I had to do a couple of tests yesterday that required me to start something in the lab and then leave it alone for an hour, so I wandered over to a talk sponsored by the History department. Spencer Crew, the former director of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, OH was in the area to speak at a conference being held in Albany, and came to campus to tell us that we’re all Philistines.
Well, OK, that was just his half-serious opening. His main point was to talk about the Underground Railroad (you can get an outline from Wikipedia, of course), and particularly the less-well-known activities of Underground Railroad conductors in the Midwest. Everybody knows about Harriet Tubman and the East Coast branch, which is dramatized in slightly cheesey form in this interactive National Geographic site. Something like 30,000 escaped slaves were helped to freedom along a route passing through the Ohio River valley, though, and their story is no less compelling.
The talk mostly consisted of anecdotes about prominent Underground Railroad “conductors” such as Levi Coffin (sometimes called the “president” of the Underground Railroad, who helped thousands of slaves escape, and incidentally had an ego the size of a planet), John Parker (a former slave who became a businessman in Ripley, Ohio but continued to make regular raids into Kentucky to free slaves) and John Rankin (a Presbyterian minister and prominent abolitionist). Crew spoke mostly off -the cuff, with occasional references to notes, and painted a compelling picture of the dangers faced by people involved with the Underground Railroad, and the courage required.
The most comment-worthy part of the talk came in the question period afterwards, when somebody asked (citing a historian whose name I forget) whether interest in the Underground Railroad isn’t mostly a way for white people to feel better about themselves. Crew allowed that this was an important element of the Freedom Center’s approach– they get visitors to engage with the idea of slavery not by looking for villains but by celebrating heroes. He also said, though, that they get lots of people saying that “Oh, I definitely would’ve been an abolitionist back then,” and they try to challenge them by saying “Fine. If you would’ve been an abolitionist in the 1840’s, what are you doing today to make the world a better place?”
The historical anecdotes were fascinating, and the message promoted by the museum is admirable. So, here’s my trivial contribution to publicizing them and their good works.
Trivia that’s not really relevant enough to put in the post itself, but that I can’t resist mentioning: The Underground Railroad had some “stations” in the vicinity of my home town. One is a house in Maine now occupied by a social studies teacher at my old school, the other is a house in town that was a stop on the Underground Railroad and is now an antique store. I remember touring it when I was really little, possibly in connection with the Bicentennial.
There’s a really cool sculpture on the campus of Oberlin College with railroad tracks sticking up out of the ground at a 30 degree angle. Oberlin Ohio was one of the “coming above ground” points of the midwest underground railroad.
If you’re ever in downtown Cincinnati, the Freedom Center is definitely worth a visit. It’s not huge, and you can see a lot in a short time if necessary. It’s also got a great location close to the river.
The centerpiece slave pen is absolutely haunting.
I wish I could have seen that talk! I try to do my part to tell about our Ohio heroes, John Rankin and his family. Did you know that the Rankins told Harriet Beecher Stowe about Eliza and her escape over the icy Ohio River, the story that Stowe told in Uncle Tom’s Cabin? But they kept Eliza’s return to Ohio a secret when they helped her rescue the rest of her family from slavery. The second book in my Across the River series is coming out in April. You can see a book trailer preview here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ0q5_c4OVY