cincinnati area has numerous lodging options; a list is available through the Greater Cincinnati Convention & Visitors Bureau. Call (513) 621-2142; the Web siteis www.cincyusa.com. For accommodations in Maysville and Washington, try the Maysville-Mason County Tourism Commission, (606) 564-9411, or www.cityofmaysville.com. Ripley has several bed-and-breakfasts in its historic district, including the Signal House (937) 392-1640. Madison, Ind., has both B & Bs. Call the Madison Area Convention & Visitors Bureau toll-free 1-800-559-2956; www.visitmadison.org). SITES AND TOURS: In Cincinnati: Harriet Beecher Stowe House, 2950 Gilbert Ave.; (513) 221-7900 or toll-free 1-800-847-6507;www.ohiohistory.org/places/stowe. Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays. Admission is free. The Web site for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (www.undergroundrailroad.org) offers information about the museum, scheduled to open in 2004, and links to other sites about the Underground Railroad. In Madison, Ind.: Contact Madison Area Convention and Visitors Bureau or e-mail to Sue Livers, rlivers@seidata.com. In Ripley, Ohio: Rankin House, 6152 Rankin Road; (937) 392-1627 or toll-free 1-800-752-2705; www.ripleyohio.net. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m. Sundays from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m. Sundays, September and October; by appointment rest of year. Admission: $2 for adults, 50 cents for children 6-12, free for those 5 and younger. Ripley Museum, 219 N Second St., (937) 392-4660. Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays; noon to 4 p.m. Sundays; by appointment weekdays. Admission: $1 for adults, 50 cents for children 6-16, free for those 5 and younger. For walking tours, call Betty Campbell, (937) 392-4044. In Washington/Maysville, Ky.: Harriet Beecher Stowe Slavery to Freedom Museum, 2124 Old Main St., Washington; (606) 759-4860, www.washingtonkentucky.com/museums/. Hours from March 15-Dec. 31: noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays, 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays. Admission: $3 for adults $3, $2 for high school and college students, $1 for elementary students. National Underground Railroad Museum, 115 E Third St., Maysville; (606) 564-6986, www.coax.net/people/lwf/urmuseum.htm Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Admission: $2 for adults, $1 for students and seniors. For information about an Underground Railroad and Civil War tour, contact: Old Washington Inc. Visitor's Center, open March 15 to Dec. 31; (606) 759-7411. At other times, call (606) 759-0505; www.washingtonky.com. Maysville-Mason County Tourism Commission, 216 Bridge St., Maysville, KY 41056; (606) 564-9411.
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