Session Abstracts & Bios
"Enticed!" The Underground Railroad Activities of William Holman Jones and Wright Maudlin in Kentucky
Kentucky slave owners often accused white abolitionists of enticing enslaved people to run away from their bondage. Singling out white abolitionists as the masterminds of escapes enabled southerners to maintain the illusion of slavery as a positive good, from which no bondsperson would desire to flee. White abolitionists, therefore, could be held responsible for disrupting the southern way of life and for inciting dissatisfaction among the enslaved, thereby protecting slave owners from moral accountability. The slave owners’ accusations were empty rhetoric, argue modern historians, given that most enslaved people escaped of their own volition and by their own wits and wherewithal. Liberation most often came from “self-emancipation.”
In between rhetoric and reality, however, lies another truth. On occasion, white abolitionists, from within Kentucky’s borders, resisted slavery and assisted escapes. Famous examples include Delia Webster and Calvin Fairbanks, who helped the Lewis Hayden family escape from Lexington. Laura Haviland disguised herself as “Aunt Smith” in attempt to escort Jane White from Boone County and Edward J. “Patrick” Doyle led 48 well-armed freedom seekers out of bondage from the Bluegrass Region. But among the most successful white Underground Railroad men to infiltrate Kentucky were two lesser known abolitionists. According to the 1882 Cass County, Michigan history, William Holman Jones and Wright Maudlin “made frequent trips to the Ohio River, and sometimes to Kentucky soil, for the purpose of assisting and guiding fugitives to freedom.” Their actions led to the 1847 “Kentucky Raid” and increased southern agitation for a new fugitive slave law. This is their story.
Dr. Debian Marty is a professor in the Division of Humanities & Communication at California State University Monterey Bay. She has authored numerous articles on the Underground Railroad network in southwestern Michigan. Most recent is the chapter, “One More River to Cross: The Crosswhites’ Escape from Slavery,” in V. Tucker and K. S. Frost (Eds.), A Fluid Frontier: Freedom, Slavery and the Underground Railroad in the Detroit River Borderland (2016).
In between rhetoric and reality, however, lies another truth. On occasion, white abolitionists, from within Kentucky’s borders, resisted slavery and assisted escapes. Famous examples include Delia Webster and Calvin Fairbanks, who helped the Lewis Hayden family escape from Lexington. Laura Haviland disguised herself as “Aunt Smith” in attempt to escort Jane White from Boone County and Edward J. “Patrick” Doyle led 48 well-armed freedom seekers out of bondage from the Bluegrass Region. But among the most successful white Underground Railroad men to infiltrate Kentucky were two lesser known abolitionists. According to the 1882 Cass County, Michigan history, William Holman Jones and Wright Maudlin “made frequent trips to the Ohio River, and sometimes to Kentucky soil, for the purpose of assisting and guiding fugitives to freedom.” Their actions led to the 1847 “Kentucky Raid” and increased southern agitation for a new fugitive slave law. This is their story.
Dr. Debian Marty is a professor in the Division of Humanities & Communication at California State University Monterey Bay. She has authored numerous articles on the Underground Railroad network in southwestern Michigan. Most recent is the chapter, “One More River to Cross: The Crosswhites’ Escape from Slavery,” in V. Tucker and K. S. Frost (Eds.), A Fluid Frontier: Freedom, Slavery and the Underground Railroad in the Detroit River Borderland (2016).
Fertile Soil For Rebellion: Women’s Rights and the Ohio River Valley
This paper will explore how the Ohio River Valley became a locus for critical institutions and individuals in the early women’s rights movement. In the 1830s, Henry Stanton and his professor Theodore Weld left the Lane Theological Seminary after it suppressed abolition activities and joined the nascent Oberlin College. After graduation, Stanton became an itinerant abolitionist and married Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who, together with Lucretia Mott, a Philadelphia Quaker (and distant cousin of Levi Coffin), led the women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York. Another Oberlin graduate, Lucy Stone, became the first paid women’s rights lecturer in the nation. Antoinette Brown, Stone’s Oberlin compatriot, became one of the first women preachers in the United States and an important figure in the suffrage movement.
Two Cincinnati families, the Beechers and the Blackwells, produced men and women who led the suffrage movement for decades. Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in US history to earn a medical degree.
The Ohio River Valley was also a setting for reform. Robert Dale Owen, from New Harmony, Indiana, pioneered in making divorce easier, a goal Stanton defended so that women could exit unhappy or abusive marriages. And it was in Ohio that Sojourner Truth most famously added her women’s rights “voice,” with its unique vernacular that combined common sense with gentle mockery.
Susan L. Poulson is a full professor of United States history at the University of Scranton, where she has taught Recent U.S. History, U.S. Women’s History, and the History of the U.S. for more than two decades after earning my PhD at Georgetown University. Poulson’s earlier interests for research and publication were in the history of women’s higher education. Anticipating the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, she is currently writing a history of the women’s suffrage movement tentatively titled, A Great Movement for Liberty: The Long Struggle for Women’s Rights.
Two Cincinnati families, the Beechers and the Blackwells, produced men and women who led the suffrage movement for decades. Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in US history to earn a medical degree.
The Ohio River Valley was also a setting for reform. Robert Dale Owen, from New Harmony, Indiana, pioneered in making divorce easier, a goal Stanton defended so that women could exit unhappy or abusive marriages. And it was in Ohio that Sojourner Truth most famously added her women’s rights “voice,” with its unique vernacular that combined common sense with gentle mockery.
Susan L. Poulson is a full professor of United States history at the University of Scranton, where she has taught Recent U.S. History, U.S. Women’s History, and the History of the U.S. for more than two decades after earning my PhD at Georgetown University. Poulson’s earlier interests for research and publication were in the history of women’s higher education. Anticipating the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, she is currently writing a history of the women’s suffrage movement tentatively titled, A Great Movement for Liberty: The Long Struggle for Women’s Rights.
Following the Underground Railroad through Digitized Newspapers and Roadside Markers
This panel will explore how the Indiana Historical Bureau (IHB), a state agency, faces challenges in heritage tourism, as well as public interest, in identifying and commemorating sites associated with Underground Railroad (UGRR) activity. This panel will have two parts. One part will focus on Indiana’s historical roadside marker program. The second part will address finding evidence of Underground Railroad activity through digitized newspaper resources.
Part 1: “Historical Markers and the Underground Railroad” will be a case study on how IHB has dealt with marker applications from the public that seek to identify UGRR sites. In the distant past, IHB has placed UGRR markers that, through subsequent research, proved to be untrue. Around 2000, IHB increased the burden of proof for UGRR markers. If the potential UGRR marker application did not provide strictly defined primary sources, then IHB would deny the application. This presentation is, in part, an effort for IHB to re-evaluate policies, and dialogue with attendees about satisfying the burden of proof for an UGRR site. Is IHB’s extant policy the way to go? Should we admit corroborated reminiscences and post-contemporary evidence (e.g. Wilbur Siebert’s informants) as proof? How much evidence is proof enough that UGRR activity occurred, and merits a historical marker that aims for accuracy?
Part 2: “Following the North Star through Hoosier State Chronicles” will explore how to search for evidence of UGRR activity in the digitized pages of Indiana newspapers. While Indiana joined the Union as a free state in 1816, its connection to slavery continued to be complicated. In order to share this nuanced history, contemporary newspapers provide an excellent resource for scholars as well as the general public. These newspaper accounts shed light on the Hoosier state’s difficult past with that “peculiar institution.” In the digitized pages of historic newspapers, researchers can find court proceedings, fugitive slave ads, and escape narratives. Examples include an 1821 advertisement offering a $100 reward for a slave named “Gordon, belonging to Mrs. Elizabeth Buckner, of Paris, Bourbon county, K[entuck]y.” An account from an 1818 court case in Corydon involving a presumed fugitive slave named “Susan” illustrates both the precarious nature of freedom in Indiana, and that African Americans were seeking liberty across the Ohio River before the phrase “Underground Railroad” entered the American vocabulary. In 1855, a report from west central Indiana told of a presumed fugitive slave who drowned in a river while he attempted to avoid capture. Researchers can recover forgotten evidence like this using the power of digitized technology.
This presentation will share search strategies for finding information in the nearly 1 million pages in Hoosier State Chronicles, as well as the nearly 12 million pages in Chronicling America. Typing “Underground Railroad” in the search bar will seldom help researchers find what they seek. Adjusting search terms, and even searching newspapers in states other than the location in question, sometimes produce exciting finds.
S. Chandler Lighty is Director of the Indiana Historical Bureau, a state agency that manages Indiana’s historical marker program. Over the past twenty years, Lighty has worked as a public historian at the General Lew Wallace Study and Museum in Crawfordsville, IN, the Assistant Director at the Montgomery County Historical Society in Crawfordsville and an Assistant Editor with the Papers of Abraham Lincoln. He earned his M.A. in American History from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Robert Clark is Project Assistant with Hoosier State Chronicles: Indiana’s Digital Historic Newspaper Program, an initiative of the Indiana State Library. He earned his B.A. in History from Indiana University-Kokomo, and his M.A. in Public History from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. His master’s thesis on Robert G. Ingersoll is titled, “Ingersoll, Infidels, and Indianapolis: Freethought and Religion in the Central Midwest.”
Part 1: “Historical Markers and the Underground Railroad” will be a case study on how IHB has dealt with marker applications from the public that seek to identify UGRR sites. In the distant past, IHB has placed UGRR markers that, through subsequent research, proved to be untrue. Around 2000, IHB increased the burden of proof for UGRR markers. If the potential UGRR marker application did not provide strictly defined primary sources, then IHB would deny the application. This presentation is, in part, an effort for IHB to re-evaluate policies, and dialogue with attendees about satisfying the burden of proof for an UGRR site. Is IHB’s extant policy the way to go? Should we admit corroborated reminiscences and post-contemporary evidence (e.g. Wilbur Siebert’s informants) as proof? How much evidence is proof enough that UGRR activity occurred, and merits a historical marker that aims for accuracy?
Part 2: “Following the North Star through Hoosier State Chronicles” will explore how to search for evidence of UGRR activity in the digitized pages of Indiana newspapers. While Indiana joined the Union as a free state in 1816, its connection to slavery continued to be complicated. In order to share this nuanced history, contemporary newspapers provide an excellent resource for scholars as well as the general public. These newspaper accounts shed light on the Hoosier state’s difficult past with that “peculiar institution.” In the digitized pages of historic newspapers, researchers can find court proceedings, fugitive slave ads, and escape narratives. Examples include an 1821 advertisement offering a $100 reward for a slave named “Gordon, belonging to Mrs. Elizabeth Buckner, of Paris, Bourbon county, K[entuck]y.” An account from an 1818 court case in Corydon involving a presumed fugitive slave named “Susan” illustrates both the precarious nature of freedom in Indiana, and that African Americans were seeking liberty across the Ohio River before the phrase “Underground Railroad” entered the American vocabulary. In 1855, a report from west central Indiana told of a presumed fugitive slave who drowned in a river while he attempted to avoid capture. Researchers can recover forgotten evidence like this using the power of digitized technology.
This presentation will share search strategies for finding information in the nearly 1 million pages in Hoosier State Chronicles, as well as the nearly 12 million pages in Chronicling America. Typing “Underground Railroad” in the search bar will seldom help researchers find what they seek. Adjusting search terms, and even searching newspapers in states other than the location in question, sometimes produce exciting finds.
S. Chandler Lighty is Director of the Indiana Historical Bureau, a state agency that manages Indiana’s historical marker program. Over the past twenty years, Lighty has worked as a public historian at the General Lew Wallace Study and Museum in Crawfordsville, IN, the Assistant Director at the Montgomery County Historical Society in Crawfordsville and an Assistant Editor with the Papers of Abraham Lincoln. He earned his M.A. in American History from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Robert Clark is Project Assistant with Hoosier State Chronicles: Indiana’s Digital Historic Newspaper Program, an initiative of the Indiana State Library. He earned his B.A. in History from Indiana University-Kokomo, and his M.A. in Public History from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. His master’s thesis on Robert G. Ingersoll is titled, “Ingersoll, Infidels, and Indianapolis: Freethought and Religion in the Central Midwest.”
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.
Freed Will: The Randolph Freedpeople from Slavery to Settlement
On July 1st, 1846, a canal boat docked in Cincinnati carrying more than just cargo. 383 former slaves from Roanoke, Virginia were headed north to settle in Mercer County, Ohio. Their long journey to freedom did not begin with this voyage, and unfortunately, would not end peacefully on the land that was promised to them by the deathbed wish of their former master, John Randolph. When they finally arrived at St. Mary’s, they were robbed of their inheritance as a makeshift army of white settlers forced them back onto their canal boats. From there they disbursed into smaller settlements in the neighboring towns. Thankfully, not all locals were hostile. The West Branch Quakers, whose meeting minutes are housed at the Lily Library at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, would help them establish a thriving community with a lasting influence on the physical and social landscape of the Miami Valley.
This is a story of nearly 400 brave Americans who were pioneers in a hostile land, and yet still built a legacy. Randolph descendants would fight to become business moguls, baseball players, war heroes, and local legends. However, their story remains largely untold within academia. They are remembered instead by newspapers, historical societies, self-published authors, and most importantly, the memories of living descendants still residing in the area. However, this story goes beyond the local sphere. It speaks truth to slavery, complicating the myth of Northern white purity. It also highlights two sets of heroes: the Quakers and the Randolph Freedpeople. In weaving these threads together, it acts as a portrait of our collective and disparate American identities.
Hadley Drodge graduated in 2017 with a M.A. in History from Wright State University, concentrating in Public History. While in school, she worked as a graduate assistant and completed an internship at the National Afro-American Museum in Wilberforce where she is currently employed as an archive intern. She presented at both the 2016 and 2017 Wright State Public History Symposiums, the 2016 Digital Humanities conference at Antioch College, and created an exhibit on the history of Dayton funk music for the Northwest Branch of the Dayton Public Library. She currently has an exhibit on display at the National Afro-American Museum that explores the history and legacy of the Randolph Freedpeople, open through November 25th, 2017.
This is a story of nearly 400 brave Americans who were pioneers in a hostile land, and yet still built a legacy. Randolph descendants would fight to become business moguls, baseball players, war heroes, and local legends. However, their story remains largely untold within academia. They are remembered instead by newspapers, historical societies, self-published authors, and most importantly, the memories of living descendants still residing in the area. However, this story goes beyond the local sphere. It speaks truth to slavery, complicating the myth of Northern white purity. It also highlights two sets of heroes: the Quakers and the Randolph Freedpeople. In weaving these threads together, it acts as a portrait of our collective and disparate American identities.
Hadley Drodge graduated in 2017 with a M.A. in History from Wright State University, concentrating in Public History. While in school, she worked as a graduate assistant and completed an internship at the National Afro-American Museum in Wilberforce where she is currently employed as an archive intern. She presented at both the 2016 and 2017 Wright State Public History Symposiums, the 2016 Digital Humanities conference at Antioch College, and created an exhibit on the history of Dayton funk music for the Northwest Branch of the Dayton Public Library. She currently has an exhibit on display at the National Afro-American Museum that explores the history and legacy of the Randolph Freedpeople, open through November 25th, 2017.
Slave Stampedes Along the Ohio River
This presentation will look at the Underground Railroad along the Ohio River through the lens of "slave stampedes." The term "slave stampedes" was used in the press to describe a large number of enslaved people escaping in a group or several escapes from a specific location in a particular space of time. Before the Civil War, the majority of these escapes occurred from border states like Kentucky. These "stampedes" captured the public imagination and further helped to construct the Ohio River as an important site of Underground Railroad activity. This presentation will examine these escapes and how they better help us to understand slavery and freedom.
Déanda Johnson, PhD is currently the Midwest Regional Coordinator for the National Park Service Network to Freedom Program in Omaha, Nebraska. She joined the program in 2010. In this capacity, she works with local, state, and federal entities, as well as other interested parties to preserve, promote, and educate the public about the history of the Underground Railroad. Previously, Johnson was the Coordinator of the African American Research and Service Institute at Ohio University where she was involved with the “The African American Presence in the Ohio River Valley Oral History Project,” which examines the roles people of color have played in the region. She has also served as a visiting instructor in the Department of African American Studies, teaching courses on African American literature and African American arts and culture. She received her BA from University of California, San Diego and her MA and PhD in American Studies from the College of William & Mary.
Déanda Johnson, PhD is currently the Midwest Regional Coordinator for the National Park Service Network to Freedom Program in Omaha, Nebraska. She joined the program in 2010. In this capacity, she works with local, state, and federal entities, as well as other interested parties to preserve, promote, and educate the public about the history of the Underground Railroad. Previously, Johnson was the Coordinator of the African American Research and Service Institute at Ohio University where she was involved with the “The African American Presence in the Ohio River Valley Oral History Project,” which examines the roles people of color have played in the region. She has also served as a visiting instructor in the Department of African American Studies, teaching courses on African American literature and African American arts and culture. She received her BA from University of California, San Diego and her MA and PhD in American Studies from the College of William & Mary.
Teaching the Underground Railroad: A Summer Institute
Making the Underground Railroad come alive and inspiring our communities can be situated in education courses and teacher in-services done through the universities. In particular, Schools of Education that prepare future teachers can link our college students to local community historical sites in order to preserve the legacy of the Underground Railroad. Understanding and investigating local
history is a powerful teaching tool. To research local history enables students to reflect about American history in new ways. It can foster debate, it can help to retell history, and it can provide new insights into the importance and significance of history. For us who are engaged in promoting the significance of the Underground Railroad, education courses can connect the stories of individual sites to the bigger picture of the UGRR story. For ten years, I taught a summer institute at Northern Kentucky University for classroom teachers in collaboration with local school districts as well as historical sites in Kentucky and Ohio. Come to this session and hear how it was organized, collaborations among local historical sites, school field trips to local heritage museums it inspired, and the impact it had not only on classroom teachers but their elementary, middle and high school students. Every year, the course had
maximum capacity enrollment. This highly successful summer institute also used technology to showcase the narrative and interpretive nature of history. We can discuss how to replicate it with other heritage sites with the cooperation of schools.
Denise Dallmer is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Education at Indiana University East. Before coming to IU East she was a faculty member for fifteen years at Northern Kentucky University where she taught a graduate level course for teachers about the Underground Railroad. As part of a faculty research grant, she travelled to Senegal and Goree Island to work with teachers there. She collaborated with WCET (PBS affiliate) to write curriculum entitled, “Safe Passage”. She holds an undergraduate degree in International Studies from Miami University and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University
history is a powerful teaching tool. To research local history enables students to reflect about American history in new ways. It can foster debate, it can help to retell history, and it can provide new insights into the importance and significance of history. For us who are engaged in promoting the significance of the Underground Railroad, education courses can connect the stories of individual sites to the bigger picture of the UGRR story. For ten years, I taught a summer institute at Northern Kentucky University for classroom teachers in collaboration with local school districts as well as historical sites in Kentucky and Ohio. Come to this session and hear how it was organized, collaborations among local historical sites, school field trips to local heritage museums it inspired, and the impact it had not only on classroom teachers but their elementary, middle and high school students. Every year, the course had
maximum capacity enrollment. This highly successful summer institute also used technology to showcase the narrative and interpretive nature of history. We can discuss how to replicate it with other heritage sites with the cooperation of schools.
Denise Dallmer is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Education at Indiana University East. Before coming to IU East she was a faculty member for fifteen years at Northern Kentucky University where she taught a graduate level course for teachers about the Underground Railroad. As part of a faculty research grant, she travelled to Senegal and Goree Island to work with teachers there. She collaborated with WCET (PBS affiliate) to write curriculum entitled, “Safe Passage”. She holds an undergraduate degree in International Studies from Miami University and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University
The Barkshire and Hawkins Families of Rising Sun, Indiana; a Borderlands Story
Though the Ohio River served as a physical and political border between enslavement and freedom, citizens on opposite shores often had frequent contact with one another. It was common, in fact, for Boone County, Kentucky’s residents to worship, trade and court sweethearts in Rising Sun, Indiana, and vice versa. The close ties were most certainly complicated by the incongruence between each state’s legal position on slavery.
Slavery was neither fully embraced in Boone County nor fully shunned in Rising Sun, but the law was clearly defined. As the Underground Railroad network along the river began to grow, and Boone County slaveholders began to feel its effects, the differences in philosophy became more pronounced both within and between these communities. The cross-river relationships, however strained, continued to exist.
In 1833, Samuel Barkshire was manumitted in Boone County, Kentucky. Within a few years of gaining his freedom, he had established a business and was living across the Ohio River in Rising Sun, Indiana, along with his wife and six children. The Barkshire family became instrumental in helping many people to freedom, and they had an unusual partner: their own former slaveholder, Nancy Hawkins. Nancy and the Barkshires’ lives had ever been intertwined, and they maintained an oddly close
relationship. Nancy joined the family in Rising Sun upon the death of her husband, and assisted them in their Underground Railroad work on several known occasions, even hiding those who escaped from
her former neighbors in the Boone County borderlands.
Hillary Delaney has been researching Underground Railroad activity in and around Boone County, KY for the past four years, as part of her work at the Boone County Public Library's Local History department. A large part of the Underground Railroad research compiled was done so during the development of a tour narrative for the library. The "Underground Railroad in Boone County" bus tour has been accepted into the National Park Service's Network to Freedom. Hillary studied journalism at Virginia Commonwealth University, and publishes monthly articles with a local history perspective for the library and several regional print and online publications.
Slavery was neither fully embraced in Boone County nor fully shunned in Rising Sun, but the law was clearly defined. As the Underground Railroad network along the river began to grow, and Boone County slaveholders began to feel its effects, the differences in philosophy became more pronounced both within and between these communities. The cross-river relationships, however strained, continued to exist.
In 1833, Samuel Barkshire was manumitted in Boone County, Kentucky. Within a few years of gaining his freedom, he had established a business and was living across the Ohio River in Rising Sun, Indiana, along with his wife and six children. The Barkshire family became instrumental in helping many people to freedom, and they had an unusual partner: their own former slaveholder, Nancy Hawkins. Nancy and the Barkshires’ lives had ever been intertwined, and they maintained an oddly close
relationship. Nancy joined the family in Rising Sun upon the death of her husband, and assisted them in their Underground Railroad work on several known occasions, even hiding those who escaped from
her former neighbors in the Boone County borderlands.
Hillary Delaney has been researching Underground Railroad activity in and around Boone County, KY for the past four years, as part of her work at the Boone County Public Library's Local History department. A large part of the Underground Railroad research compiled was done so during the development of a tour narrative for the library. The "Underground Railroad in Boone County" bus tour has been accepted into the National Park Service's Network to Freedom. Hillary studied journalism at Virginia Commonwealth University, and publishes monthly articles with a local history perspective for the library and several regional print and online publications.
The Mitchems of Harrison County, Indiana: An Underground Railroad Saga
This presentation will shed light on an important, yet little-known, Underground Railroad saga that played out over a period of years and across four states. Paul and Susannah Mitchem, average Virginians, reportedly planned an exodus from their home state because of their distaste for slavery. The couple accompanied and protected a group of escaped slaves along the journey so that they would not be exposed to the ravages of escaping enslavement. Paul Mitchem inherited some slaves and emancipated some of them while still living on the east coast. However, about 1800, the Mitchems relocated to North Carolina, purchased land there and increased the number of slaves that they owned from 20-48 (at times abolitionists purchased slaves to later emancipate them). Then, within a ten-year period, the Mitchems moved to Kentucky where Susannah Mitchem’s brothers lived. In Kentucky, they purchased more land. By 1814, the number of their slaves had swelled to about 90. After living in Kentucky for about five years, the colony completed its journey by entering Indiana Territory, settling in Harrison County, and emancipating over 100 enslaved persons. Original deeds of emancipation are located in the oldest deed record books in Harrison County.
Maxine F. Brown is a native and current resident of Corydon, Harrison County, Indiana. Brown is the sixth generation of her family to live in this historic community. Brown's ancestry dates to 1814-1815 in this area when along with about 100 others, her great, great, great grandmother, Milly Mitchem Finley, and Milly's five children were emancipated on May 9, 1815. Brown's family was a part of an unusual in- migration of enslaved persons that is an example of Underground Railroad activity. Another one of Brown's ancestors, her great, great grandfather, Alford Brown, escaped enslavement in Kentucky and successfully reached Canada, where he stayed until after the Civil War. Brown started her career as a program officer with the Lilly Endowment, Inc., became the first executive director of the Louisville Foundation, the executive vice president of the Kentucky Foundation for Women, and the president of the Fund for Women, Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky. Brown founded a race-relations initiative, NETWORK (New Energy to Work Out Racial Kinks) in 1990 and in 1987, purchased and rehabilitated the 1891 Corydon Colored School, now the Leora Brown School that was adapted for reuse as a cultural/educational center. She is the recipient of many awards and in 2011 was awarded the Eli Lilly Lifetime
Achievement Award by the Indiana Historical Society. She is serving as a co-chair of Indiana Freedom Trails.
Maxine F. Brown is a native and current resident of Corydon, Harrison County, Indiana. Brown is the sixth generation of her family to live in this historic community. Brown's ancestry dates to 1814-1815 in this area when along with about 100 others, her great, great, great grandmother, Milly Mitchem Finley, and Milly's five children were emancipated on May 9, 1815. Brown's family was a part of an unusual in- migration of enslaved persons that is an example of Underground Railroad activity. Another one of Brown's ancestors, her great, great grandfather, Alford Brown, escaped enslavement in Kentucky and successfully reached Canada, where he stayed until after the Civil War. Brown started her career as a program officer with the Lilly Endowment, Inc., became the first executive director of the Louisville Foundation, the executive vice president of the Kentucky Foundation for Women, and the president of the Fund for Women, Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky. Brown founded a race-relations initiative, NETWORK (New Energy to Work Out Racial Kinks) in 1990 and in 1987, purchased and rehabilitated the 1891 Corydon Colored School, now the Leora Brown School that was adapted for reuse as a cultural/educational center. She is the recipient of many awards and in 2011 was awarded the Eli Lilly Lifetime
Achievement Award by the Indiana Historical Society. She is serving as a co-chair of Indiana Freedom Trails.
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.
Ulysses S. Grant: Civil Rights Leader
One of America’s greatest heroes during the nineteenth century was remarkable as a general, a father and president. But buried beneath both his fame and failures, Ulysses S. Grant possessed a remarkable trait that is far less understood, and that was his treatment of African-Americans. Grant’s record clearly demonstrates that he was decades ahead of his time on what we refer to today as Civil Rights.
Grant’s story really began with his parents, who both opposed slavery. The conviction against owning slaves resulted in Ulysses’ father Jesse changed parties and moved from Kentucky. Jesse even worked alongside staunch abolitionist Owen Brown, father of the infamous John Brown of Harpers Ferry fame, prior to the Civil War. It took Ulysses time to truly understand the full meaning of that conviction and once the war began, he came to realize that all people should be treated with respect and dignity. One of the major issues Grant dealt with during the Civil War was how to utilize the influx of escaped slaves in a way that would save both the freedmen and the Union. Despite immense challenges and public scrutiny, he did what he knew was right and his hope never wavered. He sent women and children to safe camps behind Union lines and followed Lincoln’s call for training African- Americans as soldiers and allowed them to help fight for their own freedom. His letters to his family and colleagues, prove that Grant devoted all his character, clout and strength behind that effort.
Chris Burns is a Civil War historian and lifelong Cincinnati resident. In 2016, Burns completed 16 years of research for an upcoming book about Ulysses S. Grant with noted historian Dr. James A. Ramage. He currently speaks on various aspects of Ulysses S. Grant’s life, as well as the Siege of Cincinnati. Burns is a former adjunct history faculty-member at NKU and is currently employed as Marketing and Education Manager at Encore Technologies. His passion is bringing history to life.
Grant’s story really began with his parents, who both opposed slavery. The conviction against owning slaves resulted in Ulysses’ father Jesse changed parties and moved from Kentucky. Jesse even worked alongside staunch abolitionist Owen Brown, father of the infamous John Brown of Harpers Ferry fame, prior to the Civil War. It took Ulysses time to truly understand the full meaning of that conviction and once the war began, he came to realize that all people should be treated with respect and dignity. One of the major issues Grant dealt with during the Civil War was how to utilize the influx of escaped slaves in a way that would save both the freedmen and the Union. Despite immense challenges and public scrutiny, he did what he knew was right and his hope never wavered. He sent women and children to safe camps behind Union lines and followed Lincoln’s call for training African- Americans as soldiers and allowed them to help fight for their own freedom. His letters to his family and colleagues, prove that Grant devoted all his character, clout and strength behind that effort.
Chris Burns is a Civil War historian and lifelong Cincinnati resident. In 2016, Burns completed 16 years of research for an upcoming book about Ulysses S. Grant with noted historian Dr. James A. Ramage. He currently speaks on various aspects of Ulysses S. Grant’s life, as well as the Siege of Cincinnati. Burns is a former adjunct history faculty-member at NKU and is currently employed as Marketing and Education Manager at Encore Technologies. His passion is bringing history to life.
