|
|
Beyond
the River Now available from Simon & Schuster; reviewed in the Wall Street Journal January 31, 2003. CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE CELEBRATION ON FEB. 1 and 2. |
|||||||||
|
Autographed copies are available for mail order purchase from the Ripley Library. Checks or money orders made payable to Friends of the Library for $25.00. Shipping (U.S. media mail) $4.00. Please mail payments of $29.00 to Ripley Library, 27 Main Street, Ripley OH 45167, Attn: Beyond the River Please include your name, address and phone number with your order. Call 937-392-4871 or email ripleyohio@aol.com with questions. International shipping: please call for rates. Purchasing from the library donates partial proceeds to Ripley Heritage Society, John P. Parker Historical Society and Friends of the Library. Autographed copies also available at The Corner Peddler in downtown Ripley; checks, money orders or credit cards. (937) 392-1522
|
|
The decades
before the Civil War were rife with sectarian violence along the borders
between slave and free states. The Ohio River was one such border,
separating the slave state of Kentucky from the free state of Ohio. Here,
often closely pursued by slave chasers, runaway slaves tried to make the
dangerous crossing into freedom. Waiting to help them achieve their goal
was preacher and farmer John Rankin and his associates in Ripley, a town
known in Kentucky as "that abolitionist hellhole," on the free side of the
Ohio.
One of the early leaders of the abolitionist movement, Rankin's captivating story began with a series of letters he wrote to persuade his brother in Virginia to abandon slavery. He succeeded, and his letters, collected and published as Letters on American Slavery, became one of the most famous and influential abolitionist documents. (Famed abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison called Rankin his "anti-slavery father.") Rankin and his associates (who included free blacks) were the front line of the anti-slavery movement, passing fugitive slaves along the road to freedom farther north. A sensational trial in Kentucky in the 1830s - described in this book - threatened to expose the Ripley line conductors, but Rankin and his large family continued to rescue runaways, even risking their lives to face down slave chasers. In this inspiring work of history, author Ann Hagedorn, who moved to Ripley to research and write this book, restores John Rankin and the Ohio abolitionists to their proper place in American history, alongside Harriet Tubman, as heroes of the Underground Railroad.
|
||||||||
