A Free Black Settlement and the Underground Railroad
Free Black Community Participation in the Underground Railroad
North of the Levi Coffin house in Fountain City, IN were three Pre-Civil War African American pioneer settlements: Cabin Creek and Snow Hill in Randolph County Indiana and the Greenville Negro Settlement, partially located in Randolph County and in Darke County Ohio. Mr. Coffin would forward freedom seekers to these communities. The Union Literary Institute Preservation Society owns two structures listed as UGRR sites by National Park Services Network to Freedom Program. They are: the Union Literary Institute school building located in Randolph County, Indiana and the James and Sophia Clemens Farmstead located in Darke County, Ohio.
Anti-slavery Quakers and free blacks from the surrounding pre-Civil War African-American settlements, in Indiana and Ohio, founded the Union Literary Institute (ULI). This school of higher education was a manual labor school that allowed the students to pay for their education by working on the ULI farm. The school taught blacks, whites, Indians and women. It is unique that the board of the school consisted of white and black members. The significance of the ULI to the Underground Railroad is that the founding fathers of this school, both black and white were active participants in the Underground Railroad in Indiana and Ohio. The accounts of the ULI involvement with the Underground Railroad are told by John H. Bond, are stated in Tucker’s History of Randolph County. Mr. Bond state, “Gangs of fugitives used to come to the Institute. At one time fifteen came in one company. It was a woman and her ten children, a son-in-law and a grandchild, and two others.” According to Wilbert Siebert in his manuscript The Underground Railroad, in the section on Darke County, Ohio, the Greenville Negro Settlement was a stop in the Underground Railroad. In Siebert's interview with Col. David Putnam of Palestine August 13, 1898, Mr. Putnam stated "At the Greenville Negro Settlement was another
station. The Clemens and the Alexanders were the leaders in the movement there. These were Negro families." James Clemens owned land on the Darke County, Ohio side of the settlement and Thornton Alexander owned land on the Randolph County, Indiana side of the settlement. In W.E.B Dubois's article "Long in Darke" he stated " The Settlement became one of the main lines of underground railway service from the Ohio River." In Levi Coffin’s Reminiscences he stated " Soon after we located at Newport, I found that we were on a line of the U.G.R.R. fugitives often passed through that place, and generally stopped among the colored people "As they would find their way to Newport, he would drive them to what is known as the Greenville Settlement making the trip after night to avoid detection; from this latter place they were helped into Canada."
Roane Smothers was born and raised in Detroit Michigan. He received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Master of Urban Planning from Wayne State University in Detroit. In December 2013, he retired from the City of Dayton as a Historic Preservation Planner. He originally moved to Dayton when he accepted a job as a Transit Planner with the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority. He is a descendent of the Greenville settlement and President of the Union Literary Institute Preservation Society.
Connor Keiser was born and raised in Darke County Ohio. He graduated from Versailles High School in Darke County Ohio. He is now a Senior at Wright State University with a Liberal Studies /International Studies Major with a focus on Middle-Eastern studies. He is a direct descendent of James Clemens the founding father of the Greenville Settlement and a board member of the Union Literary Institute Preservation Society.
Anti-slavery Quakers and free blacks from the surrounding pre-Civil War African-American settlements, in Indiana and Ohio, founded the Union Literary Institute (ULI). This school of higher education was a manual labor school that allowed the students to pay for their education by working on the ULI farm. The school taught blacks, whites, Indians and women. It is unique that the board of the school consisted of white and black members. The significance of the ULI to the Underground Railroad is that the founding fathers of this school, both black and white were active participants in the Underground Railroad in Indiana and Ohio. The accounts of the ULI involvement with the Underground Railroad are told by John H. Bond, are stated in Tucker’s History of Randolph County. Mr. Bond state, “Gangs of fugitives used to come to the Institute. At one time fifteen came in one company. It was a woman and her ten children, a son-in-law and a grandchild, and two others.” According to Wilbert Siebert in his manuscript The Underground Railroad, in the section on Darke County, Ohio, the Greenville Negro Settlement was a stop in the Underground Railroad. In Siebert's interview with Col. David Putnam of Palestine August 13, 1898, Mr. Putnam stated "At the Greenville Negro Settlement was another
station. The Clemens and the Alexanders were the leaders in the movement there. These were Negro families." James Clemens owned land on the Darke County, Ohio side of the settlement and Thornton Alexander owned land on the Randolph County, Indiana side of the settlement. In W.E.B Dubois's article "Long in Darke" he stated " The Settlement became one of the main lines of underground railway service from the Ohio River." In Levi Coffin’s Reminiscences he stated " Soon after we located at Newport, I found that we were on a line of the U.G.R.R. fugitives often passed through that place, and generally stopped among the colored people "As they would find their way to Newport, he would drive them to what is known as the Greenville Settlement making the trip after night to avoid detection; from this latter place they were helped into Canada."
Roane Smothers was born and raised in Detroit Michigan. He received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Master of Urban Planning from Wayne State University in Detroit. In December 2013, he retired from the City of Dayton as a Historic Preservation Planner. He originally moved to Dayton when he accepted a job as a Transit Planner with the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority. He is a descendent of the Greenville settlement and President of the Union Literary Institute Preservation Society.
Connor Keiser was born and raised in Darke County Ohio. He graduated from Versailles High School in Darke County Ohio. He is now a Senior at Wright State University with a Liberal Studies /International Studies Major with a focus on Middle-Eastern studies. He is a direct descendent of James Clemens the founding father of the Greenville Settlement and a board member of the Union Literary Institute Preservation Society.
The Search for James Baker
In 1898, a small book entitled “Jim Baker…A Thrilling Episode of Ante-Bellum Days…A True Story of the Oppressed Race Among Friends and Foes” was published by the author, Reverend Thomas Addington. Like much of the literature that surfaced during the period of slavery and afterward, the veracity of the account is difficult to prove. James Baker was, however, a student at the Union Literary Institute near Spartanburg, Indiana, during the 1840s, as was Addington. The Institute was part of the Longtown Settlement, a large group of free African Americans who came from North Carolina and Virginia. Longtown is situated in western Ohio (Darke County) and eastern Indiana (Randolph County). Although much of the narrative has proven to be a melodramatic account much like Edward Eggleston’s The Hoosier Schoolmaster, there is evidence of Baker’s existence. In fact, it is very possible that Baker was involved with the Jerry Rescue in Syracuse, New York. in 1851.
This presentation discusses the search for James Baker and the role of the Institute in the Underground Railroad. It connects the Institute to the Raisin Institute in Michigan as well as the anti-slavery movement in New York and demonstrates the connections among abolitionists, slaves, free African Americans, and the Wesleyan Methodist Church. It is shows that slave literature can be helpful to our understanding of the Ohio River Corridor during the 1840s, even if not completely verified.
Jayne R. Beilke, PhD is a professor of Educational Studies at Ball State University. She earned her doctorate in History of American Education from Indiana University and has been involved in the preservation of the Union Literary Institute for nearly twenty years. Her dissertation was a study of the Julius Rosenwald Graduate Fellowship Program for southern African Americans. She is currently researching the spread of common schools in Indiana as a result of the 1869 law that mandated separate schools for African Americans. She teaches courses in educational history and educational foundations.
This presentation discusses the search for James Baker and the role of the Institute in the Underground Railroad. It connects the Institute to the Raisin Institute in Michigan as well as the anti-slavery movement in New York and demonstrates the connections among abolitionists, slaves, free African Americans, and the Wesleyan Methodist Church. It is shows that slave literature can be helpful to our understanding of the Ohio River Corridor during the 1840s, even if not completely verified.
Jayne R. Beilke, PhD is a professor of Educational Studies at Ball State University. She earned her doctorate in History of American Education from Indiana University and has been involved in the preservation of the Union Literary Institute for nearly twenty years. Her dissertation was a study of the Julius Rosenwald Graduate Fellowship Program for southern African Americans. She is currently researching the spread of common schools in Indiana as a result of the 1869 law that mandated separate schools for African Americans. She teaches courses in educational history and educational foundations.